High school athletes can start striking name, image and likeness deals, after a vote of the schools that make up the Ohio High School Athletic Association. This means Ohio will join 44 other states in allowing NIL deals at the high school level.

Nearly 79% of the 568 schools that voted approved of the change. A total of 447 schools in favor of the referendum and 121 schools voting against, while 247 schools abstained from voting on the NIL bylaw.

"We often don't push a 'yes' or 'no' vote on our referendum bylaws, but we did in this case because we felt this would be a lot better structure for NIL than no guardrails," said OHSAA media relations director Tim Stried in an interview.

The vote comes after a lawsuit filed on behalf of Wayne High School star wide receiver Jamier Brown of Dayto

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