What we've seen so far at the college level with athletes concerning name, image and likeness is just the tip of the iceberg. Nearly everyone can agree on that.
Since we're currently in the NIL's infancy, no coach, player, or expert really has a grasp on how wide reaching the effects of college players possessing the ability to make money off their NIL really is.
To make things even more interesting, one state is reportedly saying NIL rights aren't just for college student athletes.
California has apparently shared that high school athletes in the Golden State "can absolutely benefit from their NIL,' Darren Heitner tweets.
The one catch is that those high school athletes can't use their school marks to profit.
That was once considered a hurdle at the college level as well, but UNC was recently the first to announce a group licensing deal that would allow players to harness the power of the UNC intellectual property and brand in their NIL deals.
Nick Saban recently shared that the Tide's projected starter, Bryce Young (who is a sophomore with just one college touchdown to his name) is approaching a million dollars in NIL earnings.
That type of information will certainly be of interest to some of the top high school propects in the country, like the nation's top 2021 recruit, Korey Foreman who is from Centennial HS (Corona, CA).
By our count, California is home to 9 of the nation's top 100 prospects who, if this report is true, will be able to harness their NIL rights to bring in some money.
It will be interesting to see what other state associations are going to say on the heels of this news.
Just spoke to the @CIFState, which confirmed that HS athletes in California absolutely can benefit from their #NIL as long as they aren't using school marks.
— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) July 22, 2021
That's huge for HS athletes across the state.