Ohio directors are abandoning agreements to support athletes

CLEVELAND – Ohio high school principals have flatly rejected a proposal to allow athletes who are training to sign deals, earning their name, image and likeness, the Ohio Sports Schools Association said Tuesday.

During a vote that began on May 1 and ended on Monday, principals of OHSAA member schools voted 538-254 in favor of not allowing marketing deals for high school athletes. Students would lose their athletic rights if they signed such a contract.

Later, executives can vote again on deals.

“If NIL is going to enter the Ohio interschool landscape, we want schools to make that decision,” OHSAA Executive Director Doug Utah said in a statement. “Whatever we do in the future will include discussing the issue with our school administrators, board of directors, staff and heads of other state high school sports associations.”

OHSAA spokesman Tim Stride previously said the organization opposes marketing deals for high school athletes.

Although there are exceptions, the amounts that college athletes earn from NIL deals are small. According to data collected by the Opendorse Deals, the average payout since July for athletes in Division I of major schools is $ 664. That’s just $ 59 for Division II athletes and $ 43 for Division III athletes.

Almost 70% of transactions are related to publications on social networks, according to Opendorse.

David Ridpat, an associate professor of sports business at Ohio University, sees the opportunity for student-athletes to reap financial benefits as a civil rights issue. Athletes are not employees of the schools they attend and should not be limited in earning money, he told the AP in April, adding that the amounts would not be large but could put “a few extra bucks in their pockets”.

“In my opinion, everything was positive,” Ridpat said. “Colleges and, accordingly, high school athletes are not employees and should not be restricted in any market where they have value.”