![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Football-Field-Artificial-Sports-Turf-7-1024x683-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe FHSAA\u2019s Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve a seismic change in the organization\u2019s bylaws to allow athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness, or NIL. The changes will be in effect for the upcoming school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the change, student-athletes and their parents or guardians would be required to \u201cnegotiate any NIL activities independent of their school, school district, or the FHSAA.\u201d The board also agreed to allow high-school athletes to hire agents to assist them in navigating business deals \u2014 reversing course on a longstanding prohibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The revamped bylaws now allow for the hiring of \u201cregistered\u201d agents only for the \u201cpurpose of advising on NIL related\u201d matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The policy that was approved Tuesday has been in the works since February, and the board held multiple meetings to float language for the new rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monica Colucci, a Miami-Dade County school-board member who is president of the FHSAA Board of Directors, said the change will bring Florida into \u201cnew territory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo there are going to be hesitations, we are going to feel nervous. But I do really believe that this is going to put us on par with the rest of the country. We are going to have some things that we have to face as a board. And we will do so. Because I really believe we are very capable and we are going to do the right thing for students, always. That is our top priority,\u201d Colucci said during Tuesday\u2019s meeting in Gainesville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As of October, 30 states and the District of Columbia allow high-school athletes to \u201creceive NIL compensation,\u201d according to the revamped bylaws approved Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The updated regulations define \u201cpermissible activities\u201d under the new NIL policy to include, but not be limited to, commercial endorsements, promotional activities, social media presence, and product or service advertisements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new NIL rules also include some restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, student-athletes will be prohibited from using their school\u2019s logo, uniform or equipment in any NIL deals unless they are given written permission from the school, district or FHSAA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Student-athletes also are banned from endorsing certain products, such as alcohol, tobacco, vaping, gambling, weapons, cannabis products and prescription drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FHSAA board also approved as part of the NIL rules a prohibition on endorsements related to \u201cpolitical or social activism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another prohibition that has sparked debate within the FHSAA board is the barring of what are known as NIL \u201ccollectives\u201d from being allowed under the policy. Collectives are funding organizations through which student-athlete compensation frequently is funneled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kimberly Richey, a senior chancellor with the Florida Department of Education who also is on the FHSAA board, has pushed to have the bylaws include a ban on collectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think what we\u2019re doing is, we\u2019re saying there cannot be any groups out there that exist to collect funds from donors to facilitate NIL deals for student athletes. That’s what a collective is. If you exist solely for that purpose, you cannot operate in Florida,\u201d Richey said during Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the new FHSAA bylaw changes stand to potentially change the landscape of school athletics, an introductory part of the policy notes that schools can educate student-athletes about the potential \u201cdrawbacks\u201d of engaging in NIL deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe FHSAA supports NIL education, which prepares student-athletes to make informed decisions. By providing student-athletes with knowledge about potential legal and financial drawbacks associated with NIL activities, high schools can contribute to the overall welfare of their student-athletes,\u201d the version of the bylaw changes approved by the board Tuesday said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The revamped bylaws also state that student-athletes and their families \u201care encouraged to seek legal counsel and tax advice when considering NIL activity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tuesday\u2019s action comes several years after a similar change that has allowed collegiate-level athletes to make a profit. An initial NIL law related to colleges and universities went into effect in Florida in July 2021. Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis approved a subsequent measure that essentially expanded the state\u2019s law to allow universities to become more involved in the NIL process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colucci reminded the FHSAA board on Tuesday that the high-school sports officials also can come back to the table to make changes to its NIL policy in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs the governing board, we can, as situations arise, we can tweak the bylaw. We can go back to it. We can revisit it as many times as we need to to make the modifications. But I do believe, as president of this organization, this is a very good starting point for us to move forward with,\u201d Colucci said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ryan Dailey The News Service of Florida The Florida High School Athletic Association on Tuesday opened the door for student-athletes to earn money from business agreements such as endorsement… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"30","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[30],"tags":[8706],"class_list":["post-46232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-fhsaa-approves-athlete-pay-rules"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46234,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46232\/revisions\/46234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}