Let’s say there’s a kid at a local high school who is just a stellar drummer, somewhere between Buddy Rich and Travis Barker. At the same school, there’s a 16-year-old who could be an NFL-bound football player.
Right now, the drummer can appear in an ad for the local music store in exchange for free equipment, or start gigging in a band, making an income and learning firsthand how the business works.
The football player, like any other student-athlete playing a WIAA-sanctioned sport, cannot.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
In Wisconsin, high school student athletes are prohibited from making money off their name, image and likeness (NIL).
This was verboten for collegiate athletes across the country until about five years ago, too. But then the California legislature in 2019 and a subsequent 2021 Supreme Court civil rights ruling found the NCAA’s effective ban on pay for athletes to be a violation of antitrust law. Most states have fully legalized NIL for high schoolers since; only 10 states have a full prohibition like Wisconsin’s, and some of those are also under review.
The plight of that high school athlete is why NIL needs to come to high schools, says Stephanie Grady, a former competitive skater herself. Grady, who you might recognize as a former FOX6 anchor, is now the CEO of Influential Athlete, a private coaching firm specializing in helping female student-athletes capitalize on NIL.
Not so fast, says Tim Gotzler, the head baseball coach at Menomonee Falls High School. “High school athletics is the last, most pure form of athletics,” he says, adding that every other level of sport has been “compromised” by big money. He supports NIL rights for collegiate athletes, citing the disconnect between “schools being built on the backs of athletics” while the athletes themselves had remained financially uncompensated. But that isn’t the case at the high school level.
Despite their disagreement, Grady and Gotzler both foresee the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association voting in favor of allowing NIL when it considers the matter again at its annual meeting next month. Schools voted 219-170 to reject NIL last year.
Regardless if NIL is a “good thing,” civil rights lawsuits challenging the legality of prohibiting athletes under 18 from financially benefiting from NIL are pretty consistently being found in favor of the kids. The courts, or Congress or the state Legislature, could force NIL on the WIAA at any time.
The WIAA wants to get out ahead of this.
Grady, who is consulting for the WIAA on NIL, says that the proposed amendment up for vote on April 25 would establish “guardrails” to address one of Gotzler’s concerns: that school staffs don’t become over-encumbered with more work, like acting as something like agents for their players.
School administrators and coaches would be effectively banned from taking part in any step of the NIL process under the proposed rules. The students would be free to benefit, but the schools could neither try to squeeze in on the action, nor could athletic directors or coaches end up in a situation where they would be expected to act as middlemen between boosters and teenage athletes.
Still, nobody’s expecting a sea change. In the first year of NIL for high schoolers in Georgia, fewer than 90 kids out of 400,000-plus eligible student athletes signed NIL deals.
NIL (name, image & likeness) is probably coming to Wisconsin for high school student-athletes. That means that they, like college student-athletes, will be able to sign deals with boosters and businesses to benefit from their name, image and/or likeness.
Here, we’re answering six of the biggest questions surrounding the potential change.
1. Who’s Voting Anyway?
Up to 516 people! Every school in the WIAA (Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association, the nonprofit governing board for most of the state’s high school athletics) may appoint one representative — usually the athletic director or someone in a similar role — to vote on the school’s behalf on amendments.
The upcoming vote is scheduled for April 25, during the WIAA’s big annual meeting in Stevens Point.
When NIL was voted down at last year’s annual meeting, the vote was relatively close: 170 in favor and 219 against.
2. If the WIAA approves NIL, will students be allowed to wear their uniforms in ads?
No! If, say, a high school basketball standout poses for an ad for the local sporting goods store, she could be presented as “The State’s No. 1 Prospect” or “Milwaukee’s next basketball superstar,” but she would not be allowed to rep her school in any NIL-related ad.
3. Are student-athletes being paid to play where NIL is already legal for high school students?
Not legally speaking! When college athletes are being paid to play for a school, they aren’t (legally speaking) being paid to pay by the institution. What’s actually happening in recruiting meetings would be something more like this: The school’s athletic director will say something like
“If you come play basketball for us, we can ensure that the local car dealership will pay you $200,000 to appear in three commercials and you’ll get a free Range Rover. Also, the local hotel will pay you $150,000 to sign autographs on three separate dates.” This way, schools avoid paying certain students to matriculate, while athletics departments are more able to directly present total packages to prospective players.
Although… there’s actually a lawsuit ongoing (House v. NCAA) with massive implications. In part, the NCAA is asking the courts to allow them to drop the facade and just pay student-athletes via revenue sharing.
