“Pay or I won’t play”, seems to be the new mantra that is spreading around college football. Players who have transferred from other schools are now giving themselves a redshirt,opting out for the remainder of the season, over a lack of Name, Image, and Likeness compensation. This begs the question “will this spread into high school sports and will athletes start to opt out of their seasons because they believe they are not being paid enough?”
On the night of Tuesday September 24, UNLV [The University of Nevada Las Vegas] quarterback Matthew Sluka announced that he would be redshirting the remainder of the 2024-25 season and enter the transfer portal. The following day, numerous players around college football did the same, including Sluka’s UNLV teammate running back Michael Allen. As of December 7th, 2022, high school athletes in Pennsylvania are allowed to be compensated for their Name, Image, and Likeness [NIL]. Although it has not happened in Pennsylvania yet, the most known case of something like this occurred back in 2021 when current University of Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers chose to forgo his senior season of Texas high school football to play at Ohio State.This decision was heavily influenced by the amount of money he would make through NIL. With players from all across the country hopping on this new trend, one may wonder, “how long will it take until high school athletes start skipping the season because they believe they are not being paid enough?”
Despite the rapid popularity of opting out of a season to be paid more, high school athletes still have a passion for the most pure form of sports. Karson Gibson, a senior linebacker, fullback, and long snapper, says that since college athletes, star football players in particular, are on full scholarships already, taking an NIL redshirt “is a disservice to your team that you pledged to work hard for.” However, Gibson says that NIL is beneficial to athletes who are “walk-ons or on partial scholarships” because it gives them an opportunity to pay for their schooling along with other necessities. To add to his point, Karson thinks that it is “gross” when an athlete on a full ride scholarship chooses to sit out their season because they want to be paid more through NIL. When it comes to high school sports, Karson believes that highly recruited athletes may enroll at a university to play early and give up a season. But, Gibson says that the general group of high school athletes “won’t give up a high school season to take an opportunity just for money.”
High school coaches have a similar, and in some cases, more aggressive view on this issue. Mr. Greg Dolhon, North Pocono’s head football coach, says that NIL in general “has opened up the wild, wild west” of college football and it “takes away the emphasis on education.” Further, Coach Dolhon believes that NIL will cause student athletes to not get an education “and maybe not making the pros”, along with “not being able to sustain life down the road.” Even though NIL has seemed to create a toxic environment, Coach Dolhon thinks that “the kids don’t realize that they’re being hurt.” As opposed to Gibson’s view, Coach Dolhon believes that the skipping of season for NIL “will trickle down” into high school athletics “in some form or fashion.” Despite having such an influential role, Coach Dolhon says that he would not know how to handle all of it, or if he will even be in the coaching profession long enough to see it happen.
As of the writing of this article, some of the most notable names who have gone about the NIL redshirting process are UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka, UNLV running back Michael Allen, and USC defensive tackle Bear Alexander. As more and more players around the country in college football get involved with, and abuse the powers, of NIL, the number of notable names will surely skyrocket.
