— NIL Rules · West
College and high-school name, image & likeness rules for Washington (WA) — at a glance, in plain English. Not legal advice; confirm with a compliance office before acting.
At a glance
College NIL: Legal (state law). High-school NIL: Allowed, per RCW 42.52 NIL-facilitation carve-out (SB 5913, 2024) + NCAA/House settlement · WIAA Bylaw 18.24 (HS). NIL collectives: operating. Deal-disclosure threshold: $600. Governing statute: Washington SB 5913 (2024) (RCW 42.52.807), active, effective June 2024. High-school governance: Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA). Last reviewed September 2026 — this is a plain-English overview pending verification, not legal advice.
What to know
Washington still has no comprehensive state NIL-rights statute — SB 5913 (2024), codified at RCW 42.52.807, only lets public-university staff use public resources to advise, facilitate, or educate athletes on NIL matters, and a broader 2021-22 bill (SB 5942) that would have created real NIL rights under state law died in committee with nothing replacing it through the 2025-26 sessions. High-school NIL is allowed under the WIAA's Amateur Standing Rule (Bylaw 18.24), which bars using a school's name, uniform, logo, or mascot and bars endorsements for gambling, alcohol/cannabis, banned substances, adult content, or firearms; WIAA's own guidance says even naming the school or team in NIL content can void the protection. Collectives are legally permitted and active (e.g., Washington State University's 'Cougar Collective'); a federal bill, the Protect College Sports Act of 2026, is advancing in Congress and could eventually preempt this whole state-by-state picture, but it had not passed as of September 2026 — treat Washington's classification as a close call worth a compliance/legal review rather than a settled one.
Washington never enacted a comprehensive athlete-NIL rights statute; college NIL there has been governed primarily by NCAA policy and, since June 2025, the House v. NCAA settlement framework. What Washington did pass is narrower: SB 5913 (2024), codified at RCW 42.52.807, an exemption in the state Ethics Act that lets public-university employees use public resources to help student athletes with NIL matters. High school NIL is governed by the WIAA handbook's amateur-standing rules (rule 18.24), which permit NIL activity that has no school connection.
The 2024 law solves an ethics-law problem, not an athlete-rights one: without it, state employees advising athletes on NIL risked misusing public resources.
WIAA rule 18.24, as summarized in district guidance for families, allows students to be paid for their name, image or likeness with a strict school-separation test:
As of August 2026, a college athlete in Washington operates mostly under national rules: House-settlement revenue sharing and NCAA policy set the ceiling, while state law's contribution is that school staff can lawfully spend public resources helping athletes navigate NIL. A Washington high schooler can do brand deals as a private person, but any link to their school - marks, uniform, facilities, or even naming the team - risks immediate ineligibility under rule 18.24.
Because Washington's statute is a facilitation carve-out rather than a rights charter, most post-House change lands via NCAA and settlement rules rather than Olympia; the RCW text itself has been stable since June 2024. The WIAA handbook is amended annually through its representative assembly, so the 18.24 language should be re-checked against the current handbook edition each school year.
Go deeper
Compare Washington 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.