Sondheimer: T.A. Cunningham's dilemma example of NIL exploitation

According to court documents, the shady, unscrupulous world of trying to exploit high school athletes for their earning potential in name, image and likeness has officially arrived. His chance of gaining eligibility doesn’t look good based on the CIF’s change of residence guidelines that in part state: “A student may not be eligible to participate at the varsity level if there is evidence the move was athletically motivated or the student enrolled in that school in whole or part for athletic reasons.” This case is the perfect example of the fears many had that the unleashing of NIL among college athletes would trickle down to high school, with an unregulated, unproven group of individuals racing to capitalize. According to the court petition, Chris Flores, a well-known youth coach in Orange County and co-founder of a marketing agency, helped set up a plan for Cunningham to move to California to earn NIL deals. High school athletes in California have always been able to receive money for endorsement deals as long as they weren’t representing their schools. An intervention might be needed with NIL deals for high school athletes before victims start piling up.