If that happens, there’s a chance that schools will have a salary cap enforced. This in itself would open up a whole other can of worms, and potentially some Title IX issues.
Why would Title IX, the landmark civil rights education law that mandates fair and equal treatment of the sexes in schools, be involved? Because the lion’s share of revenue sharing would likely go to male athletes in just two sports: football and basketball, the only sports that make big money in the NCAA. All other student-athletes, from swimming to lacrosse, thusly may not be able to reap the benefits beyond the typical scholarships.
4. Will this be a sea change?
Probably not! In the first academic year of NIL for high schoolers being legal in Georgia, there were fewer than 90 kids with any kind of NIL deal out of the 400,000-plus eligible students.
Menomonee Falls head baseball coach Tim Gotzler says “I’ve talked to some buddies in other states (where NIL is legal for high schoolers) and very, very few athletes are affected by this … Do I see an overnight change? No. It’s a philosophical change.”
One of the things that will likely prevent a massive shift is that high school sports are so much less profitable than college sports. Whereas the Badgers’ men’s basketball program generated around $6.5 million in total profit in 2022, high schools often offer athletics at a financial loss.
Gotzler expects high schoolers to really only be affected by NIL when they have bonafide star potential, the future Ryan Brauns and Damian Lillards.
5. Will NIL benefit rich schools more than poor schools?
Not necessarily, but probably! Although the WIAA’s plan aims to buffer against that. How? Because the WIAA plan would actively forbid schools from funneling money from boosters’ collectives to athletes, unlike what’s happening in much of the NCAA. The high school student-athletes could make deals on the side, but the school would not be able to act as an agent or a middleman.
Still, the potential worsening of optics regarding “rich vs. poor” and “public vs. private” is very much a concern. “That is a fear,” says Gotzler, who attended a private high school as a teenager before working in public schools as a teacher and coach. He says “even the opportunity” for boosters to start trying to poach kids from one school to benefit their alma mater “could be very bad.”
Gotzler is also worried about businesses talking to 15-year-olds and taking advantage of them without an intermediary or wise and good-natured adult looking out for the kid’s best interest. Could an extra $2,000 help a student-athlete and their family? Absolutely. But there’s potential for harm too, when there’s bad actors in this uncharted territory or if a teenager simply gets in over their head while trying to balance school, sports and now their own business enterprise and professional image.
That’s the exact niche Stephanie Grady’s Influential Athlete consulting firm aims to fill. Grady, a former competitive figure skater, now advises student-athletes and their families on how to capitalize on NIL without ending up in hot water. She emphasizes to her clients: “NIL isn’t something that happens to you. It is something you now have the opportunity to take advantage of.”
6. How much money are high schoolers actually making through NIL?
It depends, but usually not much! Most deals for even college student-athletes are less than $1,000.
The Sports Business Journal reported in August that the average earnings of college athletes through NIL is $20,354, while the median is only $463.
Big stars and press coverage of their deals are skewing the perception. LSU gymnast/model/influencer Livvy Dunne reportedly earned around $4 million through NIL in 2024 while Colorado University QB Shadeur Sanders raked in more than $6 million, according to the sports-tech firm On3.
Compare that with the median NIL income for an NCAA swimmer being less than $200, according to the NCAA’s own data. And that doesn’t include the athletes who haven’t taken advantage of NIL; in 2022, only 17% of Division-I college athletes “participated in NIL activities,” according to the Sports Business Journal.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t money to be earned. For the teens Grady advises through Influential Athlete, she focuses on coaching them to recognize their worth and then go out and pitch their influence to local businesses, even if it’s by starting out earning a few hundred bucks or a couple pairs of gifted cleats.
“The skills that they’re learning – putting themselves in situations where they have to talk to people of authority, how to give interviews, how to pitch themselves, how to articulate themselves – those skillsets, most people don’t learn until they’ve been in the professional world for 10-15 years,” Grady says. “We’re helping these kids learn these skillsets at 16, 17, 18 years old, so that by the time their athletic career comes to a close, they know how to be a superstar at the next level.”
That doesn’t mean certain high schoolers aren’t signing big contracts, however. Adidas has already inked brand partnerships with a 15-year-old soccer player Chloe Ricketts of Michigan and 16-year-old hooper Kaleena Smith, of California, the youngest female athletes ever brought under the international brand’s umbrella. In February 2024, 13-year-old soccer phenom McKenna Whitham of California signed a deal with Nike.
