The Georgia High School Association is allowing high school athletes to make deals to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL) — two years after Georgia college athletes got the same allowance.

The group's executive director, Robin Hines, said the vote by the association's board Monday was inevitable after 31 other states had already allowed such agreements.

"It's coming; it's going to be here," he said. "And it's just a matter of, are you going to get your hands around it and make sure that it's what it is that you need to do."

The new rules come with a number of restrictions aimed at separating the school from the athlete in commercial sponsorships.

So no school logos, names or uniforms are allowed in ads, for example.

The rules also prevent athletes from making agreements tied to enrollment in any specific school or tied to athletic achievement.

"What you have to remember is that it says that you cannot capitalize off of athletic performance," Hines said. "You can't pay for play.  A student can't get paid for scoring a touchdown or these type of things. So I'm kind of shocked a little bit at all the attention."

Hines said the association also wanted to approve name, image and likeness deals before litigation or state lawmakers forced them to do so.

You can hear more of the conversation with Hines about the NIL decision as well as other big issues in Georgia high school sports Wednesday in this week's episode of the Football Fridays in Georgia podcast.

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