ORLANDO, Fla. — Student-athletes at Florida high schools can receive compensation for their name, image and likeness after the State Board of Education on Wednesday approved new rules proposed by the Florida High School Activities Association.

The FHSAA made some changes Monday to their rules on amateurism and the BOE had to approve them so they could be implemented in time for the start of the upcoming academic year.

The new NIL rule is a significant change to the FHSAA Bylaw 9.9, which previously has held student-athletes to strict rules on amateurism.

"Athletes are excelling at their chosen sport, working long hours all year long, so we firmly believe that high school athletes should be able to earn money from the use of their name, image and likeness," Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said. "Students will now be able to utilize that hard-earned money for college tuition, housing, food and clothing once they graduate."

Thirty-seven other states already permitted NIL agreements, Damon said. Some athletic and government officials within Florida had expressed concerns that the families of high school athletes could move to other states to take advantage of the deals.

The rules are very different from NIL programs in college programs and there are limitations, according to Damon.

"It’s really no different than a student having a part-time job," Damon said. "It’s no different than a kid working at Publix or a local Chick Fil-A — having a job, performing a service or a task and getting compensated for that. A student’s name, image and likeness..it’s their intellectual property. They have the right to be granted permission to use that by other folks or be compensated for that.”

An NIL is a written and fully executed contract, the FHSAA says. It is limited to the period that high school students have eligibility and cannot be enforced after their high school graduation. Under FHSAA Bylaw 9.9.4, "Permissible activities include, but are not limited to, commercial endorsements, promotional activities (such as being on site to sign autographs), social media presence, product (such as opening their own merchandises store that sells things like T-shirts with their pictures on them), or service advertisements."

"We don’t foresee kids making hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars off it. However, there will be that 1% of elite athletes that possibly may have that opportunity," Damon said. "But the majority of our students athletes, it will be something local, with a local business, where a restaurant that I normally go to eat at and now I post something on social media, and again I see as a business owner the number of followers that they have and think about the impact it could have on my business, and I pursue an agreement with that student and they can profit off their name and I can also attract some business.”

For example, he cited an example of a store that makes smoothies and is regularly visited by a high school athlete who posts about that shop on social media. The business owner could enter into an NIL agreement with an athlete to post on social media about that spot.

However, there are limitations. Student-athletes cannot reach NIL agreements that involve:

• Adult entertainment products and services
• Alcohol, tobacco, vaping, and nicotine products
• Cannabis products
• Controlled substances
• Prescription pharmaceuticals
• Gambling — including sports betting, the lottery, and betting in connection with video games, online games, and mobile devices
• Weapons, firearms, and ammunition
• Political or social activism
• NIL collectives

Among the changes the FHSAA made to its proposed rule on Monday was to define what a collective is, so athletes, their parents and businesses know what would be an ineligible group with which to get involved. FHSAA Bylaw 9.9.4.2 says:

"NIL Collectives include but are not limited to, groups, organizations, or cooperative enterprises that exist to collect funds from donors, individuals, or businesses to:

1. Help facilitate NIL deals for student-athletes
2. Facilitate payments to or transfers funds to student-athletes
3. Create ways for athletes to monetize from their NIL
4. Otherwise promote NIL for schools or student-athletes

NIL Collective shall not include school sanctioned team fundraising."

Student-athletes also cannot use school logos or jerseys as part of their NIL deals, can’t engage in NIL activities during competitions and cannot put a patch on their uniforms representing a business with which the athlete has an NIL deal. Permission would be required by the school.

“It’s not my intellectual property anymore (if involving school images)," Damon said. "I’m now intruding on someone else’s property.”

It is a violation of FHSAA rules for NIL activities to be used to recruit student-athletes, and students who transfer to a new school during a sports season are ineligible to sign an NIL deal during that season except under defined circumstances.

Damon called NILs an "ever-changing landcape" and said the FHSAA would present workshops on NIL and provide frequent reminders about what is permitted and what is not. He said the organization would remain vigilant to ensure that the rules are enforced. He said he often communicates with coaches and other representatives of the schools and their programs, and that they do report one another when there are violations of all the FHSAA rules.

FHSAA rules put the responsibility on athletes and their parents to ensure that any agreements into which they enter keeps them eligible under the rules of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), or the governing body for a particular sport.  It urges student athletes and their families to seek legal counsel, tax advice and to consult with those governing bodies when considering NIL activity.

Board of Education members expressed concerns about whether some families would be able to afford to get legal advice about NIL agreements and how schools and coaches would know who was entered into legal agreements.

To address those concerns, they suggested that the FHSAA start a registration system to record what athletes were entered into NIL agreements and with whom and for the FHSAA to make that registry and a sample contract available online so that all involved parties are aware of parameters of such deals.

"This could be a good opportunity for some student-athletes, but we want to make sure that they do it in a manner that they are protected and not exploited,” Board of Education member Ben Gibson said.

Damon said the FHSAA would work to make changes to the bylaws and get those elements prepared for its website by the time the Board of Education meets in September.

Students who violate the NIL rules will receive a warning the first time. Penalties will escalate after that, starting with the second violation, when students would be ineligible to represent any member school for one year from the date it was discovered.