As students approach the end of their high school years, college tends to dominate most every conversation. For student-athletes, that now includes potential compensation for name, image and likeness.
While currently only high school students who will for sure play at an Arkansas college are eligible to receive NIL funds, that could change as NIL laws continue to evolve.
In 2021, the NCAA announced an interim policy allowing for the commercialization of NIL for college athletes. The policy prohibited — and still prohibits — schools from using financial incentives to recruit or retain student athletes and prohibits schools from paying athletes to play.
That same year, Arkansas passed the Student-Athlete Publicity Rights Act, which allows student-athletes to enter into a contract to receive compensation for the commercial use of their publicity rights as defined in 2016 by the statute’s predecessor, the Frank Broyles Publicity Rights Protection Act.
The Arkansas Student-Athlete Publicity Rights Act has since been amended twice. In 2023, the statute was amended to allow colleges and universities to facilitate NIL contracts, and in 2025, colleges and universities became eligible to enter into NIL contracts with student-athletes.
Notably for the Wampus Cats, Devil Dogs and other hometown teams, the act was also amended in 2023 to allow high school students to enter into NIL contracts under certain conditions. For example, the students must be admitted to a college or university in Arkansas; have signed a national letter of intent to enroll at a college or university in Arkansas; or have signed some other agreement to enroll at a college or university in the state.
“What you heard in each of those three conditions is that only if the high school student is affiliated with a higher ed institute within the state of Arkansas can they participate in NIL deals in Arkansas,” said Judy Henry, partner and chair of the sports law practice at Wright Lindsey Jennings in Little Rock and one of Arkansas’ foremost sports attorneys.
Judy Henry
Henry noted the statute prohibits players who plan to leave the state for college — and those who have not yet made a decision to remain in Arkansas — from participating in NIL.
Missouri has similar requirements about students being somehow committed to play in-state at the collegiate level before entering into NIL agreements, she said, while Tennessee’s statute allows students as young as ninth grade to participate in NIL if they plan to enroll in a college or university in the future — in-state or otherwise.
Texas does not have any requirements that high schoolers be committed to play in-state but does prohibit students younger than 17 from entering into NIL deals unless they are already enrolled in college, she said.
The heart of the matter is this: Student-athletes can make money — big money — before they even graduate high school.
“Let’s hypothetically say I know some kids that played football, and after the season was over, they signed their national letter of intent, and before they went into college, they were doing some advertising for a boat company in central Arkansas,” said state Rep. RJ Hawk. “It’s things like that, making a little bit of money before you go off to college.”
Rep. RJ Hawk
Hawk put together a think tank comprised of attorneys, coaches, parents and former high school athletes across the state to discuss NIL and its implications for high schoolers in 2023. He said he received mixed responses.
“While we were having meetings, I would throw things out on social media and just kind of get reactions from people,” he said. “I’ve got a fairly large following on social media, and there was a lot of negativity toward it — a lot — from parents. Now student-athletes were all for it, right? Student-athletes were like, ‘Yes,’ but I still have some saved letters that I got in my mailbox from parents that were like, ‘This is not what we need right now.’”
Brad Bolding, head football coach at North Little Rock High School, said he leans toward a more conservative approach when it comes to high school student-athletes receiving NIL money.
Brad Bolding
“I think there ought to be a maximum amount of money,” he said. “I think you ought to be a senior in high school, and honestly, I’d like to see us implement an academic end of it, too, where a young man needed to have a certain GPA.”
He said the responsibility falls to high school coaches to mentor players when it comes to NIL. It is a sentiment shared by Kevin Kelley, head football coach at Sheridan High School.
“They need to be counseled on, No. 1, you’ve got to pay taxes on it. No. 2, invest it. Don’t go out and spend it on 10 cars, you know? Do something that’s going to benefit you in the future, make your life easier,” he said. “I would visit with them and their parents on that.”
Kevin Kelley
Although it can be good for student-athletes and their families to benefit from NIL while still in high school, conflicts can arise when teenagers suddenly find themselves with vast amounts of money, he said.
He added that he worries how one student receiving NIL money could affect the team dynamic and would like to see a cap on the amount of money student-athletes can receive at all levels, which would allow more student-athletes to participate in NIL.
Although the commercialization of NIL is currently prohibited for students who are not committed to play in-state, Henry said the statute has yet to be challenged, and she is not sure who is responsible for enforcing such restrictions.
