High School Football Salary Caps? New Jersey is Thinking About It.

A recent article from NorthJersey.com’s Darren Cooper revealed that high school football coaches in the state are considering implementing a “scholarship-fund limit,” which is similar to a salary cap in professional sports.

In many pro sports (and now in collegiate sports), leagues cap the amount of annual salary teams are allowed to spend without penalty in order to maintain competitive balance. 

With the advent and growth of NIL, college sports are now more standardized with rules and regulations around salary and sponsorships. Now, the “professionalization” of a formerly amateur sport is beginning to trickle down to the high school level. 

What Would a High School Salary Cap Look Like?

Though college sports are regulated by a governing body, the NCAA, high school sports are governed by a patchwork of state high school associations across the country with various rules and regulations. Per Cooper’s reporting, the coaches at New Jersey’s six biggest football schools are discussing ways to regulate funds for players. 

High school NIL payments are illegal in Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, Wyoming, and Hawaii. In New Jersey, students are allowed to profit from “commercial endorsements, promotional activities, social media presence, and product or service advertisements.”

However, students may not “wear a team jersey or otherwise display the school’s name, mascot, or logo” when marketing a product. 

New Jersey schools are also not allowed to pay student athletes directly for their athletic endeavors. All NIL opportunities must come from third-parties that are not affiliated with a student’s school.

These rules are similar to many other states that allow high school NIL. The “salary cap”-style limitation would limit the financial aid opportunities for students that attend those “big six” private schools. However, the sources of funding for student-athlete scholarships varies between schools.

Regulating the Wild West

According to Cooper, coaches at the New Jersey schools (Bergen Catholic, DePaul, Don Bosco, Paramus Catholic, St. Joseph, and St. Peter’s Prep) are not only concerned about competitive balance, but about agents coming to high school football, and the sustainability of a murky ethical system. 

Future legislation of college sports could also impact high school athletes. As we reported last week, the NCAA could end up requiring athletes to disclose their high school NIL deals to maintain eligibility at the collegiate level. 

Though the best players may earn considerable money from NIL deals, the system and predatory agents could exploit families and students seeking financial gain from their name, image, and likeness. As schools use different financial aid models, however, actually creating a regulated salary cap with oversight could be “nearly impossible” according to Cooper.

The Future is Now

Even if pro-style financial regulations haven’t come to high schools yet, the proverbial dam has already cracked. Some youth athletes, like current Colorado quarterback Julian Lewis, have leveraged popularity to create lucrative NIL deals at the high school level. 

However, parents and administrators do seem to be concerned about the amount of money, corruption, and negative influence associated with paying teens for playing sports. Youth sports are a $40 billion industry. It seems absurd that the athletes are not allowed to take any profit from an industry that runs through them. However, unlike colleges, high schools do not have a unified governing body, and students are not adults with the autonomy of college students.

As the majority of the nation embraces high school NIL, conversations like this will only become more common. Coaches, parents, and administrators will need to face the reality that the professionalization of youth sports is already here and get ahead of the curve in finding solutions that benefit everyone involved.