The Indiana High School Athletic Association voted earlier this year 13-5 to allow student-athletes of member schools to profit off of their name, image and likeness (NIL) as part of personal branding activities, as long as they do not use their school affiliation or appear in any school-related uniform.  

It’s unclear how giving Indiana high school athletes the choice to make money off of their name, image and likeness will impact the playing field. Over 40 states already allow high school student-athletes to get NIL money as long as they don’t mention their school’s name or team. 

“Unlike the current college system, where schools often play a direct role in NIL compensation, the new rule keeps high schools out of arranging or funding deals for student-athletes,” IHSAA Commissioner Paul Neidig said in a news release. “Instead, it allows students to benefit independently from their school, without using school branding or representing school-sponsored endorsements. It creates a clear distinction between the college model and the educational mission of high school athletics.” 

Andy Hodson, athletic director at Bloomington High School North, said that means a high school athlete from North could host their own sports camp, for example, but they could not advertise the fact that they’re a North athlete or part of the IHSAA. They could only promote their name and image on their own. The same applies if an athlete were to appear on a billboard. 

“If they're going to be on a billboard and it says, IHSAA state champion so-and-so, they won't be able to do that. That would be a violation because they can say state champion, but not IHSAA state champion,” he said. “You wouldn't be able to have a Bloomington North logo on it. Wouldn't be able to say that they're an athlete at Bloomington North. It would be all purely their name, their image, which they own that.” 

Hodson said while he’s not sure many athletes will take advantage of this opportunity – he's not yet heard from any athletes who are interested – it naturally may favor the more talented ones. He thinks the scope of NIL deals will remain on the local level.  

The hard part will be enforcing the rules, he said. Families must inform the school within 48 hours of entering any personal branding agreement. Athletes who include their school affiliation in personal branding activities will become ineligible.  

“Making sure it's not used the wrong way to try to entice kids to go certain places, certain schools,” Hodson said. “…We want to make sure it's in the best interest of that kid, but not used for trying to recruit them to a school or booster clubs of other schools, trying to lure students from other schools to their place to partake in NIL stuff or PBA stuff that they have.” 

Now that NCAA schools are using a pay-to-play model, Hodson thinks the new IHSAA ruling will help separate amateur-level athletics from professionals at the college level and prevent things from getting out of hand. He wants the focus to remain on education-based athletics rather than athletics coming first. 

“It turned into pay-to-play, and now they're trying to figure out how to put that in the box so all the athletic departments can survive and the kids can still get paid like they should, but you know, do they need millions and millions for just showing up to play their sport,” he said. “That’s what we can't have in education-based athletics for amateurs.”