Published: April 9, 2026
By: Gracie Thomas and Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE –The Senate Commerce Committee advanced a bill Tuesday that would extend protections for high school and college student-athletes engaging in Name, Image and Likeness contracts.
NIL programs allow student-athletes to receive compensation from third-party companies for the use of their personal brand. This includes use of their name, photos, videos and voice in social media posts or promotional content.
J.T. Curtis, head football coach of John Curtis Christian School in River Ridge, told the committee that NIL deals, once exclusively a college issue, have extended into the high-school ranks.
Curtis, who holds the record for most career victories by a prep football coach in the U.S., told committee members that student athletes as early as the eighth grade are being taken advantage of by agents who are “selling the kids to universities.”
“They’re being directed; they’re being lied to,” Curtis said. “They’ve been told the grandeur of what is available without any expertise and understanding of law, with understanding contracts, with no limitation on the amount of compensation.”
Read more at WBRZ.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 
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