Last October, Wayne High School WR Jamier Brown, who pledged to Ryan Day and Ohio State, sued the Ohio High School Athletic Association in October to challenge its NIL ban. The suit was filed by his mother, Jasmine Brown, acting as his guardian. According to the complaint, he had NIL earning potential north of $100,000 per year. A judge granted him a temporary restraining order, letting him profit while the case played out. But Ohio lawmakers didn’t wait long to respond to the ripple effects of high school NIL.
On February 3, state representatives Adam Bird and Mike Odioso introducedHouse Bill 661, a proposal that would ban middle and high school athletes in Ohio from earning money off their NIL. It directly targets the change the OHSAA made in November, when it voted to allow NIL for all secondary school athletes after months of pressure and Jamier Brown’s very public lawsuit.
Bird was blunt about the intent. At a press conference, he framed school sports as something closer to an educational supplement than a marketplace…