In what appears to be a first for high school football, ESPN reports that Jaden Rashada, one of the top quarterback prospects in the Class of 2023 (ranked #26 in the ESPN 300) has signed a deal by which he will be paid to promote a recruiting smartphone app.
This is a significant development in the wake of the NCAA’s policy change now allowing student athletes to enter into NIL deals, which was strictly prohibited prior to 2021. That door is wide open at the collegiate level, and now apparently at the high school level to some degree.
It is important to note however, that in some states - including Pennsylvania - the governing body that oversees high school sports prohibit these kinds of deals. For example, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s bylaws require student athletes to maintain amateur status in order to be eligible to participate in PIAA governed sporting events (which is essentially every organized high school sport).
Article II of the PIAA Bylaws provides:
Section 1. Amateur Status Required.
To be eligible to participate in an Inter-School Practice, Scrimmage, and/or Contest, a student must be an amateur in the sport involved. An amateur student is one who engages in athletic competition solely for the educational, physical, mental, social, and pleasure benefits derived thereof and does not receive monetary or similar or equivalent compensation or remuneration for such participation.
A student athlete loses his or her amateur status - and is then ineligible to participate if:
C. The student plays on, or enters into a contract to play on, a professional team or as an individual professional athlete in that sport; or enters into a contract to represent a corporation, organization or similar entity in competition or by appearing in public on behalf of such entity.
Bylaws, at Art. II, §2 (emphasis added).
Thus, while NIL deals for high school athletes are beginning to appear across the country, parents of high school student athletes in Pennsylvania should be aware of the current PIAA rules. Those rules may change in the future of course, and this will be an issue to watch develop in PA.
Of course, NIL deals are permitted by Pennsylvania law for collegiate student athletes.
For more information, please contact Tuk Law Offices.