GHSA’S NIL policy welcomed by state’s athletes

Three years ago, Judea Watkins was a sophomore basketball star at Sierra Canyon High School in California. By the time she put her cap and gown on this year, she had been paid to star in a commercial with Lebron James.

As of Oct. 2, high schoolers in Georgia are able to cash in on similar opportunities after the Georgia High School Association adopted rules to make Georgia the 34th state, according to ON3, to approve a high school name, image and likeness policy.

Interviews with some of Georgia’s top high school girls basketball coaches and beyond suggest this policy could open the door for top athletes in the state to build their brand with NIL deals long before they step on a col- lege campus. With women’s basketball receiving more engagement than ever, this policy could not have come at a better time.

NIL deals took college ath- letics by storm when they were introduced in July 2021 after almost every state had passed laws permitting col- lege athletes to profit from NIL, forcing the NCAA to modify its amateurism rules to comply with the states’. Since then, over half the states in the country have started to allow high school athletes to profit from NIL.

“It’s important to under- stand these individuals don’t have the intellectual rights of their school district or the association, meaning, logos, marks, facilities, footage, that sort of thing,” GHSA executive director Robin Hines said.

This guideline is where the college and high school level differ slightly. While college athletes generally are pro- hibited from using school logos in NIL deals, there are some hoops they can jump through with their school’s permission to gain access to these logos and marks, according to Pete Nakos, an NIL reporter for ON3.

High school associations, including the GHSA, are much more strict with this rule, with little to no wiggle room to use any semblance of an athlete’s high school in NIL deals. Hines also said performance-based NIL deals were off the table, ensuring high school students’ ama- teur status remains intact.

High school players now will be able to acclimate themselves with the NIL environment before they commit to a college. In wom- en’s college basketball, NIL has soared in the past year following record viewer- ship numbers, with Iowa star Caitlin Clark and LSU standouts Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson all in the top 50 of ON3′S NIL evalu- ation rankings.

Nakos said these high school NIL deals are not expected to be nearly as prev- alent as in college because of the added restrictions, but for the top athletes in the nation, brands will begin forming relationships early, taking chances on the poten- tial fame to come.

Kell High School girls bas- ketball coach Kandra Bailey said she does not foresee this policy making big waves as high school sports do not garner the same recognition as college athletics, adding a level of difficulty for ath- letes to establish their brand before college without the use of their school.

However, Watkins, now a freshman at USC, and Jada

Williams, now at Arizona, became trailblazers as two of the first high school girls basketball players to sign NIL deals. Alicia Komaki, Wat- kins’ coach at Sierra Can- yon, credits Watkins’ work ethic to her rise in popular- ity, but also her willingness to build her brand through social media.

“You have to make a name for yourself and keep a name for yourself, whether that starts for you in high school, or it goes to college,” Komaki said.

Social media is what drives many NIL deals, as brands take advantage of the increased engagement, and in women’s basketball, the engagement is growing fast. According to Sponsorunited, women receive seven times more engagement per NIL deal than men, and brands are capitalizing on these numbers. Nike signed Watkins in high school, taking advantage of her almost 300,000 followers on Instagram.

Watkins was the No. 1 recruit in ESPN’S 2023 rank- ings, and Williams was 21st. However, Williams drew more deals than Watkins through her social media presence, Komaki said. Wil- liams boasts around 400,000 more followers on Instagram than Watkins, a noticeable difference for brands look- ing to partner up.

“You name it, she had all those deals,” Komaki said regarding Williams. “As a high school senior, I don’t know what she finished at ... but something like $400,000 a year. That’s for a girl who, by the way, she ended up being a Mcdonald’s All-amer- ican.”

Williams’ current NIL valu- ation is $440,000 before she has ever played in a college game, according to ON3.

In Alpharetta, Saint Francis coach Aisha Kennedy was ahead of the game. Two years ago she began designating time in the offseason to help her girls build their brand on social media and prepare them for potential college opportunities. Now this preparation could pay off sooner than expected.

However, with more opportunities come con- cerns. Kennedy frets about potential saturation of tal- ent in states with top-tier programs at the expense of smaller programs. However, Hines noted NIL collec- tives are banned at the high school level, a key factor that should curb attempts to lure talent to different schools. Collectives are common at the college level, with members donating funds to a pool that are allocated to athletes in athletic programs.

With the ever-changing world of NIL, it will take time to see how these concerns pan out, but for now, GHSA is confident in giving its ath- letes more rights while ensur- ing their eligibility remains.

Hines said G H S A researched the possibility of bringing high school NIL to Georgia for two years. With the prevalence of state associations passing poli- cies growing by the month, “We wanted to get in front of it and make sure that we did it right before there was some legislation or lawsuits or those things that would force us to do something that we didn’t feel like was appropriate.”