COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The family of Wayne High School junior Jamier Brown, the state's top-ranked wide receiver recruit, has filed a lawsuit against the Ohio High School Athletic Association. They're seeking to overturn the organization's prohibition on student-athletes receiving compensation for their name, image, and likeness (NIL), potentially positioning Ohio to join the 44 other states that already permit such payments.
Brown, who has verbally committed to play football at Ohio State, is considered "one of the best high school athletes in the country," according to Jeremy Birmingham, a recruiting analyst for 97.1 The Fan.
The lawsuit challenges OHSAA rules that currently prevent high school student-athletes from being paid for their NIL, even as others profit from their performances.
"If you go on social media and search Jamier Brown on a normal Friday night, you're gonna see a lot of people who are capitalizing on what he does, except for him," Birmingham said.
Luke Fedlam, a partner at Amundsen Davis Law Firm representing Brown, said the case centers on fundamental opportunities for young athletes.
"There are opportunities where student athletes should be able to earn compensation while at the same time focusing on their studies and focusing on their sport," Fedlam said.
The financial stakes are significant. According to Fedlam, Brown "has had an opportunity to be able to earn well into six figures just through a trading card deal."
Birmingham noted that while few high school athletes would receive such compensation, those who can should be allowed to do so.
"Not every player in Ohio is gonna be getting paid to play high school football. In fact, most of them won't, but for the guys that are lucky enough to do it, there's no court in the country really that's gonna tell them they can't," he said.
Fedlam emphasized that the lawsuit extends beyond elite athletes.
"There are high school student-athletes that just simply have a large social media following because they're social media influencing or the things that they do online that can turn into opportunities for them from a name, image and likeness, but if they happen to be a high school student-athlete, they're prohibited from doing that unless they got some sort of waiver," he said.
The potential change raises concerns from a coaching perspective, Birmingham noted.
"You now have another thing to worry about. Well, maybe my star player is not gonna play this week because he didn't get the check he was promised or maybe he doesn't want to risk getting hurt, so he doesn't want to play because he's already signed somewhere and the college is already giving him money," he said.
However, Fedlam distinguished high school NIL from the college landscape.
"At the college level, a lot of people describe it as the wild, wild west because there are things like collectives or third parties that just want to pay money to an athlete for them to go to a certain school," he said. "There are a lot of guard rails that exist already at the high school level to ensure that it really is just pure name, image and likeness."
"I think for the average high school football player, this is not gonna matter. Jamier Brown is not the average high school football player," Birmingham said.
OHSAA said it has been preparing for this situation and indicated that a lawsuit could trigger an emergency vote. If the membership approves changes, the organization's member high schools would be allowed to determine their own bylaws governing NIL compensation.
OHSAA previously rejected its first NIL proposal in 2022 by more than a two-to-one margin.