‘There’s no rules. It’s crazy’: New money in NCAA recruiting leaves elite athletes ripe for exploitation

Name Image Likeness or "NIL" deals let elite student athletes profit from their talent before they finish high school. But the potential reward comes at a risk.

Over the summer, 16-year-old Georgia native T.A. Cunningham transferred to a powerhouse Southern California high school in pursuit of NFL dreams. His father wanted to cash in early with help from agents who boasted stars like Kansas City’s JuJu Smith-Schuster as clients.

The family believed Cunningham stood to earn big in sponsorships, even before he got to college. Instead, the coveted junior recruit was benched, because of a decision from the state’s governing body for high school sports.

“I was shocked,” Cunningham said. “And I think everyone involved with me was shocked, too.”

The story rattled the world of college sports. It was the first incident of career-damaging fallout for a high school star since the NCAA’s decision to slash restrictions on athletes’ profiting from their fame after a Supreme Court loss in summer 2021.

A year after the rule change, so-called NIL deals, named after the initials for Name Image Likeness, have become increasingly common for elite student-athletes like Cunningham, who can now begin profiting from their talent before they play a minute of pro sports.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/star-high-school-athletes-can-now-profit-nil-deals-rcna51075

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