Louisiana’s New High School NIL Law: What Athletes and Parents Need to Know
LAFAYETTE, La. — Louisiana high school athletes can now legally cash in on their name, image, and likeness, but state lawmakers spent this year’s legislative session building a set of guardrails around that new right after coaches warned that unqualified agents were already circling teenage players.
Coaches and lawmakers say that elite prep athletes are increasingly fielding offers for marketing deals similar to what college players receive, and that some of the people pitching those deals, including friends and family members, have no real experience in the industry.
What the New High School NIL Law Requires
J.T. Curtis Jr., head football coach at John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge and Louisiana’s all-time winningest high school coach, said he started noticing the problem several years ago, and it’s gotten “significantly worse” over the last two to three years. Curtis served on the state’s NIL Task Force and pushed for the new protections.
“They might mean well, but they’re just not qualified to do well,” Curtis said of the informal agents approaching young athletes. “They’re not qualified professionally to be an agent.”
The Louisiana High School Athletic Association first acknowledged that prep athletes could sign NIL deals back in 2022, but that policy was never written into state law. That changed this year with Act 810, sponsored by state Rep. Rashid Young, D-Homer, an attorney and former Grambling State football player who chaired the task force.
“There has always been a business ecosystem built around athletes at the high school level, as well as at the college level,” Young said. “This is the first time in history that athletes are able to participate in the ecosystem that was built around them, and it’s really important for equity.”
Act 810 takes effect Aug. 1 and bars K-12 schools from stopping students from earning NIL income. It also sets limits. Parents have to sign off on any deal involving an athlete under 18, and players can’t take marketing money from alcohol, drugs, gambling, tobacco or weapons companies. Schools can still block students from doing NIL work during class time or sports activities, from using school facilities or branding in a deal, or from signing an agreement that creates a “material conflict” with one the school already has in place.
Curtis testified in favor of the bill this spring and told lawmakers he’s already seeing athletes as young as eighth grade targeted.
“We have heard eighth grade and ninth grade students that are already being influenced and asked to be represented by men that are not qualified to count 1 to 10, much less to negotiate a contract,” Curtis told lawmakers.
New Registration Rules for Sports Agents
A companion law, Act 895 from state Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, targets the agents themselves. Connick said Louisiana has run into a pattern of unqualified agents treating the lack of oversight as what he called a “money grab.”
“On a high school level and a grammar school level, we need to protect these young men and women from unscrupulous agents that are looking out for themselves and not for the athletes,” Connick said.
The law extends Louisiana’s agent regulations, once limited to professional sports, down to anyone representing a high school or college athlete. Agents must now register with the Louisiana attorney general’s office, pass a criminal background check and complete state-mandated training before pitching their services. Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office opened that registration portal on July 1.
For any NIL or endorsement deal, the agent has to give the athlete a written disclosure spelling out the services provided, how the agent’s fee was calculated and whether any other party is profiting from the arrangement. Agents who skip the process or violate the rules can lose their right to compensation and face fines, and athletes themselves can now sue an agent over financial or reputational harm, including lost eligibility caused by improper representation. Murrill’s office can also block an agent’s registration outright for failing to comply with state rules.
“These young people are being told things, and their parents are being told things that are not realistic,” Curtis said.
He added that unqualified agents tend to oversell what they can deliver while downplaying how much on-field development and commitment a young athlete still needs.
“When you present to a 15-year-old, 16-year-old kid that the future’s all mapped out for you,” Curtis said, “I think to some degree you begin to lessen their understanding of what they need to do from a commitment standpoint as an athlete.”
What LHSAA and Lawmakers Expect Next
Ethan Anderson, director of communications for the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, said the association supports the new laws and is working to walk school administrators through the changes. He pushed back on the idea that NIL money will change what high school sports are about.
“High school sports is still the truest form of sports,” Anderson said. “It’s just that sense of community, that sense of school spirit, and the pride of wearing your school colors and playing in front of your fans.”
“We don’t see NIL causing that to change anytime soon,” he said.
Curtis and lawmakers agree the for-profit marketplace around high school and college sports is still evolving, and this year’s laws are a starting point rather than a finish line. Young, who chaired the task force through its final meeting in December, said the group is now weighing whether it needs to keep meeting at all.
“The NIL landscape is evolving it seems like every year,” he said.
Louisiana families with a student athlete fielding NIL offers can check that offer against the new law and confirm whether the person making it is actually registered with the attorney general’s office before signing anything.
You May Also Like...
- Louisiana High School Athletes Now Eligible for NIL Deals
- High School Senior Makes NIL History as the First Female Football Player to Land a Deal
- University of Louisiana Embraces Historic NCAA Revenue Sharing with New Cajuns Edge Fund for Ragin' Cajuns Athletics
- College Athletes Are Now Getting Paid Millions and the Ragin' Cajuns Are All In
10 Must-Have Tailgate Foods for South Louisiana Football
Gallery Credit: Joe Cunningham
