— NIL Rules · Northeast
College and high-school name, image & likeness rules for Massachusetts (MA) — at a glance, in plain English. Not legal advice; confirm with a compliance office before acting.
At a glance
College NIL: No state law. High-school NIL: Allowed, per NCAA policy + House settlement · MIAA (HS). NIL collectives: operating. Deal-disclosure threshold: $600. High-school governance: Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA). Last reviewed October 2026 — this is a plain-English overview pending verification, not legal advice.
What to know
Massachusetts has no enacted college NIL statute: H.1930 was filed in 2025, referred to the Judiciary Committee, and remains pending there as of this review with no floor vote found — so college NIL runs on NCAA policy and the House settlement; confirm the bill's current committee status before relying on this. The MIAA's amateurism rule (Rule 47) lets high schoolers do NIL work that stays clear of school identity — no school uniforms, marks, or affiliation in any paid promotion. Collectives are active and legally permitted at the college level, with third-party deals at settlement schools generally reviewed at the $600 national NIL Go clearinghouse threshold.
As of August 2026, Massachusetts has no enacted college NIL statute and no executive order with the force of law that our research could verify — the operative framework is NCAA policy, each school's own NIL rules, and the House v. NCAA settlement regime. The NCAA's interim policy states that for institutions in states without NIL laws, an athlete's eligibility will not be impacted by the amateurism bylaw if they engage in NIL activity, while pay-for-play and recruiting-inducement prohibitions remain in effect. The only statewide NIL rulebook actually in force in Massachusetts is on the high-school side, where the MIAA amended its amateurism rule in 2022.
H.1930, filed by Representative Francisco Paulino, is the state's most developed attempt at an NIL statute. Its official history:
MIAA Handbook Rule 47 (Amateurism — Name, Image, Likeness — Loss of Amateur Standing) governs. Rule 47.1.3 permits a student-athlete to profit off the use of their own name, image, and likeness and be represented by an attorney or sports agent, subject to compliance with the policy; permissible activities include commercial endorsements, promotional activities, social media presence, product or service advertisements and non-fungible tokens.
A Massachusetts college athlete's NIL life runs on school policy plus national rules: deals are permitted under the NCAA framework, larger third-party deals reportedly route through the House settlement's clearinghouse process, and there is no extra state statute to satisfy — but also no extra state protection if a school's policy is restrictive. A Massachusetts high schooler has been able to do NIL deals since 2022 — reportedly the 16th state to allow it — as long as school identity stays out of the deal, the restricted categories are avoided, and copies of every agreement go to the school.
The batch classification for Massachusetts lists it as having an NIL law; our research as of August 2026 found the college-side framework still resting on NCAA policy and the House settlement, with H.1930 parked under a study order in March 2026 — so the statute entry above records the pending bill rather than an enacted law. Watch for the bill's refiling in the next session. Nationally, the April 3, 2026 executive order ties college athletics compliance, including NIL practices, to federal funding eligibility, which raises the stakes for Massachusetts schools operating without a state statute.
Go deeper
Compare Massachusetts with every other state in the NIL Rules by State tracker, estimate your take-home on NIL income with the free NIL Tax Calculator, and see what your name, image, and likeness is actually worth with HDBND's free athlete tools.