The sun rises for NIL in Florida high school athletics as the Sunshine State becomes 36th state to make NIL a reality

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The sun has rose in Florida to a day that Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) will be a part of the high school sports landscape and to where that sun will not set going forward.

That thought is thanks to the Florida High School Athletic Association’s (FHSAA) Board of Directors voted unanimously on Tuesday morning to adopted proposed NIL language that would most likely take affect starting the 2024-2025 school year, pending final ratification by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE).

Discussion of the topic was expected by many was to last for a good portion of the meeting and while it took some time with the meeting it was not as long as FHSAA BOD President Monica Colucci guided the board through the motion and discussion of the topic and reiterated that Board of Directors from the moment things started in the first discussion back in the February Board of Directors meeting and going through subsequent meetings and workshops leading to the vote today.

While the discussion was not overwhelming and going in circles, the biggest issue that seem to be talked about the most was the difference between what a booster club is compared to an NIL collective which the FHSAA staff felt was addressed through the wording of the language that way booster clubs would not be affected in continuing to support their teams.

Board of Director member Paul Selvidio is afraid that the FHSAA could penalized a booster because he feels the language of what is an NIL Collective is not being made clear while saying banning the word collective without more clarity does not help either.

Trevor Berryhill, Athletic Director at The Master’s Academy (Oviedo) who also serves on the Board of Directors feels Trevor Berryhill is a proponent of bigger penalties for transfers for NIL in recruiting while also mentioning that things will be hard to control with NIL which is something that has been express by many people across the state.

However, in the end, the proposed language that went forth to the FHSAA Board of Directors was approved without any modifications and thus now awaits for the final ratification from FLDOE.

Here is the language in photos we took as we do not have a digital copy to provide at this time:

The impacts to high school athletics

While it is expect only a small majority of high school athletes in Florida will be able to take advantage of NIL opportunities that present themselves, there is truly no telling what could evolve. No one exactly knows what the impact could be given Florida’s unique situation where open enrollment is a major part of the education and athletic environment compared to states like neighboring Georgia where NIL was approved last fall. Time will only tell if the FHSAA Board of Directors will have to revisit and make changes to the policy.

What is being said

While many people have post their thoughts from everything to seeing we should watch to see how this plays out to this will destroy high school sports in Florida as we know it, the Executive Directors of both the Florida High School Athletic Association and the Florida Athletic Coaches Association spoke after the meeting.

Shelton Crews of the Florida Athletic Coaches Association who submitted articles of recent issues with NIL at the collegiate level to the board used some public speaking portion regarding in NIL to further address the board and spoke to FloridaHSFootball.com after the meeting and hammered home education as a critical thing needed as NIL becomes reality.

“Educate yourselves; Make sure your kids are educate, make sure you educate yourself on it. It is going to be trail-and-error. Whether you like or whether you don’t, it is here. Now we got to prepare and do for the best for our kids,” Crews said.

Crews, who represents over 6,000 member coaches across all high school sports played in Florida in the FACA has expressed many of the same sentiments of those member coaches who were not wanting to see NIL come to Florida, especially on the heels that Florida is different than the other 35 states to date that have enacted NIL policies due to the open enrollment policies.

FHSAA Executive Director Craig Damon is happy to have this out of the way with NIL vote.

However, getting to that point was a long time coming.

“NIL is different. It is an ever changing landscape. If you look at it from the college level it seems like every week there is something different that changes about it. There is not knowing what exactly it was or how it is was a little challenge,” Damon said.

Damon expressed the issue about the difficulties given that all the other states that have enacted NIL have very strict transfer policies as the FHSAA could not emulate what other states have.

That issue was addressed with 9.9.4.7 regarding student transfers where it states that “A student-athlete who transfers after starting a sport, shall be prohibited from securing an NIL Agreement that season, unless he/she meets one of the provisions outlined in Bylaw 9.3.2.2,” with the goal to prevent transfers from transferring to a program solely on the basis of an NIL agreement.

What is next

Damon was asked about the educational component and said it would take a village and doing what is best for student-athletes in educating them.

While its planned for the NIL Bylaws take affect starting for the 2024-2025 school year, the final ratification from FLDOE will need to come first. As of the meeting and publication of this article, the timeline process for ratification of NIL to take affect is unknown.