Mississippi will likely not join a growing list of states in allowing high school student-athletes to sign name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals this year.
As of early 2026, more than 40 U.S. states allow for some sort of NIL compensation for high schoolers, but a bill adding Mississippi to that list did not make it out of committee in the House of Representatives. House Bill 1400, authored by Democratic Rep. Jeffery Harness and titled the “Mississippi High School Student-Athlete NIL Protection Act,” served to establish a framework for high school athletes to be paid under specific parameters.
Under the bill, a high school athlete would have been allowed to be paid for endeavors such as endorsements, social media posts, and appearances, as long as the money did not happen to be performance-based or an enticement to transfer to another school. Focusing on the student first, the bill forbade schools, coaches, and staffers from facilitating NIL contracts or directly profiting from them.
HB 1400 also had a provision requiring NIL contracts for student-athletes under the age of 18 to be signed off by parents or guardians. Any deal that did not first receive parental consent would be nullified. If a high schooler’s NIL deal happened to exceed $10,000 annually, any additional earnings beyond that point would have been required to be placed in a restricted trust account that the student could access upon turning 18 or after finishing his or her senior year.
The bill ensured that the Mississippi High School Activities Association would be notified of NIL deals within a “reasonable time” after a student-athlete came to an agreement with a prospective sponsor, though the governing body would have been barred from sidelining a high school athlete for being paid.
After dying in the House Judiciary A Committee, HB 1400 will not come to fruition this session unless revived in another piece of legislation down the road.