Is NIL working in other states? What Ohio can learn from high school athletes making money elsewhere

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio has officially entered the age of high school NIL.

After years of watching states across the country pass their own name, image and likeness (NIL) rules, the Ohio High School Athletic Association has now opened the door for teenagers to earn money from endorsements, social-media posts, personal merchandise, camps and other commercial activities.

The move follows a lawsuit from a top Ohio football prospect who said he lost out on more than $100,000 in potential deals. OHSAA member schools voted last week to approve an emergency referendum that opens the door for Ohio high school athletes to profit from NIL deals.

More than 40 states already allow some version of NIL for high school athletes. Their experiences offer a preview of what awaits Ohio: opportunities for some as well as headaches and adjustments that are still to come.

The states that went first have, for the most part, encountered very little drama while reporting that the experience requires a big learning curve.

When New Jersey, Georgia and a handful of early adopters approved high school NIL, critics predicted chaos. They said schools would stage recruiting wars, that boosters would pool their money to attract top talent, and teenagers would be swept up in dangerous life-altering circumstances while surrounded by millions of shoe company dollars.

But that has not happened.

Most NIL activity at the high school level is modest and localized. In states like Florida, administrators predicted the impact of NIL would be noticeable, but far from disruptive.

“We don’t foresee kids making hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars off it,” FSHAA executive Director Craig Damon told the state’s board of education in June of 2024. “However, there will be those, that 1% of elite athletes that possibly may have that opportunity, but the majority of our student athletes it will be something local, with a local business.”

For every headline-making national recruit signing with a major brand, there are hundreds of athletes whose NIL experience amounts to a paid Instagram shoutout for a local pizza shop or a weekend camp they host for younger kids.

The bottom line is that NIL is not a harbinger of the demise of high school sports in other states. But it has reshaped the roles of coaches, athletic directors, parents and the athletes themselves.

What kinds of NIL deals are high school athletes actually getting in states outside Ohio?

Across the country, high school NIL deals tend to fall into five categories:

1. Local endorsements: Athletes earn small payments (or free products) to promote businesses such as restaurants, car dealerships, barbershops or gyms and training centers. The deals often pay anywhere from a free meal to a few hundred dollars.
2. Social media influencer partnerships: Athletes with strong TikTok or Instagram followings — especially in girls’ basketball, volleyball, cheer and lifestyle content — land paid posts, affiliate deals or small product partnerships.
3. Camps and clinics: Several states explicitly allow athletes to run their own youth camps, get paid to work at camps or offer private training sessions. This has become one of the most practical ways for teens to monetize their skills.
4. Personal merchandise: Some athletes sell T-shirts, hoodies or logos featuring their name or brand. This type of marketing is permissible as long as they do not use school logos, uniforms or team trademarks.
5. National brands: A small number of blue-chip prospects earn serious money. Top basketball recruits have signed with Nike or Adidas, some elite football recruits secure major brand deals early, and highly-followed women’s basketball players have signed with national companies. But this represents a fraction of high school athletes nationwide who sign NIL deals.

How much money are high school athletes making under NIL?

The distribution is stark:

• Tier 1: National stars — $1 million to 10 million. These deals are rare, and hard to come by unless you are considered a generational talent by scouts or evaluators. Think of social media phenoms who have a LeBron James-level upside.
• Tier 2: High-profile social athletes — $500,000 and up. Many women’s basketball and volleyball athletes who cultivate huge online followings have found success at this level with national brands.
• Tier 3: Strong Division I college prospects — $1,000 to $40,000. Deals at this level might include a few thousand dollars for local endorsements, plus some free gear or products.
• Tier 4: Majority of high school deals — Could range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. Most high school athletes land in this range. They can be expected to be compensated for a few social media posts, or working at a youth camp or selling some merchandise. This amounts to side-hustle money, not life changing income.

Which sports produce the most NIL money?

The high school NIL ecosystem mirrors the college landscape. The sports and programs that bring in the most money at the collegiate level are also the ones most sought after by companies and sponsors at the high school level:

1. Football: Quarterbacks and skill position players are the most recognizable names at the top of the list. Think Arch Manning and Medina’s Drew Allar, who’s now at Penn State.
2. Men’s basketball: Elite prospects with national rankings and strong social media reach tend to do well at this level.
3. Women’s basketball and volleyball: Caitlin Clark has had a profound influence on the recent surge in popularity of college and professional leagues. That success has begun to trickle down to the high school ranks, where girls are being scouted earlier and pursued more often. Female athletes also tend to have strong online followings.
4. Gymnastics, baseball, softball and track: These sports see occasional NIL success depending on the individual athletes and the stories they have to share. Savvy content creators can also find success here.

