Nick Stevens of HSOT provides insight on NC high school athletes profiting off NIL

Good afternoon to you. I am Adam Gold and welcome inside PNC Arena where tonight the hurricanes take on the New Jersey Devils and it is game one Eastern Conference semi-final series. We already had the other Eastern Conference semi-final begin in Toronto where the Florida Panthers continue doing what the Florida Panthers have been doing of late which was, well, whatever.

I don't care what you say. We're going to figure out a way to win a game. Panthers have now won four in a row. They won three straight to eliminate the Bruins. They took game one in Toronto last night. Better team pretty much start to finish and by the way Seattle did the same thing in Dallas as they continue their winning ways. What does home ice advantage mean in the NHL playoffs?

Absolutely nothing. Hopefully it will mean something tonight to Carolina. It's really the one of the places where the home ice advantage has mattered in the playoffs albeit very short sample size. The hurricanes have only played three playoff games so far here at PNC Arena.

They won two, lost the last one so we'll see how it goes but this and we talked about this yesterday. This is the playoff rivalry. I know Boston has been the nouveau riche rivalry because it has been so recent but the truth is is that I realized last year's series went seven games but I mean Carolina was the better team than Boston. The only real contested series was all the way back in 2009. The Canes and the Devils, man. These two teams have playoff history.

2001, Scott Stevens knocking out Ron France. 2002, the Kevin Week save as the Hurricanes surprised the New Jersey Devils even though Carolina had home ice advantage. I believe they qualified either with the seventh or eighth best record in the conference. It just happened to win the southeast division so they ended up with home ice throughout the playoffs on the eastern side until they got to the Stanley Cup finals which they did against the Detroit Red Wings but they were a decided underdog against New Jersey and upset them and then the 2006 you know Carolina was I mean they actually were not the best team in the east. I don't know how people know that they believe they were the two seed to Ottawa but obviously Carolina was great and the Devils weren't as good but there was still some interesting moments in that series and then 2009 gives us the shock at the rock. So this is the playoff rivalry that the Carolina Hurricanes really cultivated with the Devils and it has not been anywhere for the last 13 years because the Devils haven't really done much of late. Since 2012 the Devils have only made the playoffs once and that was in 2018 they were a one and done in the playoffs but this Devils team is absolutely for real. We've used this phrase before sometimes you don't know when it's your time. I think the Devils understand that it could be their time and maybe that's why they went out and got Timo Meyer at the deadline.

No idea. Remember Carolina was heavily in the mix for Timo Meyer as well but this should be an absolute fun series. The Devils are an exciting team to watch and it's going to take everything Carolina has to kind of slow them down just a little bit. So we got a lot of things to do today. We're going to talk NBA basketball because the two playoff games last night were great. Also there's a ton of NFL news to get to but before we start any of that Nick Stevens, our guy, managing editor, highschoolot.com. He joined us yesterday because the High School Athletic Association was discussing recommending NIL being okay for high school athletes and I know they recommended it yesterday. So Nick where do we stand today? When is the vote? Will it be a unanimous passing of that vote?

