Tuesday was a historical day in the Sunshine State for high school sports.

Whether you are for or against it, the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) and its Board of Directors unanimously voted to allow its high school athletes to monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL).

The new language in FHSAA Policy 9.9 allows high school student-athletes in the state of Florida to monetize their NIL while maintaining their eligibility.

Florida became the 36^th state to endorse NIL.

Although there are stipulations, high school players can now get paid to play sports in 2024-25 once the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) gives its final approval.

“This is the new reality, and we will adjust,” said Eastside Athletics Director Derek Gonsoulin. “I can see the potential good of students getting financial rewards from their achievements. A student who needs to help their family financially could focus on their sport rather than a job on top of school, work and practice.”

But there are also concerns.

“I can also see the negatives of players making more than teammates, demanding team changes, and NIL causing a focus on money over academics,” Gonsoulin said. “We’re in the early stages of the NCAA working out the bugs of NIL as you see high school recruits being promised millions. Just imagine a bidding war over a ninth grader before they even get to their first workout in high school.”

Gainesville High AD Phillip Knight has mixed reviews.

“I’m OK with students being able to be compensated for their name, image or likeness,” he said. “However, I am very concerned that schools and coaches will use this as a recruiting tool in an open-enrollment state. It’s going to be very interesting to see how this plays out.”

Student-athletes and their parents/guardians will be required to negotiate any NIL activities independent of their school, school district or the FHSAA.

Student-athletes will be prohibited from monetizing their name, image, and likeness with the use of their school’s uniform, equipment, logo, name, proprietary patents, products and/or copyrights associated with an FHSAA member school and/or school district, either in public, print or social media platforms.

FloridaHSFootball.com provided in photos the language and provisions regarding the eligibility of students who participate in Interscholastic athletics for FHSAA member schools.

There was a motion to approve the Championship Division in all team sports, which also passed unanimously.

The Championship Division takes the top eight teams in the state, based on the MaxPreps rankings, and puts them in their own all-classification bracket to compete for an overall state title.

It goes into effect after the last week in football and after the district tournament in other team sports advance to the championship bracket (Open Division).

Teams are broken up into two (2) four (4)-team sub brackets with teams seeded 1, 4, 5, and 8 together while teams seeded 2, 3, 6 and 7 make up the other sub bracket. Teams stay in their bracket until the final team advances to the state final.

The Championship Division will use double elimination within each sub-bracket until the semifinal games (becomes single elimination at the state semifinal round). During the third round of the tournament, the team who won the first two rounds has a bye.

The rationale and impact are an attempt to close the gap with competitive equity in the FHSAA State Series.

It will go in effect during the 2026-27 school year.