A state known for churning out top recruits has legalized high school NIL — for now, at least

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In today’s newsletter, we’ve got a breakdown of the Ohio high school NIL saga and a brief outline of Wisconsin’s football spending issues. Read up on the latest news from around the NIL world.

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— Kyle

KICKOFF

Wisconsin says it will invest more. But will it go all in?

Living in a world where Indiana and Vanderbilt football are ranked in the top 10 seemed as likely as a global pandemic. 

But here we are! Georgia Tech is also in there, and Texas Tech, Virginia and South Florida aren’t far behind. 

In 2025, every job can be a good job, which takes us to Wisconsin, a program that’s won six Big Ten championships and five division titles since 1993. Currently, the Badgers are more equipped to finish last than first in the conference, a stunning turnabout after the lauded hiring of Luke Fickell. 

Fickell didn’t forget how to coach, though he definitely deserves his share of blame. One of Wisconsin’s biggest problems is that in an era when adapting quickly and spending aggressively are required, its athletic department is financially risk averse. That doesn’t excuse Fickell’s mess, but it helped create the dynamic that’s unfolded. 

Now in his third season, Fickell is 15-18 overall, 2-5 this year and coming off back-to-back shutout losses. On Monday, Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh gave Fickell the dreaded vote of confidence. However, in doing so, McIntosh made it clear that investing in the players is vital. 

“In this new era of collegiate athletics, the clear reality is that high expectations must be matched with an equal level of support,” McIntosh wrote in a message to fans. 

“As a department,” he continued, “we must provide our coaches the tools necessary to succeed. That means more Athletics-funded investments into infrastructure, staffing and, most importantly, student-athlete recruiting and retention … You have my unrelenting commitment to do what is necessary to make that happen.”

Football success isn’t as easy as becoming a big spender, but Indiana, Vandy, Texas Tech and others have shown that spending is part of the equation. It still takes good coaches, elite talent evaluation, development and luck. But an administration that’s willing to think big and spend even bigger can be rewarded with football success, the crème de la crème for an athletic department.

More news and links:

• The SEC is first and foremost a football conference. But John Adams of the Knoxville News Sentinel says the league will continue to thrive on the basketball court because of the commitment to NIL. 

• The Athletic details how NIL is changing the recruiting dynamic in college

  hockey.

• Here’s how NIL is hurting mid-major basketball programs and why tournament expansion won’t help.

• Syracuse’s collective is only supporting the football program. Experts say it’s concerning. 

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

YOU GET A YETI COOLER! YOU GET A YETI COOLER! YOU GET A YETI COOLER! YOU GET A YETI COOLER!

Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson is busy putting together a Heisman Trophy-worthy resume and keeping the Crimson Tide in the College Football Playoff discussion. His status as Alabama’s starting quarterback affords him luxuries other college players don’t have, so he decided to pay it forward to his teammates, gifting the entire Alabama football team Yeti coolers.

DOWN TO BUSINESS

NIL is legal for Ohio high school athletes — for now

Name, image and likeness could be coming to high schools in one of the country’s most populous and fertile recruiting states. 

The mother of a five-star recruit filed a lawsuit in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas last week against the Ohio High School Athletic Association over its ban on high school athletes signing NIL deals.

Jasmine Brown, the mother of Ohio State wide receiver commit Jamier Brown, a junior at Wayne High School near Dayton, claims that her son has been forced to turn down more than $100,000 in NIL deals, specifically mentioning trading cards, which have become a lucrative NIL marketplace. 

On Monday, a Franklin County judge ruled in favor of Brown, granting a temporary restraining order and halting the state of Ohio’s prohibition on high school athletes agreeing to NIL deals. 

A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for Dec. 15. OHSAA said it will notify member schools on Tuesday about its next step. 

Ohio, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi and Wyoming are the only states that don’t allow high school athletes to partake in NIL. And Ohio’s inclusion on that list looms large; only Texas and California have a larger high school sports participation rate, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations.

“These opportunities represent not only over $100,000 in potential revenue but also significant non-monetary benefits, including enhanced personal and professional reputation, expanded brand recognition, valuable networking connections, and long-term career development within the sports and collectibles industry,” the original lawsuit states. 

In response, OHSAA said it could hold an emergency referendum vote of member schools on a bylaw that would allow compensation for NIL. If the membership votes in favor of a proposal, it would allow OHSAA member schools to shape the bylaw. Voting no risks a set of rules forced upon OHSAA by a judge or the Ohio legislature. 

Ohio high school athletic directors want to ensure legal NIL won’t stretch schools’ resources thin at a time when public school funding in the state is being threatened. 

An emergency referendum vote typically happens within 10 days.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been so conflicted on something,” said Chuck Jaco, the Perrysburg High School athletic director and incoming president of the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. “My brain and heart are arguing back and forth, and I can argue either way. But [NIL in Ohio] is inevitable. That’s the bottom line. We knew this was coming.”

