Name, image, and likeness opportunities approved for high school student-athletes in Wisconsin

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (Civic Media) – Member schools from the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association approved a constitutional amendment to allow name, image, and likeness opportunities for high school student-athletes at the WIAA Annual Meeting.

The measure easily passed 293 to 108.

The same amendment was on the table last year as well. It failed 170 to 219 in 2014.

This approved Constitutional amendment will allow students to enter into NIL opportunities for activities not associated or identified with their school team, school, conference or the WIAA, and in accordance with other prohibited NIL activities, including language attempting to… pic.twitter.com/vOzTgeJO37

— WIAA (@wiaawi) April 25, 2025

The passed amendment will allow student-athletes to have NIL agreements as long as they didn’t associate with their school, conference, school team, or the WIAA. The WIAA also added language to discourage what it calls “undue influence” over student athletes.

It also states that student-athletes can’t endorse products or activities in adult-targeted categories, such as gambling, alcohol, tobacco, or firearms. NIL opportunities are also restricted to certain categories; in general, NIL deals have to be age-appropriate. Student-athletes also can’t be compensated based on their athletic performance, or “pay to play.”

The NFHS said that when NIL was approved, it was intended for college student-athletes. However, because the laws that apply to NIL are tied to state statutes, eligibility for NIL varies from state to state.

WIAA Associate Director Mel Down said on a WisSports.net Podcast that those are some of the key differences between the college version of NIL and the high school version.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of states that didn’t have an NIL provision. It’s part of a bloc of Midwestern states, including Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio, as well as West Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, Texas, and Hawai’i, that up until the annual meeting had yet to pass regulations for student-athletes and NIL contracts.

The proposed NIL amendment was advanced to the Annual Meeting unanimously by the 14-member Sport Advisory Committee and the 17-member Advisory Council, as well as the WIAA Board of Control. In November, the WIAA announced an exclusive NIL partnership with Influential Athlete.

The new amendment goes into effect at the time of the posting of the WIAA Bulletin, which happens at the end of May.