NIL — name, image, and likeness — is now legal for most high school athletes, but the rules vary wildly by state and by sport, and the path between "making money from your following" and "losing your athletic eligibility" is narrow. Here's a current state-by-state-aware overview of what's allowed, what's prohibited, and what to verify with your state high school athletic association before signing anything.
Name, image, and likeness rules — usually called NIL — changed everything about how college athletes can earn money. What's less widely understood is that the same rights now extend to most high school athletes too, though under a confusing patchwork of state-by-state policies that change frequently and conflict with each other. The result is a real opportunity for some high school athletes to start building income off their athletic visibility, paired with real eligibility risk if you don't know the specific rules in your state.
This post is a current-state overview. Because state high school athletic associations (HSAAs) update their NIL policies on a continual basis, anything you read here is a starting point — not a substitute for checking your specific state HSAA's rules and confirming with your high school athletic director before signing any deal. The cost of getting this wrong is loss of athletic eligibility, which usually means loss of any college recruitment too.
NIL stands for "name, image, and likeness." It refers to your right to profit from the commercial use of your identity — your name on a product, your image in an advertisement, your appearance in a sponsored social media post, your likeness in a video game. Until recently, these rights were considered forfeited the moment you became an "amateur" athlete in NCAA or state HSAA terms. That changed for college athletes in 2021 and has now changed for most high school athletes too, although the specific timing varies by state.
Importantly: NIL is NOT the same as pay-for-play. You can be paid for the use of your name, image, and likeness. You generally cannot be paid for playing, for winning, or for choosing a particular school. The distinction matters legally even though it can be blurry in practice.
NIL for high school athletes is regulated by each state's high school athletic association. Most state HSAAs now permit some form of NIL, but the specifics vary substantially. Broad categories of state policy include:
Permissive states. Most states now allow high school athletes to engage in NIL activities under reasonable conditions — typically requiring disclosure of deals, prohibiting school logo or uniform use without permission, and prohibiting deals with certain categories of products (alcohol, gambling, tobacco, weapons, adult content).
Restrictive states. A small number of states still have notable restrictions or have only recently changed their rules. Some restrict the dollar value of deals. Some require pre-approval. Some prohibit any commercial deal that uses your athletic identity in a way the HSAA considers connected to your high school participation.
Prohibited states. A shrinking number of states still prohibit high school NIL entirely or for certain categories. If you're in one of these, any NIL deal could cost you your eligibility.
The list of which states fall into which category is changing constantly. As of the most recent national surveys, the majority of states permit some form of high school NIL, but the precise contours of what's allowed differ from each other in ways that matter. You must check your specific state association's current rules before signing any deal.
Activities that are generally allowed where high school NIL is permitted:
These are widely prohibited even in permissive states:
The categories prohibited by the NCAA for college NIL deals are also problematic to engage in during high school, because those deals will follow you into the recruiting conversation and can be flagged as eligibility concerns when you matriculate. Even if your state HSAA permits an alcohol endorsement (very few do), a college program won't recruit an athlete with that on their record.
Loss of high school athletic eligibility is the single biggest risk of mishandling NIL. Eligibility can be lost for:
Loss of eligibility means you cannot play your high school sport. That means you cannot compete in front of college coaches at the moments that matter most for recruiting. A single deal worth a few thousand dollars can cost you the recruiting outcome you've been working toward for years. The math almost never works out.
Even when your state HSAA permits a deal, that deal can still affect your NCAA eligibility once you matriculate to college. NCAA rules around amateurism have loosened substantially with the college NIL changes, but high school NIL deals can still create issues if they:
The NCAA Eligibility Center reviews incoming athletes' NIL histories. A clean history makes things easier. A messy one can produce delays or issues at the moment you most need things to go smoothly.
Before signing any NIL agreement as a high school athlete, run through this:
For most high school athletes, NIL income is modest. The big-dollar high school NIL deals you read about in the news involve athletes with national name recognition — top-100 basketball recruits, top-tier football prospects, viral social media personalities. The typical strong-but-not-famous high school athlete makes NIL money at much smaller scale: a few hundred dollars from a local sponsor, a couple of thousand from a regional deal, the occasional larger one tied to a specific moment.
That doesn't mean NIL isn't worth pursuing. It does mean that the financial reward for most athletes is small enough that the eligibility risk should be weighted heavily in any decision. A $500 deal that costs you a season of eligibility — and therefore costs you the recruiting attention that season would have produced — is a catastrophic trade.
Conservative is right. When in doubt, don't sign.
One feature being added to Lightning is a structured place to log NIL deals as part of your athletic profile — both for your own records and for transparent disclosure if needed during NCAA eligibility review. The athletes who handle NIL cleanly through high school keep their options open. The ones who don't can damage their college recruiting before it really starts.
If you're thinking about a specific deal and you're not sure, the answer is to ask your athletic director and your state HSAA first. They will not be annoyed. They will be relieved you asked. The athletes who get in trouble are the ones who signed first and asked later. Don't be that athlete.