By a 15-3 vote NIL for high school athletes will be legal in North Carolina starting on July 1 of this year. 15-3 who dissented? Well that's a good question that we don't have any answer to yet because the meeting that we're able to view is audio only and they don't vote by voice so we won't actually know that unless they share it with us in the press conference in a few minutes or until the minutes are released publicly from the meeting. So there were a few people who were raising some concerns about whether or not there was enough educational material available about this and those types of things but it was pretty clear I thought yesterday just from the wording of how things were being put together that this was likely to pass and it has. All right you and I talked yesterday Nick Stevens from highschoolot.com managing editor is joining us here on the Adam Gold show we talked about what parameters there might be we use the term guardrails and they want to protect no alcohol no tobacco no adult entertainment issues I'm assuming that all of that is also is still in the in the bill but were there any changes made any alterations? They have not shared any major changes my understanding is that there were a few tweaks to like like editorial tweaks of how things might have been worded but nothing that was real material has changed in any of that and those types of things that you just mentioned are still not going to be allowed and and the process itself is is pretty much the same. Pretty much the same yeah no I think no no guns or ammunition as well no vaping products or anything no no cannabis did they draw the line on like hemp products? That's a good question I don't know the answer to that either maybe maybe I should ask that in the press conference uh they that one wasn't specifically listed um I honestly think and you may share this opinion I'll let you express that but most of those things those types of companies and whatnot are not going to be reaching out to high school kids for NIL deals anyway so I said the same thing I said the same thing back in the college NIL debate like no who's doing that nobody's doing that yeah yeah I just don't foresee that being a huge problem yeah all right next thing a couple of other things because I know there's more on the agenda not just this today and I wanted to get your uh your thoughts on this before I let you run to uh to monitor the meeting um so the bill goes into effect on July 1 for people uh and these kids can appear at camps and do all that stuff as of uh as of July 1 with other than those companies those industries no restrictions correct correct all right um final four of basketball did they agree on that did I see that correctly that did that passed unanimously so starting next year we will change the basketball playoff format and we will have a final four format for the semifinals and the finals uh all of those games will take place at one location uh that location is not set yet but you'll have the semifinals played uh Monday through Thursday so you you may have like they haven't set the schedule but just for uh an example you may have 1a on Monday and 3a on Tuesday and 2a on Wednesday and 4a on Thursday games would be all throughout the day and then you would have the state championships on Friday and Saturday um and so uh this is how a lot of states do it uh in our region here in the southeast and really across the country um and this is something that a lot of basketball coaches have really wanted for a long time so uh they are moving to that model and I think that's going to be good for high school basketball in North Carolina sounds like fun to me uh also I wonder is there a is there a money-making opportunity here for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association to like uh say Charlotte and Raleigh want to bid on uh on the final four or do you just rotate it I know they use the the local you know up here the triangle venues as much as possible but uh do we see it like that well I mean they have to go to a place where they're wanted um and where there's infrastructure in place so you know that's why like uh the the great Raleigh Sports Alliance you know they they are really involved in that um and uh any time that there's a there's an NCHSA event here um so you have to have organizations like that that that are willing to be part of um bringing events here um Raleigh is one that that is very active in that so you know I don't know uh I don't know if PNC Arena would be an option given the the timing of the year there uh with with the hurricanes and right college basketball but um you know I think the dean dome is an obvious thing to look at because uh that's where they host state championships now um at least some of them uh I don't think Reynolds is quite big enough um but uh you know they I think they've got options I think they'll probably look at the Greensboro Coliseum um I would say ACC tournament's not there next year um wouldn't surprise me if they look at some locations in Charlotte um but uh I think it's safe to say it's going to be at one of those big arenas uh that because that's kind of the whole purpose in in moving this direction is Cameron also not big enough with 9 300 seats um I don't think they would uh I I think they would have sold that out in a few games this year okay but they're good I'm I'm glad there's uh that kind of interest very quickly uh shot clock 35 seconds are we going to that in high school basketball we are not going to that right now they're going to create a committee to study you know the impact financially on the schools how it might impact layoffs that kind of stuff um they I suspect we will revisit this in the winter board meeting in December uh and it wouldn't surprise me if it gets passed