Op-ed: It's time to prepare Indiana's student-athletes for the future

High school athletics have always been about more than competition. They teach discipline, teamwork, accountability and perseverance. But the world surrounding our student-athletes is changing, and our policies should change responsibly with it.

Indiana is home to collegiate champions and some of the best high schools in the nation. Our responsibility is to ensure that the young athletes representing those schools are prepared not only for their next competition, but for their next chapter in life.

Indiana has begun recognizing that change. The IHSAA's new personal-branding framework allows student-athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness while maintaining the educational values of high school athletics. I believe Indiana should take the next step by establishing a clear, responsible framework for high school NIL.

This is not a proposal to turn high school athletics into professional sports. We can establish clear rules, meaningful guardrails and educational requirements that protect students while recognizing their talents and teaching young Hoosiers how to responsibly navigate opportunities that already exist in the marketplace.

Any policy should be developed with parents, students, coaches, educators and the public at the table. An effective framework should protect students, preserve education-based athletics, provide transparency and ensure that participation does not come at the expense of academics. It should prioritize school attendance, academic performance, graduation and preparation for collegiate success. It should also address transfers and ensure that public, charter and private schools operate under the same expectations.

Most importantly, NIL should become an educational opportunity. Financial literacy, contracts, entrepreneurship, personal branding, responsible money management and long-term financial stability can help students develop skills that extend far beyond athletics.

There is uncertainty surrounding high school NIL, and that uncertainty deserves thoughtful discussion. But our responsibility as policymakers is not to pretend the world is standing still. It is to prepare young Hoosiers to succeed in the world they are actually entering.

On Oct. 14, the Interim Study Committee on Education will meet at the Statehouse to discuss this very topic. I am looking forward to hearing from stakeholders and my fellow lawmakers about how they would approach this issue.

I believe Indiana can establish a model that protects education, develops our students and recognizes their talents, while keeping the classroom at the center of high school athletics. High school athletics are already preparing students for life. We should make sure our policies do the same.