The idea that an athlete’s platform can be more important than the particular sport he or she plays is a big driver financially. A volleyball player with 300,000 TikTok followers can out-earn a football player with no social presence.

What have other states learned — and what should Ohio watch for?

States that adopted NIL early have offered a roadmap of what works and what doesn’t. Clear and simple rules can help to avoid ambiguity that leads to lengthy and sometimes messy court cases.

Wisconsin and Georgia use “YES/NO” charts that make it easy for families to know what is permitted by their state associations.

• YES — social posts, camps, personal merchandising.
• NO — school logos, pay-for-play, coach-arranged deals.

Ohio’s administrators have already produced educational materials to accompany today’s announcement, making their charts available online for anybody considering entering into an NIL agreement.

States such as Georgia have also banned collectives or “NIL clubs” that pool money for high school athletes, as a preemptive strike against booster groups. Those kinds of groups tend to get dragged into bidding wars over players, and it’s the students who ultimately pay the price.

Enforcement will be a big key for Ohio schools and athletes. Many states require student-athletes to notify their school within a week of signing any NIL deal. Keeping administrators in the loop helps ensure eligibility requirements remain satisfied.

California Interscholastic Federation spokesperson Rebecca Brutlag said the state’s amateur status bylaw has been in place since 2007 and has been adjusted with some clarifying language through the years, but for the most part has remained unchanged since the advent of NIL at the high school level. Schools and individuals are required to self-report any NIL deals, and are responsible for remaining in compliance.

“We are a self-policing federation, so if we were to hear about something then yes, we would move forward with (an investigation). But otherwise, everyone is on their own onus to follow the rules.”

Often, parents and guardians of athletes can feel like they are blindly trying to navigate the NIL landscape. That’s why states such as Florida have launched NIL education programs covering taxes, contracts, and scam prevention.

Challenges facing Ohio with the adoption of NIL

Nearly every state that allows NIL has had to subsequently clarify rules prohibiting NIL from being used for the recruiting of athletes. The loopholes are constantly revealing themselves, and there are many tricky areas. Enforcement is even harder.

Part of the reason enforcement is so hard to navigate is the surge of paperwork and administrative oversight required to remain above board. Athletic directors suddenly must review contracts, monitor disclosures and answer parent questions about taxes or trademarks, all while running the day-to-day duties of athletic administration.

Smaller schools could suffer the most in this regard, with a lack of adequate resources to manage multiple NIL disclosures.

That brings up the question of equity between big schools and smaller, rural teams that tend to left out of the spotlight. NIL dollars follow the headline programs and influencers, with small schools often going overlooked.

At the same time, trying to regulate a vast landscape of NIL opportunities can often lead to lawsuits regarding overly-restrictive rules. States that tried to dictate aspects such as agent involvement or athlete autonomy have faced legal threats. Ohio will need to avoid painting itself into a corner.

What does the arrival of NIL mean for Ohio?

Joining the NIL bandwagon this late in the game could actually give Ohio a bit of an advantage.

Other states have already absorbed much of the chaos that the Ohio High School Athletic Association was able to observe from the sidelines for the last several years. All the while, OHSAA administrators were re-writing and refining their rules with the knowledge that NIL would eventually arrive.

Now that the day has come, the OHSAA has a leg up on discovering what works here, and Ohio can start on third base with cleaner guidelines and a clearer understanding of pitfalls.

Most importantly, NIL will not define Ohio high school sports — but it will shape them.

The new rules will create opportunities for teens, set new responsibilities for families and schools and demand new oversight from administrators.

Ohio’s NIL era will not look like Hollywood deals and national shoe company contracts. But it will make Ohio’s high school athletes look a lot more like those in most other states, with a mix of local endorsements, social content, youth camps, and a few rare star-powered outliers.

The line between high school athletics and real business continues to blur — and now, Ohio’s athletes are officially part of that new world.