Just over nine months after approving and allowing athletes to benefit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), the Georgia High School Association has made an amendment to the bylaw within the organization’s constitution to ban clubs and collectives.
The GHSA board of trustees, which formally approved the NIL bylaw (1.97) on Oct. 2, 2023, met July 18 to discuss a new wrinkle in the Georgia high school NIL landscape: clubs. These clubs are allegedly charging a fee for schools or individual athletes to join with the promise of securing NIL money for said athlete(s).
Dr. Robin Hines, who presided over the meeting as Executive Director of the GHSA for the final time, brought the issue of clubs or collectives to the board, per the minutes from the meeting. According to those minutes, Hines said the club’s or collective’s “guidelines do not meet the GHSA stipulations under the current policy and can create eligibility questions.”
Again, according to the minutes, “Dr. Hines recommended that all schools who have joined these clubs need to remove themselves immediately due to questions that might arise in regard to student eligibility.”
The motion passed unanimously with a 14-0 vote.
The new amendment to Appendix N states: “No student-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 a group of student athletes or 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.”
The amendment goes on to clarify that booster clubs are not considered a collective or club as long as they’re under the supervision of a member school and providing their monetary or other benefits to the school/team as a whole.
Any student athletes violating the amendment guideline could lose eligibility. Any member school allowing an athlete to violate the guideline could face fines, forfeiture of contests, probation or being declared ineligible to compete in postseason GHSA contests.
Last fall, Habersham Central High School Athletic Director Geep Cunningham said of the new NIL rule, “Change isn’t always good. I don’t think this is good.” He also called giving high school kids money to play high school sports “ridiculous.”
At the time, HCHS Head Football Coach Benji Harrison didn’t go as far as that. He called the rule vague and said it wasn’t “necessarily for or against it.”
Now Harrison is taking a more direct stance and one that aligns with Cunningham’s initial sentiment.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s high school football. If we’re not careful, we’re going to get away from the reason we offer high school athletics,” Harrison said. “High school sports is about getting to play with your best friends you’ve been friends with since you were little. It’s an opportunity to represent your community and it’s an opportunity to make memories that will last a lifetime.
“If you’re fortunate enough in high school to be good enough to continue playing, then it becomes a little more of a business.”
Harrison went on to say he believes “we need to keep high school athletics as pure as we can.”
“You play it because you love the game, then hopefully it’ll afford you opportunities later if you’re good enough.”
