FHSAA executive director suggested using NIL to limit transfers. He was immediately overruled.

Craig Damon, executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association, suggested drawing a line in the sand on transfers but was immediately overruled by the Board of Directors.

During the final minutes of Tuesday's Board of Directors Workshop to discuss Name, Image and Likeness — which is expected to be voted on in June — Damon said the FHSAA could have tougher wording that could help curb the number of transfers.

Damon told the USA Today Florida Network in December that one of his biggest concerns over allowing high school students to profit from their name, image and likeness was the state's open enrollment policy, which other states do not have.

The current NIL proposal has a section (9.9.4.6) on student transfers that prohibits student-athletes who transfer during the season to enter into an NIL deal during that season.

Damon noted Tuesday that only five percent of transfers actually occur during the season. He then asked if the spirit of the section was simply to address in-season transfers or try to limit transfers altogether.

If the goal was to limit transfers, Damon offered alternative language.

“If were looking to try to, I guess, limit transfers, athletic transfers, or try to prevent kids from going to a better school, what (the) language might read, and again, this is off the hip, could be to, ‘If you were at a school your previous year and transfer, (you would be unable to) have an NIL deal as keeping kids from transferring to get an NIL deal,'" Damon said.

Damon later said the wording could be as simple as saying that a “student-athlete must have been at the school the previous school year to receive an NIL deal.”

Board members Jim Norton, Monica Colucci and Ricky Bell all quickly responded by saying they were satisfied with the wording that specified in-season transfers.

The board has been discussing NIL for months and had a previous workshop before their meeting in April.

Tuesday’s meeting went through the latest proposal, with the main points of discussion revolving around the use of school uniforms in advertisements, the wording on agents and if athletic department boosters will be allowed to offer NIL deals.

Thirty states, as well as the District of Columbia, allow high school students to profit from NIL. The Georgia High School Association approved a bylaw to allow NIL in October.

The next FHSAA board meeting is scheduled for June 3-4.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida high school sports: FHSAA rejects NIL idea to limit transfers