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Something in the WDN caught my eye the other day and it was the NIL coming to high school athletics. The term NIL stands for Name, Image and Likeness! It has ruined collegiate athletics and it might ruin the only remaining amateur endeavor left, high school athletics.

If you get paid to play athletics in high school and want to choose getting paid in college it won’t be the same. I don’t agree with college athletes being paid because they get the Pell Grant to help them pay the average cost of tuition and they get $500.00 in excess money to pay for incidentals. Such as a trip home and some clothing or books. The NCAA saw to that and players will head for the Transfer Portal if they don’t get it.

Wonder how much you would pay a college tennis player? Maybe nothing. Could you buy yourself a team? Perhaps.

Wonder what you get living in Charlotte or Winston-Salem? The rich get richer. The same holds true for the bigger schools. Take athletes from Columbia or Williamston. Wonder how much they would make? Take an offensive lineman blocking for the tailback. Wonder how much they would get paid ?

The private schools are getting paid at the present time. Maybe just maybe they are evening things up. I heard at an ECU game that Team Boneyard, the Pirate collective formed to support athletics, needed two million dollars to get through the year and Ohio State needed 20 million. They‘ve got to get this influx of cash every year!

I wish I had this during my days. I don’t know if Nick Saban got this wrong or Dabo Swinney got it right . They don’t use the transfer portal and they don’t pay their players. I wouldn’t want the headache of trying to please everyone. What happens at the college trickles down to the high schools!!

They were the best of times with the best of friends and in the best of places, Washington, N.C.! The Original Washington!

Harold Jr.