Name, image and likeness proposal set for vote by OHSAA schools
There’s always going to be opinions when radical changes are proposed for high school athletics in our sports-crazed state. Propose something such as the Ohio High School Athletic Association has with its name, image and likeness (NIL) referendum item, and those opinions are truly going to be all over the place.
In May, member schools are going to vote to determine whether the OHSAA will adopt a bylaw allowing athletes in high school to make a little coin off themselves. It’s already arrived in colleges across the country due to state laws put in place last summer, including one by the Ohio General Assembly. The OHSAA’s NIL proposal mirrors those changes made at the collegiate level in the last year
Talking with administrators, coaches, parents and even athletes in the Greater Akron/Canton area, there were a lot of concerns, as well as some positives, with regard to the potential of NIL in high school. Their thoughts can be found by clicking here. Here’s some of the takeaways from those various conversations, as well as what the OHSAA NIL proposal would allow.
What is OHSAA’s NIL proposed regulation?
The proposed addition would allow athletes to sign endorsement agreements so long as their teams, schools and/or the OHSAA logo are not used, and provided there are no endorsements with companies that do not support the mission of education-based athletics (casinos, gambling, alcohol, drugs, tobacco).
Other conditions which must be met in the NIL:
- The athlete does not engage in any NIL marketing/endorsements during “official team activities;”
- The agreement/contract shall never require the athlete to display a sponsor’s product, or otherwise advertise for a sponsor, during “official team activities;”
- The agreement/contract shall only impact the individual athlete with whom the contract is entered and shall never provide any money, merchandise, services of value or any other benefits directly to the athlete’s school/team;
- The athlete who intends to enter a verbal or written contract providing compensation to them for their NIL shall disclose the proposed agreement/contract to the member school at which the student is enrolled and/or participating.
Each member school is encouraged to specify a specific school designee to whom such information should be reported. The extent of the disclosure shall be to the satisfaction of each member school but the school shall not advise the athlete against entering into the contract unless any of the stipulations appear to be violated.
If passed by a majority of member schools voting, the regulation would be effective May 16, 2022.
Would NIL force many to grow up fast
Maybe the biggest concern expressed by so many adults, whether it was school officials or parents, centered around the thought of kids having to make adult-like decisions way too early. In some form or another, the idea of “growing up too fast” was mentioned by many.
Where that was most directly pointed was in the idea of contracts, which would absolutely be involved in any NIL deals a high-school student-athlete would sign.
“I think the first thing I would do is really educate him on what a contract is, educate him on, you know, having some sort of legal representation whenever you do a contract,” McKinley athletics director/football coach Antonio Hall said when thinking of his own son. “There’s a lot of language in there that a 15- or 16-year-old kid doesn’t understand, let alone a 40-year-old coach. I make him aware about, you know, taxing, because everything that is going to be earned will be taxed. That way, he understands what he’s getting himself into.”
Which leads directly into the second big takeaway …
Who’s going to handle NIL compliance on the schools’ end?
Each high school will need to monitor its athletes’ NIL deals, creating a potential administrative headache for many schools.
“You’d have to hire a whole staff into your school,” Hoban athletics director/football coach Tim Tyrrell said. “No one has the budget for that, maybe other than a few schools in the state of Ohio. I know we don’t. I know a McKinley doesn’t and a Massillon doesn’t. You’d have to hire a full staff just on the educational side of things, just to make sure the kids aren’t signing bad contracts and getting locked into things that they don’t understand and the product they’re going to be working with.”
Laying out the positives of NIL
One doesn’t have strain to see the most obvious positive. An athlete’s ability to make a little money, or get pick up a little swag from a company, isn’t a bad thing. Isn’t this America, home of the free market, after all?
“At the end of the day, if it is done the right way I would be a supporter of it,” Walsh Jesuit baseball coach Chris Kaczmar told the Beacon Journal’s Michael Beaven”
The mind clearly jumps to the 1% who it would seem obvious that they would target the most. In that past, that’s been a LeBron James or, to go back to the early 1980s, a Chris Spielman.
However, if one broadens their mind a bit, you can even see an opening for a variety of individuals in the non-football/basketball world. A state-champion wrestler could promote an apparel brand on his social media, targeting a niche yet very loyal audience.
Same for that golfer or swimmer who may have already gained some exposure beyond their community. In fact, individual sports are where it could actually find some decent footing.
Are we talking big money? No. But a little extra walking-around money? Sure.
So, does it pass or doesn’t it?
When the two-week May voting period ends, and the ballots are tabulated, what’s the likelihood this becomes allowable by the OHSAA?
The guess here is it won’t. At least, not this time around.
Part of the issue is that is a trickle-down of the concerns which have been raised, rightly or wrongly, about the rollout of NIL at the collegiate level. That’s a different topic, however.
Even those who have spoken in favor of the college NIL, such as Tyrrell and Hall, have acknowledged a reticence regarding that coming into high schools. To many, it’s as simple as, the college “kids” are at least legally adults, while high school “kids” are just that, kids.
If it doesn’t pass, however, that doesn’t mean the subject is dead. It just becomes, like so many other proposed changes, something that is ever-present to arise again.
Reach Chris at [email protected].
On Twitter: @easterlingINDE
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