When Powell alumn Jay Cox competed in track at the University of Wyoming, he was part of a new wave — students for the first time were allowed to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL). Four years later, similar changes may reach Wyoming high schools.  

NIL activities were adopted at the college level in 2021. Since last year, the Wyoming High School Activities Association has been considering what it may look like in high schools around the state. 

The proposed policy from WHSAA, which will undergo second reading on Oct. 2, would allow high school students to pursue NIL opportunities with restrictions that include prohibition of using school or WHSAA funded clothing or equipment, official grounds and gametape from WHSAA or the school. Students cannot engage in NIL activities during the school day or any team activities and cannot wear logos, marks or insignias for NIL purposes when they’re required to follow the WHSAA or school’s dress requirements. Students also can’t promote activities, services and products that would include alcohol, tobacco, nicotine, controlled substances, gambling or other items, activity or conduct “prohibited or unlawful” for school age students according to state, federal law, or WHSAA and school policies.

“High school kind of is preparing you for life after high school. That should be the goal and for the lucky few high school athletes that get to compete at a higher level, that’s exactly what I think this aims to do, which I think is a great thing,” said Jay Cox, a Powell High School graduate and former University of Wyoming track athlete, adding, “A good thing to keep in mind is, regardless of what people may think about this, this is already a reality at the collegiate level.”

NIL was adopted at the collegiate level in Cox’s second year at UW. Soon after, he created a page on the school’s NIL portal  to market himself and once recorded a video for Southside Elementary School, which is about as far as he got, he said, adding he knew other athletes who took greater advantage of their NIL rights.  

“I think a lot of people think of NIL, and they think of these huge deals that some athletes are getting, like, in the bigger sports, from schools and from places to go play for certain places and you see multi-million dollar deals. I don’t think anyone I knew saw anything close to something like that, but I would definitely say it was advantageous to them.”

Cox does understand why the draft policy has stipulations, he said, accepting money outside of the sport itself has always been “hush, hush” but he thinks the policy is a fair step forward.

“Even at the NCAA level, it’s not a perfect thing. I do think it was kind of nice to see the pendulum swing, I would say, to give athletes a little bit more power, especially when paired kind of with the transfer portal,” Cox said. “But I think the pendulum maybe swung a little bit too far, so I can see what they’re trying to do and kind of avoiding that.”

Powell High senior Ivy Agee, the school’s first female football player and a star soccer player committed to Black Hills State University, would take advantage of the policy should it pass, she said, particularly as a soccer player. She said potentially working with businesses ahead of playing in college could increase recognition, and is also open to NIL work as a collegiate athlete.

If the policy did pass she would begin learning what she can and can’t do under the new policy as soon as possible, “so then I’d be a lot more confident in knowing what it is,” she said.

“I feel like [the football players] would actually be really interested in it,” Agee said, as well as others who are “very invested into their sport.”

Powell Athletic Director Richard Despain said a high school NIL policy has been discussed since he took over as athletic director in 2023. He has discussed the pros and cons of NIL with Superintendent Jay Curtis, Powell High Principal Tim Wormald and Assistant Principal Steve Lensegrav.

The idea of writing an NIL policy Despain thinks is to get ahead of it, “and then there’s just differing opinions on the policy we have written, [if it] covers everything well, if it doesn’t, and you’re going to find lots of opinions on that,” Despain said. 

“College, of course, started the whole thing and so we’ve looked at it and tried to see what’s the difference between college and high school, and what NIL would offer, what the pitfalls or dangers are with it. And, you know, just trying to understand it,” Despain said.

There are valid arguments for it, Despain said, but added that allowing NIL at the high school level could muddy the waters of high school sports.

In Wyoming, there are transfer and amateur eligibility rules that prevent athletes from taking full advantage of unregulated NIL deals. Unless a whole family moves to a different town, changing schools can result in losing a year of varsity status. If an athlete wins too much prize money, they forfeit amateur status. 

Also, schools and related parties can’t offer incentives to students to convince them to play a sport or transfer to a different school.

Despain doesn’t think the policy would impact many Wyoming students. While Cheyenne and Casper students may see some interest, Despain said Powell is not a big enough area where “people are fighting to get high school kids to support their restaurant.”

What is a potential concern is groups targeting students for their own profit.

“I don’t know how prevalent it is, but it’s called predatory NIL meaning you’ve got groups out there that all they see are dollar signs. They don’t care about people,” Despain said.  “And so they’ll go to each state, and they’ll identify the top 50 to 100 kids, whatever it is, kids out of California, out of Texas that they think have a chance to make it to the NFL, the NBA, whatever, right out of high school.”

For example, these students could be offered an NIL deal and locked in for up to a decade. 

“If they have 100 of them, maybe 99 miss — they go to high school, they get $10,000 and they never do anything more, really,” Despain said. “But what if one of them was Josh Allen … they locked him up through his first five, six years at the Buffalo Bills for $10,000 they now kind of own all his NIL rights.”

Additionally, WHSAA is not waiving their amateur rules and a certain amount of money could lead to a student losing amateur status and the policy contains a lot of what students can’t do to try to keep that under control, Despain said.

“I think that a lot of what people are trying to do is protect our kids here in Wyoming … if NIL does become a thing, please don’t just take someone’s word for it, read it, consider it,” Despain said. “Look at the small print. See what the parameters are at the time,  what it locks you into, the guarantees that you have.”