uh at that meeting for 2024 2025. All right final thing for Nick Stevens and how long you go on this is entirely up to you uh because I know you have to you have to go uh but the charters and there's a lot of charters my son goes to he'll be going to a charter uh high school more than likely next year uh and some privates uh did I see that they're going to take the almost regardless of size that they're going to push them into the higher classifications among the high school athletic association you did see that um well at least that's the the uh proposal in the charter omnibus bill in the house uh right now an amendment was made yesterday that would say uh charter schools have to end the private schools like cardinal gibbons and and there's four of them in the state association uh but they would have to identify where their students would go to school if they were in a traditional public school uh and wherever the majority of those students would have gone that is the classification that charter school will be in so uh we're actually running some models on what this would look like uh we're hoping to have that published later today or tomorrow in high school OT. J Mike Blake is doing a lot of work on that uh and it's pretty astonishing um J Mike sent me some stuff you know when we go to seven classifications um which is on the supposed to happen in two years uh green level high school in Cary would be 6a under this plan while uh south south wake uh academy would be 7a uh so you're gonna have this really small charter school in 7a against and green level will be 6a and wake prep uh just joined the nchsa or will join the nchsa this year uh they play football they pull from an area around wake forest so it's possible they could be playing high school football with a small charter school against teams like wake forest and heritage and rollsville who are large schools uh in north carolina who two of them have played for one of them has won multiple state championships uh you know you're talking about a potential health and safety issue there yes you are so i don't think this was well thought thought through um in some instances um you know and and you can go read this on high school t now but uh we we also went through some of what was said in that committee hearing yesterday um and they specifically pointed out christ the king which is a 1a high school a parochial school in in cabarrus county uh they beat rosewood high school a traditional 1a public school in the boys soccer state championship last fall um and they said that christ the king was a private boarding school bringing in players from across the world to play there and that's just patently false they are not a boarding school boarding schools are not allowed to be members of the nchsa um and uh we're working on confirming this but my understanding is that they don't have international students either so um you know and if they do they have to abide by the same eligibility rules that all nchsa international students would have to so you know i i think that there's more work that needs to be done on this um i think a lot of people agree charter schools included that this is an issue that does need to be tackled um in terms of leveling the playing field um but i don't think that this is the way that a lot of the schools would like to see that done nick stevens managing editor highschoolot.com thank you very much for your time my friend yes sir thank you yeah real quick before we hit uh hit out of the gate uh nick actually mentioned a school there that my son is right now scheduled to attend and uh it does seem incredibly like what are people scared of in high school athletics i guess they're scared of uh recruiting we already have rules against recruiting um but it does seem incredibly unfair just why can't you just do it by enrollment why does it have to be uh other i mean do we really think i i guess maybe maybe it's happened before in the past and we were terrified do we really think that we'll just use the wake prep uh instance do we really think that they're telling all the best players who would otherwise go to wake forest or rollsville uh that you know you come here really is that what we're because that's already against the rules never mind people are people are terrified about the wrong things um and people care too much about winning in high school sports for my taste all right we have uh we have time to get some stuff done let's get out of the gate by the way should i have not mentioned this yet we have uh graham graham's done the ones in two the ones and twos today right graham yes i am happy to be here adam a lot of moving parts back here at the ranch oh i know i know i know so uh yes there are moving parts out here as well all right the history was made in san francisco last night the lakers held off a very very late charge by the warriors but la claims game one of their western conference semi-final series warriors got off to a great start clay thompson was on fire and then it all just fizzled out from that point on the lakers were dominant actually i might have to amend that it could just be that anthony davis was that guy uh what 30 points 23 rebounds five assists four blocks or four four assists and five crazy he had a monster game and if he's gonna do that then i this could be a quick series with golden state here's darvin ham the head coach of the lakers on his big man's historic night you're talking about top 75 players some of the best players that our league or basketball in general has ever saw in its history and so uh again that's what we expect of him we know that's what he's capable of you know it's great we needed every bit of all those points and rebounds the block shots and uh assists as well so the biggest thing for us is again