After a series of meetings that concluded Monday, a task force on NIL deals for student athletes is ready to prepare a series of bills for the upcoming legislative session. Homer Democratic Representative Rashid Young is on the task force and says one central theme that came out of the meetings was the fact that there seemed to be no structure for interactions with amateur athletes.
“Unlike the professional sports agents and representatives, there was no real guardrails for agent and marketing representatives in the NIL space,” Young explained.
Young says not only is that true for collegiate athletes, but that’s also true for high school athletes; and because most of them are minors, there needs to be stricter regulations in place for them.
“We do feel that there’s a need for the legislature to step up and make sure that there are some protection mechanisms in there for the high school athletes that we may not necessarily see on the college level,” Young said.
Young says the task force even found examples of athletes even younger than high school age being pursued for NIL deals, and he says the task force wants to put a stop to that altogether.
“We did hear some stories about kids being approached in middle school and, to my understanding, the NIL space for that age range is just going to be for high school kids and nothing below that,” Young said.
Young says the task force also heard from college athletic directors throughout the state who have expressed concerns that the new NIL era is running them in the red financially.
