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The Power of NIL at the High School Level
- kyledionisio5
- Aug 18, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 1
In July 2021, college athletes were finally allowed to partake in NIL (“Name, Image, and Likeness”) without jeopardizing their athletic eligibility. In 2023, college football experienced its most popular season in terms of tv viewers. The Michigan-Ohio State game over the Thanksgiving weekend was the most watched regular season college football game in 10+ years.
Women sports have also made their own recent headlines. The 2024 National Championship game between champion South Carolina and Iowa was the most viewed college basketball game (men or women) ever on ESPN, and was the second most watched non-Olympic sporting event on ESPN (after the 2015 Women’s World Cup final) with 18.9 million viewers. And this is all following the previous season’s women’s NCAA Tournament setting the then tv viewership and attendance records, with a peak of 13 million people tuning into the title game between champion LSU and Iowa.
The timing of these events with the introduction of NIL is certainly not coincidental.
Although there are certainly other factors at play, there’s no denying that the age of NIL has made college sports more attractive to the average fan. Through NIL, athletes are now able to directly market themselves to their fans, and build relationships with them. Not only are fans now more likely to know who these athletes are, but they start to feel a stronger personal connection with the athletes and are more invested in watching them succeed.
How High School Sports Can Benefit
Once NIL was allowed in college, states started passing laws that enabled high school athletes to also partake. Yes, high school sports are nowhere near the size of college sports, and are unlikely to ever experience anything like the notoriety mentioned above.
However, that doesn’t imply that sports at the high school level can’t leverage the same underlying benefits. That is, with NIL, we now have the ability to grow the visibility of teams and athletes beyond just their classmates and the most loyal spectators and instead more broadly throughout their communities. Now, more people in the community can be made more directly aware of who their local stars and young leaders are, and can feel a sense of pride in the way these young athletes are representing their local school. With the entire community more invested in cheering these athletes on not just in their sport but also providing them support well beyond graduation, you’ve strengthened that bond between athlete and community into something even more special.
Ultimately, with NIL you unlock the opportunity for more people to share in the fun and success of high school sports. With the entire community now behind these young athletes, we’ve empowered the future generation of leaders with immense confidence and support to succeed in more than just sports.
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