Random Thoughts: spring sports, NIL

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

This week’s edition of Random Thoughts centers around a great week for spring sports, Name, Image, Likeness at the high school and collegiate level, and a bad day for baseball draws.

Finally…

At last, after weeks delays and postponements caused by rain and cold conditions, a nice week of weather is in store for high school athletes as teams wind down the regular season and/or get ready for tournament play.

Best of luck to all area teams, including the Van Wert track team a the WBL meet. The Cougars are hosting this year’s meet on Wednesday and Friday.

NIL, high school

Principals of Ohio High School Athletic Association member schools are voting on a proposal that would allow high school athletes to profit off their Name, Image, Likeness, similar to the new NCAA rule.

According to the OHSAA, if approved, student-athletes would be able to sign endorsement agreements so long as their teams, schools and/or the OHSAA logo are not used and provided there are no endorsements with companies that do not support the mission of education-based athletics (casinos, gambling, alcohol, drugs, tobacco).

The voting period runs through May 16 and I’m guessing results should be ready as soon as the following day.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. I have to admit, I wasn’t overly thrilled by the proposal, at least at first. However, if it passes, I believe just a small percentage of high school athletes will actually profit from this.

As far as it actually passing, we’ll see. I have to believe it’ll be a fairly close vote either way.

NIL, NCAA

What a mess this has become in a short amount of time. Multi-million dollar deals, collectives, transfers, threatened holdouts…you get the idea.

This is not how Name, Image and Likeness was supposed to work at the collegiate level. As NIL suggests, it allows student-athletes to profit, but this has already turned into a free-for-all.

As I’ve mentioned here before, I personally can’t stand the argument that college athletes on scholarship get nothing. As someone who put a child through college, I can assure you that a scholarship is worth quite a bit of money both at the time of school and post-graduation. However, it’s not unreasonable for college athletes to be able get something extra, but not like this.

The NCAA could have addressed this years ago but didn’t. Instead, the organization dragged its feet and finally relented while kicking and screaming the entire way.

I’m not sure if there’s a way to fix it while being fair to all involved. Something tells me no, but we’ll see. I’m not against anyone making money, but there should be some kind of structure and organization to this whole thing.

Baseball draw

Note to the OHSAA: don’t schedule sectional/district baseball draws on Mother’s Day. Please look at a calendar next time and figure out a different date. It can literally be done on any other day.

If you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com.