Marketing deals trickle down from NCAA to high school sports

CLEVELAND — Ian Jackson and Johnuel “Boogie” Fland are among the brightest stars in the firmament of high school basketball and now have business deals to prove it. “All the hard work is finally paying off.” In Ohio, high school principals began voting May 1 on whether to change the state high school athletic association’s bylaws to allow athletes to sign deals. “A lot of us here at the OHSAA and school administrators don’t like NIL,” said Ohio High School Athletic Association spokesperson Tim Stried. We can have a hand in shaping it or do what the NCAA did and fight it until otherwise.” Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the National Federation of State High School Associations, said NIL rights for high school athletes could prove disruptive, but she tempered her criticism, saying, “I don’t think we’re going to see a lot of this.” High school, Niehoff said, “is not intended to be an opportunity to earn a living, and we hope it will stay that way.” The issue of NIL deals for high school athletes follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision last June that said the NCAA cannot restrict education-related compensation benefits for the country’s nearly 500,000 college student-athletes. Matthew Mitten, a sports law professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, said there are potential pitfalls in NIL deals at both the high school and college levels, which he called the “last bastion of amateurism.” Mitten noted that University of Texas alumni and supporters in December announced that up to 16 football offensive lineman on scholarship would each receive $50,000 starting in August to support charitable causes.