NIL deals remain scarce for GHSA athletes

“People aren’t lining up to give high school kids money,” Hines said. “It seems salacious, and people are interested in it, but it’s mostly a pair of gloves for a baseball player or a free meal at the local restaurant. People conflate high school sports with what’s going on in the NCAA. We don’t have collectives or the transfer portal.”

Unlike college athletes, GHSA students cannot profit from their schools’ intellectual property, meaning no school logos, use logos, uniforms, facilities or game highlights.

After the first academic year under the GHSA’s new NIL rules, Hines said he was aware of 87 GHSA students profiting from NIL and that the number was down to 44 by spring, after many elite football players came off the rolls by graduating early and joining their college teams.

Former Carrollton quarterback Julian Lewis initially was the GHSA’s biggest NIL beneficiary. The GHSA does not track compensation amounts, but Lewis signed with Leaf Trading Cards, Alo Yoga, Jaxxon and Cactus Jack. Presumably aided by NIL money, Lewis reportedly bought himself and his father a car. Lewis came off the books in December, when he joined his college team, Colorado.

The new GHSA NIL leader almost certainly is Grayson football linebacker Tyler Atkinson, a five-star recruit and star of the Rams’ Class 6A championship team.

Atkinson signed his first deal in 2023 with Xenith, a football safety gear company. Last summer, he was among seven star football players nationwide who signed together with Adidas. In October, Atkinson used the deal to give Adidas cleats and gloves to his teammates.

Once a player signs with a college team, his NIL income might soar. But that comes through the colleges' collectives, which are portals for boosters and businesses to pool resources to play athletes. Those are illegal in the GHSA.

Milton football coach Ben Reaves, whose team won the Class 5A title and finished with top-five national rankings, said he did not know if any of his players had NIL deals last season. He had nine major Division I signees in December, all of whom have joined their college teams.

“We’re not supposed to be involved at all because you don’t want anyone to accuse you of assisting with it, which would be a violation,” Reaves said. “I just try to educate the players and parents on the rules in an opportunity comes their way and how to report it. I don’t know who on my team, if any, had them because I’ve been told to be that hands off.”

Some high school coaches in 2024 expressed concern that allowing NIL could open the door to boosters paying athletes to transfer. Hines said that has not materialized.

“We haven’t seen anybody set up an NIL deal for somebody to move into this school, which would be illegal,” Hines said. “If that were happening, we’d know about it.”

Hines did send out a warning last summer telling athletic directors that NIL companies that acted as collectives could cost athletes their eligibility. None has crossed that threshold.

Hines did express one NIL concern, that of predatory agents who might profit unduly from long-term deals that begin in high school for athletes who make it big.

Hines supports the bipartisan House Bill 383, titled the Georgia High School NIL Protection Act, which would declaring a high school athlete’s contract with an agent void after the athlete is no longer enrolled in high school.

“There have been a couple of examples where somebody has signed up this kid to a long-term contract to help them through the NIL process, and it stays with them all the way into the pro ranks,” Hines said. “What this bill does is end the contract with high school sports. That doesn’t mean they can’t resign.”

The bill stalled this week and didn’t get called for a vote but likely will come up again next year.