COLUMBUS – High school athletes in Ohio will be not allowed to profit from their names, images and likenesses like their professional and collegiate counterparts
School principals across the state have rejected an Ohio High School Athletic Association referendum that would have changed the organization’s bylaws and made Ohio the 10th state where NIL benefits would be allowed for high school student-athletes.
The rejection means high school athletes in Ohio who sign endorsement deals would forfeit their amateur status, OHSAA executive director Doug Ute said.
The new rule would have allowed athletes to sign endorsement agreements so long as their teams, schools or the OHSAA are not represented in the endorsements and “provided there with companies that do not support the mission of education-based athletics,” including things like casinos, gambling, alcohol, drugs or tobacco.
The referendum was rejected by a margin of 538-254 in balloting by 813 of the OHSAA’s 817 member schools, Ute said.