If they can make this money in College, what is to stop it from moving down to HS?
The market? Otherwise, nothing. Nothing currently does. Most high schoolers don't have much market value. So they don't get paid. I doubt that changes. The next LeBron probably makes some cash. And shouldn't he? He was insanely valuable then and he's insanely valuable now.
Aren't the dictates of the free market what you and others like? Don't you favor the invisible hand over the iron fist of government regulations? Why is this particular issue suddenly so different?
It's amazing that people on this board who have argued vociferously for, and politically supported, economic liberties and free markets are so uniformly opposed to this concept. College kids have always been compensated to play sports in the form of scholarships. It's not liquid cash the way that payments for NIL licensing will often be, but it's the actual consideration for the contract that binds them to play for their schools. They don't play by their own choice, they lose their scholarships. High school kids can get athletic scholarships to private schools, too. It's still compensation. It's just not cash.
The part that's being glossed over - or, if you're more cynical, misleadingly elided - is that NIL rights don't give any athlete money in exchange for playing sports. They allow them to generate income for licensing a right to publicity that every American citizen has. Nothing has changed here in regards to employment or scholarships or the relationship between school and player. What
has changed is a removal of anti-competitive and anti-free-market regulations restricting individuals from their God-given liberties and freedoms as Americans - and somehow, our conservative friends are lined up in unison against it!
I fully expect this post and/or this portion of the thread to be vaporized soon enough, but let's just call a spade a spade here.