By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The GHSA is warning member schools and athletes about a growing name-image-likeness issue, a business called NIL Club.

          The Club has a growing college athlete business, but has opened the door to high schoolers.

Students may post content on an online portal, the GHSA explained in a two-page memo to schools earlier this week, which is made available to “supporters” or pay to view the content.

          The club creator keeps a portion of revenue, with the balance going to the athletes.

          “The GHSA considers participation in such NIL Clubs to be a potential violation of the GHSA NIL policy … and GHSA member schools should immediately notifiy their students that joining such an NIL Club could have serious consequences to their eligibility to compete or continue to compete in GHSA activities as well as to member schools’ opportunity to participate in GHSA sponsored postseason GHSA events.

          “The posting by any student of apparel of their school or the GHSA, equipment bearing the name, mascots or logos of their school or the GHSA, game footage, or other intellectual property of the GHSA or ites member schools would be a violation of GHSA NIL rules resulting in potential loss of eligibility to compete.”

          The GHSA said that if an NIL Club supporter is connected, directly or indirectly to a school as an employee, or booster as defined by GHSA by-laws, and pays to see the content, it could be a violation that affects a students eligibility and a team’s ability to compete in the postseason.

          It noted the problem of a student being unable to control over who pays to see the content, and the status of that reader.

          From the NIL Club’s website: “An NIL Club is a unique, student-run fan community designed to financially benefit its member students by delivering paywalled digital content to their biggest fans. By subscribing to the club for a monthly fee, fans get exclusive access to content during their membership, while also supporting the participating students as creators. NIL Clubs are available to all high school students, including those involved in various social groups or activities like band, theater, and the math team.

          “YOKE … enables high school and college students to earn additional income through fan subscriptions. There are currently more than 200,000 students benefiting from their group's NIL Club.”

          It claims to be compliant on the high school level, listing a variety of ways.

          The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday that a co-founder of the club is a Pace Academy grad, and that outgoing GHSA executive director Robin Hines said he was aware of nearly 90 GHSA students making money from NIL in 2023-24.

          Florida is dealing with the issue, too.