MARIETTA — The Georgia High School Association discussed two major things that affect sports in the area last week: reclassification and name, image and likeness, better known as NIL.

NIL, which has opened in recent years to college athletes, permits the person to monetarily benefit on the usage of, well, their name, image and likeness.

Official minutes from the Oct. 2 GHSA meeting, held in Marietta, state “The GHSA does not specifically prohibit students from engaging in certain commercial activities as individuals.”

As long as the athlete continues to be in compliance with GHSA by-laws 1.92-c and 1.70, the player can be compensated in certain ways.

(By-law 1.92 of the GHSA Constitution addresses loss of amateur status, with © being “capitalizing on athletic performance by receiving money or gifts with monetary value except college scholarships.” 1.70 is about undue influences/recruiting athletes to play for a particular school.)

Under the GHSA NIL agreement, athletes can benefit under three guidelines: if the compensation is not tied to “specific athletic performance or achievement”; if the compensation is not used to entice the athlete to attend or stay at a school; the compensation does not come from a school or from someone representing a school.

There are rules as to what can and cannot be used. The GHSA said that nothing specific of a school can be used (name, logos, mascot or uniforms), nor can the GHSA’s name or its logos. An athlete cannot be shown wearing a school’s jersey and no photographs or videos used in compensation cannot be shot at a school or on its fields.

Further, any student being compensated must share the agreement they have made with their school within seven calendar days of that agreement.

The GHSA encourages students and their families to reach out to colleges to make sure high school NIL agreements are not in conflict with collegiate guidelines.

The GHSA meeting continued the discussion of reclassification, which will happen this fall for the 2024-26 seasons. The reclassification committee made a number of recommendations that passed vote.

— Percentages for the Class 6A (largest schools in attendance) and Class A (smallest) will be approximately 14% of GHSA schools in 6A and 26% in A. There will be about 24-26% in the remaining classifications (2A, 3A, 4A and 5A).

— Class A Division 2 will have about 50 football-playing schools. Public schools of that size will be placed in regions.

— Schools in A, AA and AAA will have regions for the regular season. Upon the time for playoffs, public schools of that size will be in state tournaments separate than the private schools of those sizes. All three classifications of private schools will be combined into one state playoff per sport. Power ratings will determine playoffs berths.

— The GHSA reclassification committee will form a subcommittee to study competitive balance and potentially adjust schools’ classifications on how well they compete athletically.

For 2023-24, the GHSA reported it had 457 schools in its membership. Fourteen percent of that 457 would be 64 schools in Class 6A.

Based on 2022-24 attendance data published by the league — including the 3.0 multiplier for out-of-district students — the following are in the largest 64 schools outside of Metro Atlanta: Camden County, Colquitt County, Gainesville, Houston County, Lowndes, Richmond Hill, Rome, Tift County and Valdosta.

Depending on how numbers fall for 2024-26, Northside of Warner Robins may also fall into the top 64. Northside was the 68th largest school in Georgia during this classification cycle. There is the possibility that Brunswick and Effingham County gain enough students to fall into the new 6A. Brunswick was No. 73 and Effingham was No. 74 in size.

Rome and Gainesville are both northern Georgia schools, immediately adjacent to Metro Atlanta.

That leaves seven southern Georgia schools likely to fall into 6A, with three more as possibilities. Even if all 10 qualified for 6A, that would leave about 54 schools to split into regions. Unless the GHSA considers subdividing regions, there is a possibility that Tift County will fall into the same travel issues as what befell Region 1-7A the last two seasons.

Region 1-7A consists of Colquitt, Valdosta, Lowndes, Camden and Richmond Hill. While the schools are used to the two-hour drive to Camden, Richmond Hill added another hour of travel to its location near Savannah.

It is unknown if the GHSA would consider dividing a seven-team region, but the higher the number of teams in the region, the more likely the league would split it.