The Parent's NIL Playbook

What to check, what to sign, and who to trust before your kid's first deal

Parents of college and high school athletes are navigating an NIL landscape that changes faster than any single state's parent information session can track, and the stakes — eligibility, scholarship money, and their child's financial future — are high enough that getting it wrong has consequences that last years. The Parent's NIL Playbook is a practical guide for parents who want to understand the NIL space well enough to protect their athlete without needing a law degree to do it. It covers what your child can and cannot do under current NCAA and state rules, the specific minefield of high school NIL where the rules vary dramatically by state, and how to evaluate every adult who comes to your family with an opportunity, a contract, or a title on their business card. The financial section covers the topics nobody thinks about until it's too late: taxes on NIL income for dependent children, the interaction between NIL earnings and scholarship aid packages, custodial account considerations for minor athletes, and the eligibility mistakes that cost seasons rather than games. This book is not designed to make you a sports lawyer. It is designed to make you the most informed person in the room when someone asks your child to sign something.

• How NIL rules differ by state for high school athletes specifically
• How to vet any agent, advisor, or collective before your child signs with them
• The five contract clauses that most commonly harm athletes in NIL agreements
• How NIL income interacts with scholarship aid and your child's tax situation
• The eligibility mistakes that have cost college athletes their amateur status