In September, the OHSAA board of directors approved a plan for language on NIL to go to member schools in May as part of the annual referendum voting process. If no emergency vote is taken, or if one fails, OHSAA will ask for the lawsuit to be dismissed. 

“We have been following this situation closely and have been preparing for this situation,” OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said. “We were hoping this would wait for the referendum voting period in May, but as we told our schools this fall, the vote may have to come sooner than that due to a lawsuit, which would trigger the emergency vote. We are prepared to move forward with our member schools on this issue.”

If passed, the proposed bylaw would allow athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness through appearances, licensing, social media, endorsements and the use of branding based on their public recognition or notoriety. The proposal would establish parameters so athletes wouldn’t jeopardize their eligibility. 

In May 2022, OHSAA member schools overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would have allowed athletes to profit from NIL. The proposal failed by a vote of 538 to 254, though even at the time, the prevailing thought was that high school NIL would become legal in the near future. The lopsided vote was partly because of the rural-urban divide in the state. 

Flash forward three years, and the moment may have arrived, with a nudge from Brown, whose suit is critical of OHSAA for depriving athletes of making money during a time when some are at their peak earning potential. Brown argues that her son “is forced to forfeit unique opportunities that may never return.”

“When there are athletes that have opportunities to leverage their name, image and likeness for their own growth, development and opportunity, and when there are 44 other states and the District of Columbia that allow for it, but Ohio doesn’t, that puts high school athletes in the state of Ohio at a significant disadvantage,” Brown’s attorney, Luke Fedlam, told NIL Wire. 

Fedlam and Marissa Borschke of Amundsen Davis use the Ohio Constitution to make their case, which includes an antitrust claim. On Monday, Fedlam argued that the lawsuit met the four factors to issue a TRO: that the case would succeed and that if the TRO were not granted, it would cause irreparable harm to Brown, harm to others and harm to the public interest. 

“The court does find that granting this will allow for expanded opportunities for high school students and youth across the state of Ohio, and there are benefits in that,” Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page said. “Additionally, allowing this temporary restraining order will align this state’s policies with a majority of the other states across the country.”

The lawsuit claims that Ohio athletes are incentivized to leave for neighboring states that allow NIL (Kentucky, Pennsylvania and West Virginia). This concern is especially prevalent in Cincinnati, where high-level players could be tempted to transfer across the Ohio River to Kentucky. 

“OHSAA’s blanket ban not only singles out Ohio’s high school student athletes for unequal treatment, but it also unlawfully suppresses their economic liberties, freedom of expression, and restrains competition in the NIL marketplace,” the complaint states, arguing that Brown and other athletes play by a different set of rules from non-athletes. 

Opponents of NIL for Ohio high school athletes argue that it’s unsavory and foolish to hand large sums of money to teenagers, who, in some cases, can’t even drive. The reality is that only a handful of Ohio athletes each year would command sizable deals. The rest would be akin to the local diner offering free food to the starting quarterback.

Another objection is that it’ll mimic college football’s pay-for-play recruiting. But recruiting is already part of the underbelly of high school sports, and there are not widespread horror stories in the 44 states (plus D.C.) that already have high school NIL. 

Ohio State Rep. Tex Fischer, a Republican from the Mahoning Valley near Youngstown, made headlines earlier this year when he introduced legislation that would require Ohio State games to begin at 3:30 p.m. or later when the Buckeyes face a top 10 opponent. But he’s also been a leading voice on a serious topic: NIL in high school sports. 

“I think we’re a little bit behind the times,” said Fischer, who’s been planning an NIL bill. “Whether it’s going to be a lawsuit or whether it takes legislation, I think we’ve got to allow this sort of thing to happen in Ohio.”

Multiple attorneys who spoke to NIL Wire said OHSAA can build a strong case. Brown’s claim that an NIL ban violates his freedom of speech can be countered with supporting arguments from OHSAA’s amateurism and education guidelines. The complaint makes numerous references to how other states handle high school NIL. According to attorneys not involved in the case, what other states allow is immaterial to OHSAA’s rules. 

Establishing its own rules and regulations related to NIL is in OHSAA’s best interest, rather than fighting an unwinnable battle. The organization is devoid of goodwill after several years of shortsighted monetary decisions that enriched the 501(c)(3), often at the expense of schools. 

The most logical path forward is for a majority of schools to vote yes on an emergency referendum, allowing OHSAA to create the NIL rules and the focus to shift back to the field. 

“There are companies and brands that recognize the talent of high school athletes in Ohio,” Fedlam said. “And that’s important to understand.”

ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT

New Balance bets on Betts

There’s never been a better time to be a star in women’s basketball, and the sport has never been better at crowning queens. UCLA freshman Sienna Betts could soon enter the superstar realm. She was one of the nation’s top-ranked recruits last year, landed at an “it” program that happens to play in Los Angeles and now has secured a high-visibility shoe deal. This is a name you’ll hear all season.

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