NIL, basketball shot clock among hot topics at OHSAA meeting

The failure of a referendum item involving student-athletes playing a sport in a nearby district, an update on name, image and likeness regulations and the future of the boys basketball state tournament were among the topics discussed during the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Media Advisory Committee meeting May 21.

OHSAA executive director Doug Ute spoke to more than a dozen print, radio and television representatives from across the state during the annual meeting.

Here are some observations:

OHSAA addresses failed referendum item

The only item of 12 to fail during the May voting period, which ran from May 1-15, was an exception to an enrollment and attendance bylaw that would have allowed students whose school does not sponsor a particular team sport to play that sport at another member school within 20 miles. The superintendents of both schools would have had to approve the arrangement.

That failed 416-358 with 29 schools abstaining.

“If a bunch of families begin to [compete] … in a neighboring district, they also take their siblings, and 550 [students] in a school might become 520,” Ute said. “So I am losing 20 or 30 kids because we don’t have football [for example]. Then we hear the other side … as to whether a superintendent should control who comes into their district and plays. A parent might come up to me and say, ‘My son used to play goalkeeper here, we go to school here and we pay taxes here. As a matter of fact, I put up yard signs to [help] pass your levies. Now this kid comes over from another district, doesn’t even pay taxes here or attends classes here and now he is the goalie.’ … You really have to be careful.

“It is a two-sided street-type of thing.”

Forty-five NIL deals exist statewide

Although the OHSAA does not name athletes who have signed NIL deals or the deals themselves, Ute said 45 have been reported to the organization since NIL was approved during an emergency referendum vote in November, which followed a lawsuit against the OHSAA.

Ute said 43 of them are “chocolate-doughnut deals,” meaning endorsing something like a local restaurant for a small payment such as $150.

“Nobody in this office received any push from our schools to say we needed to put NIL on the ballot,” Ute said. “Absolutely zero push. This is one that we saw coming that we said, someone is going to sue us. It would happen one of three ways – a lawsuit, a law or if we pass it and establish guardrails the way we want to do it.”

OHSAA associate executive director Kristin Ronai clarified a recently approved referendum item allowing student-athletes to enter agreements with agents for marketing purposes.

“Within Ohio law, there is a definition of an agent,” Ronai said. “It talks about an agent being someone who helps a student market themselves and not necessarily be used to secure a professional contract. We carved out a concession for lack of a better term to allow student-athletes who are the five-stars of the five-stars to work with agents with respect to marketing themselves for NIL.”

Shot clock still a long way off in Ohio

Two weeks after telling The (Mansfield) News Journal that Ohio is still several years from adding a shot clock, Ute reiterated that the OHSAA has yet to answer how basketball would be better if it was added.

“We don’t have that [answer] yet,” Ute said, admitting that Ohio is “becoming the minority in the country.” New Jersey in early May became the 33rd state to approve the shot clock, and Indiana voted it down at roughly the same time.

The Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association submitted a shot clock proposal to the OHSAA during the boys state tournament in March.

A handful of in-season events, including Battle in the 614, have been approved to use the shot clock.

If the shot clock ever comes to Ohio – and Ute did not commit to a timetable, other than to say it would never be introduced in the spring for the coming season – he said it would begin with varsity, then be adapted at lower levels.

Flag football closer to OHSAA recognition

Five days after the first OHSAA-sponsored flag football state tournament, Ute said he will ask the board to recommend it as the organization’s 29th recognized sport “within the next month.”

He added that Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, home of the tackle football state finals each December, hosts the flag tournament free of charge and that the tackle finals will return to Canton for “at least two more years.”

“Those [flag football] girls can play,” Ute said. “We have grown by over 60 teams in the past year [to 121 statewide]. … It’s exciting stuff to see.”

Basketball state tournament format not changing

Despite the expansion of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to 76 teams, necessitating six first-round games spanning two days at University of Dayton Arena instead of four, the extra games will not impact the boys basketball state tournament.

Games span four days in late March and are currently split between UD Arena and Wright State, with all championship games at UD.

“[UD] still wants games on [that] Thursday, starting at 6 [p.m.],” Ute said. “Our goal is try to get teams in and out in two days to help with expenses for those schools … and not add an extra day. We are thrilled about being there.”

Ute added that while Ohio State continues to host state wrestling, there is no interest from OSU or the OHSAA about any other state tournaments returning to campus facilities.

High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at dpurpura@dispatch.com and at @dp_dispatch on X.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: OHSAA addresses NIL, shot clock, flag football at meeting