When greed gets involved in sports, it overcomes the fire that fuels athletes. With the new recruiting strategy of Name, Image and Likeness [NIL] in college and high school sports, high school athletes have begun to focus on solely individualism. Money used to not even be a factor in college sports, which caused more strength nationwide as people weren’t going somewhere for money, but to play all four years.
Colleges can use NIL money to recruit players, as a few extra digits next to an athlete’s full-ride scholarship can help sway them to their school. The highest paid college athlete is the Texas Longhorns’ quarterback Arch Manning, paid 6.8 million dollars per year, which exceeds most contracts in the NFL according to Sports Illustrated. Questions may arise on how this affects high school sports. For one, kids are encouraged to transfer to more well known high schools to put them in a better spot to be seen and offered money from colleges.
High schoolers that want to be recruited and their parents might argue that kids transferring to be seen by colleges is completely reasonable. I am all for playing sports in college; however, the kids who have already been noticed by Division 1 colleges that are transferring for some financial incentive cause problems. This is because they could be leaving their hometown school, which might become much worse after their transfer. Schools who have too many people leave are going to have bad players for years to come if they have losing records and nobody wants to play for them. Nine of the top 10 high school football teams in the nation are in NIL permitted states according to MaxPreps, meaning, these schools don’t just grab their born and raised local kids, but the top recruits in the nation. Kids are leaving their schools from small areas in the U.S. and defrauding their former schools to make a powerhouse team in other counties or states.
Another problem this gives high school sports is the transfer rules. Most transfers are required to sit out half of the season before even playing. So in the end we aren’t even able to see some of the top talent on the field for half the season. They might not care since they’re getting paid, however, it shows their fire burning out for the sport they love.
Growing up in Redondo and playing baseball has inspired me, like many high school athletes, to seek success for my school, such as winning a CIF title. However, in general I feel that with NIL coming into hand, kids’ passions for their local high schools are slowly fading into the deep hole of greed. According to NIL Daily, some of the top high school football players last year were being paid over one million dollars. Financial success is the goal in adulthood; however, if you are truly a good enough player, NIL should not be a necessary asset in your high school years. These kids are still teenagers; the most money many teens make are from minimum wage jobs. Money from sports can wait until college. Kids only get four years of high school, they should play for the team they were always supposed to play for. If money is out of the picture it is not another worry on their mind, and they can play for the love of the game.
NIL has increased individualism on teams. I do think that in order to be a great athlete, you need to be a little selfish, not selfless, but it is a fine line. Being a little selfish means wanting to be better than someone on your team, or putting the game in your hands when it matters most. With NIL, kids are becoming too selfish, putting the game into their hands not because it’s their best chance to win, but it betters their chance to get recruited and paid.
The biggest contracts in sports are at the professional level of course, so when kids are paid this money so early on, their motivation goes away after getting a taste of their dreams to get big contracts at a high level. It is encouraging kids that won’t be able to play in college to opt out of athletics too soon and throw away something special. According to NIL Daily, some of the top high school football players last year were being paid over one million dollars. Wasted potential can be one of the saddest things in sports, and with NIL I can only see more of it coming.
