Good for game?
Memphis area basketball coaches offer thoughts on NIL in high school
The Commercial Appeal is beginning a new series in high school sports called Coaches Confidential. It will feature responses from Memphis-area coaches on various topics.
The caveat? It’s completely anonymous. No responses will be attached to any coach, giving them the opportunity to speak freely.
This series begins with asking area girls and boys basketball coaches how they feel about NIL at the high school level. During the fall, the TSSAA approved high school athletes in the state of Tennessee to benefit on their name, image and likeness, like they can at the collegiate level.
Here’s what some of the area’s coaches had to say.
All for it
“The NIL rule to me is great! I feel the student athletes should get compensation for their talents and draw to games. Everybody has a monetary gain except the players. That’s not fair.”
“I think it’s irrelevant for 99% of the kids, only a select few will truly benefit and I think if a kid can benefit from their NIL let them do it.”
Not quite on board with it
“Not a fan at this level — heck, they need to get it under control at the college level.”
“I think NIL should stay out of high school.”
“It’s going to get totally out of hand. There needs to be much more guidance with parameters.”
“It is a slippery slope that could get out of hand very quickly. The have nots will only suffer more while the haves will be able to benefit even greater.”
“I think the NIL rules are making it tougher on coaches to keep quality kids in their program. A coach spends years
developing a kid and then he leaves because he can make more money somewhere else.”
The in-betweeners
“I don’t think it belongs in high school, but it is inevitable so might as
well get onboard with it.”
“Do not have one feeling one way or the other; will be interesting where it is in a couple years.”
“The rule can help and hurt schools.” Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox @gannett.com and on Twitter @wynstonw__.