HS NIL in WI? Not yet, but soon

We have seen what has happened in major college sports. It has become the Wild West. A bidding war. Top college athletes are making millions of dollars benefiting from their name, image and likeness. They name their price, the coaching staff hooks the players up with boosters, they do some photo shoots and get shoe deals and make millions of dollars. It has led the most sought-after players to hop from school to school in search of a better deal. The rosters seem to change week to week. That is what is coming to high school sports in Wisconsin. To be clear, the WIAA, the governing body of high school athletics in Wisconsin, voted last week not to adopt an NIL deal. If approved, it would have allowed high school athletes, currently forbidden from accepting any outside money, to get rich too. Do we really want to see what’s happened in college sports happen at Central, Logan or Aquinas? Wisely, the member schools voted to defeat the NIL proposal. But it was close. 219 member schools voted to reject the idea, with a whopping 170 voting in favor of allowing high school athletes to get paid. The director of the WIAA admits the conversation about NIL in high school is not over. They will likely vote again next year. Amazingly, 31 states already have adopted NIL deals for high school athletes. It is no doubt coming to Wisconsin, likely sooner rather than later, for better or for worse.