NIL, high school style, the topic of conversation at AHSAA Media Day
By TIM GAYLE
AHSAA executive director Heath Harmon address the media at the annual Kickoff Classic preview at the AHSAA offices on Thursday. (Tim Gayle)
The hot topic of conversation among high schools in the state of Alabama is non-compliant transfer students, Alabama High School Athletic Association executive director Heath Harmon said at Thursday’s annual media day.
But the hot topic of conversation at the AHSAA media day was name, image and likeness.
“When people think about NIL, they think about what is happening at the next level, which is no longer education-based athletics,” Harmon said. “Now, what’s happening at the college level is they’re trying to get that reined in. The conversations are even different now than what I was having last August. What’s happening at the college level gives everybody a lot of apprehension of what that would even look like on our level.”
The Alabama Legislature passed an NIL bill in 2021 and repealed it in 2022, but has revisited the issue several times since. When Harmon was first asked about name, image and likeness at the 2024 AHSAA media day, less than a month after taking the job, he said it would be “a little difficult to answer questions beyond the leadership part of it.”
A year later, he has a better grasp of the subject.
“For us, it’s important that we become the experts, not what somebody is telling us, about NIL,” Harmon said. “You’ll hear there are 37 states that have NIL. Well, it can’t just be what people are telling me as the executive director so I have tasked assistant director Caleb Ross as well as myself to become the experts on NIL. We’re aggressively researching what is happening in those 37 states, what’s happening in the states that don’t have NIL and we plan on presenting to our (Central) Board in October those findings.”
Harmon said he spoke to legislative members about name, image and likeness after the subject came up in the Legislature.
“Last year during the legislative session, we had a bill that was introduced in the House, but it was not introduced in a way that they expected anything to be passed,” Harmon said. “The thought process was they wanted to generate a conversation, so I asked for a committee meeting, was able to speak in front of that committee and I expressed that, as an association, we wanted to be able to have our members write our rules. It was a good opportunity to hear what they were saying and what they wanted to be explored, but we would … want our member schools to be able to write our rules.”
The Legislature, he added, is “in a little bit different situation because they’re in a particular part of the state that could be experiencing an issue -- that is definitely an issue -- but it may not be an issue statewide. I think their thought process is they’re looking at what’s happening above (in college) as not being handled very well. And that’s not my role.”
Harmon was asked about the possibility of neighboring states with NIL rules in place offering financial incentives to players in Alabama that are not permitted to received NIL compensation. A year ago, Thompson quarterback Trent Seaborn was reportedly offered an NIL deal by a trading card company and teammate Colben Landrew transferred to a school in Georgia to explore NIL options.
“I think you’re talking about an elite athlete that would not be receiving NIL money here that would go to another state,” Harmon said in response to the question. “To me, that’s not an amateur. That’s professionalism. But that would certainly be a part of the conversation. We’d have to look at that data and see how many kids we’re losing.”
The AHSAA executive director also was asked about whether NIL funds would be presented evenly across different sports.
“What I am for is protecting amateur athletics,” Harmon said. “I am very concerned that we’re now the last level of pure amateur athletics. I think any type of pay for athletic performance, that would be something that I don’t know if we ever need to go in that direction.”
Harmon hopes to have enough research on the subject to present to the Central Board at its next scheduled meeting on Oct. 8.
“I think people expect out of me, as the director, to have an opinion,” Harmon said, “but I have to have an informed opinion. It’s going to take some extensive study. We really want to be able to present to the (Central) Board (in October). Me, personally, just being very transparent, I feel a big responsibility to protect your amateur athletic association. That’s in our mission. We would change our very mission (if we supported NIL). But I understand that we need to make sure that we see where this is going and always look at the opportunities that our students have.”
Harmon’s comments on name, image and likeness fit with his summation of his first year in office.
“Moving forward, under my leadership, we are absolutely going to be a learning organization,” Harmon said. “We are always going to be evaluating what we’ve done and can it be done better.”