DAYTON — There are now competing plans in Columbus that could shape the future of high school students making money off their name, image, and likeness.
News Center 7’s John Bedell talked to the Miami Valley lawmaker behind the latest bill and looked into which NIL plan could win out.
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Former Wayne High School football standout Jamier Brown sued the OHSAA over NIL. The lawsuit prompted a vote from member high schools.
They changed their rules to allow NIL permanently. Now, state lawmakers are getting involved in the NIL policy again.
Bedell asked State Rep. Phil Plummer (R), of Butler Township, “If the Wayne kid had not sued the OHSAA, which prompted the lawsuit, prompted their own vote, would the state legislature be looking at this right now?” Plummer replied, “No, not at all.”
Plummer introduced a bill that would allow high schoolers being able to make money off their name, image, and likeness into state law.
Bedell asked Plummer, “There’s going to be people who look at this bill and say, ‘the OHSAA already established its own NIL policy, with its own vote. Why does the state legislature need to get involved here?’ What do you say to that?”
Plummer replied, “Well, we shouldn’t be involved. But like I said, we have two legislators trying to be involved to ban this, to not allow it to happen. So, I think we have to codify it in law to say, you can do this, this is legal.”
Plummer said his bill combats another legislative plan first covered in February that would ban NIL for middle and high schoolers.
News Center 7 reached out to the two primary sponsors of that bill on Thursday to ask what will happen to their plan and Plummer’s since the two bills call for opposite outcomes.
State Rep. Mike Odioso told News Center 7 that Plummer and his joint sponsor on House Bill 745 are “well-intentioned.”
“However,” Odioso added, “HB 745 and OHSAA’s panicked NIL emergency regulations represent a complete capitulation to the new, toxic, sports pop culture.”
“Well, I don’t know if it’ll be a race to the finish line or I don’t know if they have the votes to pass theirs first. They’ve got a few co-sponsors, but not enough, so I think our bill would supersede it,” Plummer said.
News Center 7 checked on Thursday, and both bills are in the House committee. So, they’re both a long way from potentially becoming law. But if either gets the governor’s signature, it would mean changes for high school athletes who compete at facilities across the state, such as Welcome Stadium in Dayton.
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