not to get happy stay humble respect our opponent but also know that there's a ton of work left to be done and um it's not the first to one it's not the first with the greatest performance individually we just got to keep stacking keep stacking days keep coming out putting our best foot forward though what the lakers have i think is the ability to not need great nights from everyone because they didn't get great nights from everyone including one mr lebron james who was good he just wasn't great he didn't have to be great he could rely on davis or other players to be great uh the warriors didn't play their best game either we'll get to them in a second but here's what darvin ham was was referencing talking about top 75 players of all time so it was only the fifth time in lakers history that a player went for at least 30 points and at least 20 rebounds in a playoff game and here are the other four names shakil o'neill wilt chamberlain kareem abdul jabbar elgin baylor lebron james said that's why uh davis's name and number is going to go into the rafters at some point maybe i'm not even having this discussion at this point but uh for the better part of really anthony davis's entire time with the lakers we've seen flashes of this guy but suddenly suddenly we know it's in there it's been in there for anthony davis for a while davis has seemed to become this guy so if he becomes the lakers best player and you've got lebron as the number two man that is a tough nut to crack i look i said before the series even though i picked the worries before the playoff started the way the lakers played against the memphis grizzlies yes grizzlies didn't have a fully operational john morant but the way the lakers played in that series was eye-opening to me the lakers didn't even get much at arui hachimora they didn't get great performances from uh i mean austin reeves only had 10 there's another gear there's another level for la to take it um as for the warriors wasn't uh wasn't their best here from kendrick perkins on what they need to do differently in game two i think he had no choice but to go small and try to push the pace right because if he stay with that too big lined up in draymond green and kavon looney that's better for the lakers that's going to give them opportunity to load up that's going to give them a better chance of getting back in transition and they are too long and athletic across their front line when you think about jerry vanderbilt anthony davis and lebron james to play two bigs so they're not going to stop them on the offensive end so what he's going to have to do is try to push the pace something like what the kings tried to do to golden state already making adjustments in the second game of a conference series so uh look i think and i said this before we even saw game one man the warriors are going to have to get really really good offensive performances out of clay steph has to be there and they need something out of andrew wiggins and jordan pool played a good game um but a very good game and an efficient game for him so they need all of that to have a chance in this series their their their margin for error is not as wide as the lakers as for the other series in the nba miami did not have jimmy butler but man they had the lead late into the third quarter but ultimately the nicks had too much jaylen brunson and too much josh hart i thought the nicks really gutted this one out here's their guard jaylen brunson i think we made it just a couple more plays at the end of the game um you gotta give them credit they kept fighting um what they were doing all game uh just it's hard to guard and um we just had to do a better job of it uh throughout the entire game but towards the end we made a couple more plays and they did and um came with the win yeah i think uh the nicks also off the bench got a great performance uh out of hartenstein and he didn't go for big numbers but mitchell robinson picked up two fouls early like in the first five minutes six minutes of the game and he had to go to the bench and art just gave him a chance he only had three points but he had nine boards robinson only played 21 minutes in the game julius randall had a big game uh but josh hart had so many big shots brunson had 30 but hart had so many big shots in the fourth quarter good game also for rj barrett who got off to a great start uh in the game and he had 24 points so the nicks even their series with the heat and that's going to be a long series still like miami in that series so the um just fun it was fun it's kind of old school basketball i think there is a uh not an animosity but nicks and heat man they go back they have beef they have beef with one another it's it's been a long time uh speaking of beef i don't frankly uh know if this really qualifies but the hurricanes are going to welcome back an old friend tonight but the third straight year in the playoffs eric holla is coming back to pnc arena to play a playoff game he was with nashville two years ago in the pandemic central he was with boston last year and he's with the new jersey devils jordan martinook hurricane's alternate captain on whether or not the fans should will boo eric holla he's had a good year for the should will boo eric holla he's had a good year for them he had a good first round and um obviously he's playing a big bigger big role in in jersey so we're gonna have to key in on them and um if our fans do do what they did last year then all the power to them will we're just trying to win i mean you should boo guys like that i'm not saying that eric holla is not a good player or if you think i'm as a villain he's the opposition that's fine i mean you're not don't don't throw anything at him but yeah it's cool boo boo eric holla that's that's what we're here for