Senate bill blocks NILs for high school athletes

Tyler Auffhammer, The Mountaineer, Waynesville, N.C.
·2 min read

May 8—Supporters of NIL deals (name, image and likeness) for high school student-athletes had a whirlwind Wednesday night last week.

First, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) Board of Directors voted to approve a policy that allows high school student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness on Wednesday, May 3.

The approved policy was set to take effect July 1.

Later that night, the North Carolina Senate amended Senate Bill (S.B.) 636, which had passed the Senate and was sent to the House of Representatives, to include a provision that restricts the NCHSAA's ability to allow NIL deals.

Instead, S.B. 636 would grant the State Board of Education the power to determine amateur rules, which includes NILs.

S.B. 636 passed 30-20 in the state senate on May 3. All Republicans voted yes, while all Democrats voted no.

Even if N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, Republicans have a supermajority with enough votes to override his veto if every Republican votes along party lines.

Other provisions strip NCHSAA power

Titled "An Act to Revise Oversight of High School Interscholastic Athletics," S.B. 636 also strips the NCHSAA of certain powers, among them classification expansion.

The NCHSAA has used a four classifications system since at least 1969, with classification based on the average daily membership (ADM) of each school. 1A comprises the least populated schools, while 4A comprises schools with the largest populations.

The NCHSAA member schools recently voted to expand to up to seven classifications beginning with the 2025-26 school year.

The change required the vote of each principal in the state. Approval meant at least 324 out of 424 (75%) member schools voted yes to the change.

S.B. 636, however, would limit the NCHSAA to only four classifications.

The bill would also require transgender athletes to compete on teams that align with their biological sex, defined in bill language as "a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth."

Currently, the NCHSAA allows transgender athletes to apply to the Gender Identity Committee for a waiver to compete in the category based on their gender identification and not their biological sex, as defined in S.B. 636.