A lot has happened in high school and college athletics in just over a week.
Last September, University of Florida Athletics Director Scott Stricklin addressed NIL (name, image, likeness) and he mentioned an impending antitrust lawsuit to pay current and former athletes.
NIL refers to the rights of college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness for commercial purposes, including endorsement deals, merchandise licensing, public appearances and speeches, etc.
The defendants in the case were the NCAA and the power five conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference and Pac-12).
However, due to significant conference realignment, it’s now referred to as the “Power Four” because the Pac-12 no longer holds “power” status.
The Pac-12 was reduced to two members (Oregon State University and Washington State University) before Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, San Diego State, and Utah State joined. Gonzaga will also be joining the conference in July 2026, but it does not have a football program.
Last week, Judge Claudia Wilken approved the multibillion-dollar legal settlement that will allow colleges to directly pay student-athletes for the first time.
Schools are permitted to share up to $20.5 million with athletes each year.
There’s a new NIL enforcement entity in college sports, the College Sports Commission, that will enforce and track athlete NIL deals, as well as oversee compliance.
An NIL clearinghouse (“NIL Go”) has also been created to assess the validity of all third-party NIL deals exceeding $600.
The estimated NCAA revenue sharing for 2025-26 lists football and basketball at the top, as they should be.
But as Gator Insider Steve Russell noted, “we will see college sports move more and more, especially in football, to the pro model.”
These changes could hurt college athletics. One of the fallouts of NIL is that proposed scholarship and roster limits will dampen college opportunities for high school athletes.
At the high school level, NIL is permitted in 39 states.
The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) and its Board of Directors unanimously voted to allow its high school athletes to monetize NIL last June.
We’re already seeing high school athletes ink NIL deals around the country.
While NIL has dominated college athletics lately, there are a few talking points here in Florida that are easier to digest.
Last week, the FHSAA held its final meeting for the 2024-25 school year. Three of the biggest topics included football, basketball and baseball.
A unanimous decision by the board (12-0) was made to expand the Florida Invitational Tournament (FIT) in football by adding two additional divisions with twelve teams invited per division.
Last year, the FIT allowed the top 12 teams who did not make the Rural classification playoffs to participate in a separate tournament.
We saw the benefits of the expansion locally as the Dixie County (Cross City) football team entered the FHSAA Rural FIT as a No. 5 seed and with a losing record, but advanced to the inaugural state championship game.
The board also voted 9-3 to implement the use of a 35-second shot clock for postseason play beginning in the 2026-27 school year. Schools do have the option of using a shot clock during the regular season.
This past March, during the FHSAA boys basketball state championships, the shot clock was used for a handful of games as long as both schools agreed.
While the shot clock will prepare kids for the next level, costs such as a set of two shot clocks (one for each end of the court), associated equipment, and having someone operate them are a concern.
Meanwhile, the high school baseball playoffs were tweaked.
The FHSAA experimented with a best-of-three format for the regional playoffs in 2025.
Out of 180 series spanning the eight classifications, 76 went to a decisive third game. That’s a total of 42%.
Class 6A had the most game threes, led by 6A-Region 3 with five of its seven series playing a third game.
Buchholz had to defeat Pace in three games in the 6A-Region 1 Final to get back to the final four, and Saint Francis Catholic Academy defeated rival Oak Hall, 9-7, in the rubber match of its 1A-Region 2 Quarterfinal.
Suwannee (Live Oak) played a total of eight playoff games during the regional quarterfinals (2-1 vs. Baldwin) and regional semifinals (2-1 at West Florida) before getting swept in two games at eventual state runner-up South Walton (Santa Rosa Beach) in the region final.
The Board voted 10-1 to approve a modification to the postseason best-of-three format.
They scaled the regional tournament back to a one-game regional quarterfinal to be played on a Tuesday, followed by a best-of-three regional semifinals on Friday and Saturday the same week.
The regional finals, also a best-of-three, will take place Friday and Saturday of the following week with a Saturday doubleheader, if necessary.
All regional semifinal and final games will be hosted at the higher seed. This past year, the decisive game was played at the lower seed.
Whether you are for or against the changes going on in high school and college athletics, there is certainly a lot of progress.
How it all unfolds is still to be determined.