Georgia High School Association Bans Prep NIL Collectives

The Georgia High School Association voted to ban high school student-athletes from participating in deals with NIL collectives.  

According to SI.com, the change is aimed at curtailing any activity from NIL collectives, which are currently able to offer prep student-athletes used to solidify college recruiting efforts. 

The new language to GHSA policy was formally voted in yesterday: “No student-athlete may be a member of nor receive compensation or any other benefit from a Collective or NIL Club. A Collective is defined as any group organized or existing for the purpose of compensating or benefiting an individual student[-]athlete or group of student athletes of a member school. NIL Clubs are defined as a group of student athletes organized or existing for the purpose of soliciting funds or other benefits from fans, members or other sources, managing or promoting NIL activities of student athletes or otherwise providing funds or other benefits to an individual student athlete or group of student athletes.”

Many current prep athletes were not happy with the change. SI notes that one anonymous Georgia student-athlete sent a letter to the GHSA, saying in part, "the GHSA either does not want student-athletes to earn money at all, or they only want the superstars to benefit and not the other 200,000 student-athletes who make high school sports so special. If that is the case, it might be more honest to ban NIL activities entirely rather than create an environment where only a select few can benefit. The proposed approach is discriminatory and discouraging for the majority of student-athletes who are trying to make a positive impact and learn important life lessons through these activities."

Specifically, the new rules would ban student-athletes from using the NIL Club app, which is a collective-based system for paying prep athletes. 

“More than 50,000 student-athletes are currently benefiting from the NIL Club app, gaining valuable lessons in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and community engagement," the letter states. "This app is the most common way Georgia student-athletes are making money from NIL. Taking this away is effectively taking NIL away from the 99% of student-athletes who are not superstars.”

The state of Florida has taken issue with NIL Club, as officials believe it violates restrictions on NIL Collective behavior prohibited by the Florida High School Athletic Association. 

The athlete who wrote the anonymous letter believes the latest changes in Georgia are specifically aimed at NIL Club. 

“This proposed amendment appears to be specifically targeting the NIL Club app and its users, which feels incredibly unfair and overly restrictive given this is the only way many of us are making money from NIL. I have learned that I can create value and build an online community, which has been a learning experience unlike anything I have experienced so far in a classroom," the athlete wrote.