“I don’t see that the statute has any teeth in it for either the business or the high school student-athlete as a consequence of doing a contract that is statutorily prohibited, but that doesn’t mean that someone wouldn’t step forth to try to enforce the statute,” she said. “The [Arkansas Activities Association] has strict rules for high school athletes. In its handbook, the AAA recognizes high school student-athletes have NIL rights, so maybe the AAA will exercise oversight.”
She added that she would like to see Arkansas broaden its law to include students who have been admitted to colleges and universities out of state. Although retaining quality players benefits Arkansas institutions, student-athletes who choose to study elsewhere for family, educational or other reasons may miss out on a one- or two-year opportunity, she said.
“We have some really great higher ed institutions here, and I would advocate that those provide great opportunities for high school student-athletes to further their education and play their sport,” she said, “but if they decide that is not in their and their families’ best interest, I would hope that we could give them an opportunity to participate in NIL, just like every other student-athlete.”
There is something else that strikes Henry about the law, as well. Despite Arkansas being renowned for its hunting opportunities, firearms are among the items athletes are banned from promoting. Henry said that while the statute makes sense for some weapons, it makes things tricky for athletes who may want to enter into a contract with businesses such as outdoor outfitters.
Both Hawk and Henry agreed that NIL is generally good for student-athletes, who are often the only students on a college campus who are unable to work. However, Hawk said, it is important to have regulations governing NIL deals.
“The way that it’s been handled and the way that it’s been governed, it’s the Wild Wild West,” Hawk said. “I think that people have seen the image of what’s happened at the collegiate level, and they’re like, ‘We don’t want that with our high school athletes right now.’”
Bolding noted that the collegiate transfer portal and NIL have become twin demons in the eyes of fans as players jump from school to school in search of more lucrative NIL deals. If high school booster clubs were to enter into NIL deals with students, the results could be disastrous for poorer school districts, he said.
“Do I see that happening? I really hope it doesn’t because that could be something that could get really ugly,” he said. “It would not be good for the districts that are underprivileged and impoverished.”
Hawk pointed to recent legislation tightening eligibility requirements for students who transfer schools to participate in extracurricular activities as a mitigating factor. The law requires students who transfer after June 1 following freshman year to sit out for 365 days.
However, he said there could be some interest in using NIL as a recruitment tool for high schoolers — with devastating consequences for small-town Arkansas.
“I think that the law we passed this year kind of helps with that, but I do think that there are people that look at NIL and say are we now going to take that to the high school level and say, ‘Car Dealership A or Bank A, we want this kid in West Memphis to come to Bryant or whatever it might be. Let’s just pay to get his family here’?” he said. “That could be a real slippery slope, as well.”
Will NIL ever become available to high school students who have not yet committed to play college ball in Arkansas? Henry said it might be worth considering.
“Although I have not seen a market for Arkansas high school student-athletes who do not intend to pursue sports beyond high school, there is certainly a market for student-athletes who are either holding off on making a college commitment or have committed to an out-of-state school,” she said. “These student-athletes lose opportunities with Arkansas-based and out-of-state businesses.
“For the student-athlete committed out of state, there are significant NIL opportunities with their committed schools and businesses that they are missing because of the current restrictions. The rights of these student-athletes are not recognized under the current law.”
She added that Arkansas’ NIL statute allows agents who are not licensed attorneys to represent student-athletes in NIL transactions, which concerns her not only as an attorney but as a former collegiate athlete and the mother of a collegiate athlete.
“Would I have wanted a nonlawyer representing our son?” she said. “No. Every word in that contract means something, and I would want someone who knows what they’re doing, has experience in the field to represent him. Being a mom and a lawyer, I know the value and the importance of that.”
Kelley said he would like to see tightened restrictions about who is eligible to represent student-athletes in NIL deals at both the high school and college levels.
“In the NFL, in the NBA and Major League Baseball, when you’re dealing with people, you have to have a certified agent to deal with or the individual himself, and in college NIL, you do not,” he said. “You could be dealing with somebody’s uncle or aunt or a friend of a friend. It goes all over the place, and to be honest with you, those people aren’t held accountable if they’re not doing what’s best for the student athlete.”
Hawk said Arkansas lawmakers will continue to examine NIL as it applies to high school students. He added that he hopes to find a happy medium that allows students and their families to benefit from NIL while reducing risks to students who are still learning about money.
“We’ve got to stress fundamentals and getting kids ready for the game, and the high school level’s where that happens,” he said. “If we make everybody a pro, then we never have amateur sports anymore, and the minute you start getting paid is when you start becoming a pro.”
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