A Landmark Announcement Just Opened the Door for Michigan High Schoolers to Score a Massive Financial Windfall

A historic Tuesday ruling has officially changed the game for the state’s top prep prospects. From elite four-star recruits to local legends, a new era has arrived—and the timing couldn’t be more critical.

Michigan's top high school athletes, like Harper Woods four-star wide receiver Dakota Guerrant (1), will have the greatest opportunity to benefit from Tuesday's announcement. / David Rodriguez Muñoz / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The landscape of high school sports in Michigan shifted permanently Tuesday as the state’s governing body for athletics officially opened the door for student-athletes to profit from their own brands.

The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) announced Tuesday that its Representative Council approved new bylaws allowing high school players to receive Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) funds. The change to the organization’s "Personal Brand Activities" (PBA) policy is effective immediately, making Michigan the latest state to join a rapidly growing national trend.

Previously, Michigan was a holdout alongside a shrinking group of states weighing such a change. While Michigan student-athletes were previously limited to hosting camps or clinics, they can now engage in social media endorsements, autograph signings, and marketing deals.

Lessons from the frontier: What other states learned

Cass Technical High School four-star quarterback Donald Tabron II currently holds 26 collegiate offers and will become a prime candidate to benefit from NIL in high school. / David Rodriguez Munoz / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Michigan enters a landscape where the "NIL experiment" has already provided a roadmap. In neighboring Ohio, the debate reached a breaking point in late 2025 following the Brown v. OHSAA lawsuit. Five-star wide receiver recruit Jamier Averette-Brown, a junior who attends Wayne High in Huber Heights, Ohio, successfully challenged Ohio’s NIL ban, with the court issuing a temporary restraining order in October 2025 after Averette-Brown argued he was losing out on six-figure opportunities. That legal pressure ultimately forced Ohio to adopt a permanent NIL policy in November.

Data from the Opendorse 2025 NIL Industry Report suggests that while "life-changing" six-figure deals are typically reserved for the top 1% of national prospects, the true impact is often local. In states like Missouri—which passed House Bill 417 to allow high schoolers to earn money the moment they sign with an in-state college—NIL has been used as a tool to retain local talent and build "loyalty" to home-state programs.

Elite recruits poised to benefit immediately

While the majority of high school athletes may not see immediate windfalls, the ruling is a massive development for Michigan’s top-tier prospects who carry national profiles.

The move comes at a pivotal time for 2027 four-star football prospects like wide receiver Dakota Guerrant (Harper Woods), edge rusher Recarder Kitchen (Muskegon), and offensive tackle Dewey Young (Kalamazoo Central). It also paves a potentially lucrative path for the class of 2028, which includes players like Cass Technical quarterback Donald Tabron II, Brother Rice edge Jayden Bell, and Harper Woods receiver Deandre Bidden.

Tuesday's announcement means top athletes such as Belleville four star Sydney Savoury (31) is now eligible to profit from her own Name, Image and Likeness. / Nick King/Lansing State Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Beyond the gridiron, the policy change creates immediate potential for other elite talent, such as junior basketball stars Sydney Savoury and Cece Arico—two of the top-ranked 2027 guards in the country—who now have the legal standing to capitalize on their status as some of the most recognizable faces in Michigan prep sports.

Strict guardrails for "competitive equity"

To maintain what executive director Mark Uyl calls "competitive equity," the MHSAA is implementing strict rules to bypass the "collective" culture seen in college sports:

• No School Involvement: Coaches and school staff are strictly prohibited from negotiating or soliciting deals.
• Property Restrictions: Athletes cannot use school names, logos, mascots, or uniforms in their branding.
• Disclosure: Any partnership must be disclosed to the MHSAA within seven days of an agreement for official review.

"We have said from the start... the MHSAA could be comfortable with a policy that provides individual branding opportunities," Uyl said in a statement. "This rule change provides those while excluding the possibility of collectives, and boosters and school people getting involved."

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