IHSAA NIL Rules for Coaches: Staying Compliant Under Rule 5-7

Your athletes can now build personal brands and earn money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). IHSAA Rule 5-7 calls these Personal Branding Activities (PBAs), and it puts Indiana high school coaches in a position they haven't been in before — close enough to these deals to influence them, but required to stay out of them.

Here's where the line sits.

Can a coach help an athlete get an NIL deal?

Generally, no — and this is the question that trips up the most coaches.

NIL deals under Rule 5-7 are meant to run independent of the school's athletic program. Organizing or facilitating a deal in your capacity as coach risks converting it into a school-affiliated activity, which is prohibited. Specifically:

• You can't organize, sponsor, or facilitate a PBA on behalf of the school or team.
• A student's PBA can't be tied to their athletic performance or participation — so avoid any arrangement, formal or informal, linking a deal to playing time, stats, or results.
• You can't use your position to steer athletes toward or away from specific brand deals in a way that constitutes school involvement.
• If you become aware of an athlete's PBA being used to recruit or influence a prospective student, that's a violation regardless of who initiated it, and it should be reported.

Can coaches run private camps and lessons under Rule 5-7?

Plenty of Indiana high school coaches run private lessons or camps on the side. That's permitted — but only if it stays fully separate from the school:

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