Marysville High School graduate Thomas Rush (top photo-No. 8) is pictured in action for the University of Minnesota football team. In the bottom photo, Jonathan Alder grad Trey Pugh picks up yardage. Pugh plays for Northwestern University. Both athletes can now earn money through the NIL rule. (Journal-Tribune file photos)
The new Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rule for college athletes has also reached into the high school ranks.
Quinton Ewers, who was tapped as one of the top high school quarterback recruits in the country, has decided to forego his senior season of football.
He is nearly completed with the one remaining course in order to graduate high school.
Ewers is going to skip his senior high school gridiron season in Texas and is enrolling at The Ohio State University for the fall semester.
That means he will make basically the jump from high school junior to a spot on one of the premier collegiate football programs in the nation.
I’ve got mixed feelings about that.
For one, he is missing out on a valuable senior season of high school football.
The 2021 campaign would have allowed him to start for his prep squad and to play one final season with his friends and teammates.
A final year of high school football, I feel, would also better prepare him for the next level.
By joining the Buckeyes early, it’s hard to say just how much playing time Ewers will receive. There is a four-way battle to replace Justin Fields as OSU’s signal-caller.
Will Ewers stand on the sidelines just observing this fall?
That’s hard to say.
If he does, he’s then lost out on a season of on-field experience.
We’ve had a couple of high school players enroll in college early in Marysville’s Thomas Rush and Jonathan Alder’s Trey Pugh.
They, however, chose to enroll in college early after their senior seasons of prep football.
They both were able to play that final high school season and earned All-Ohio honors at the same time.
Both Rush and Pugh had the necessary requirements to graduate early and enrolled respectively at the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University in January of their season years.
That enabled them to compete during spring practice when they normally would have been finishing their senior years in high school.
That was, however, before the NIL ruling was approved.
Now, though, both are permitted to profit from the NIL.
This ruling allows college athletes to make financial gain from their name, image and likeness.
Ewers, like other college athletes, stands to make a good deal of money.
Just last weekend, several members of the Buckeyes team signed autographs for financial gain during a session at a Columbus-area shopping mall.
It’s all about the “Benjamins,” folks.
While it disappoints the old-school, amateur sports-loving person I am, I can understand why this is happening.
I have mixed feelings.
Many collegiate athletes come from impoverished backgrounds.
Their school’s athletic departments make a ton of money off their performances.
I guess it’s time those athletes profit from they work they do.
What bothers me is you’re going to see more athletes such as Ewers opt out of their final high school season in whatever sport in which they excel.
That’s going to put high school coaches in a bit of a difficult situation, trying to replace high-caliber players.
I anticipate the day will come when the NIL will descend upon the high school ranks.
Things like this have a tendency to filter down to the prep ranks from colleges.
If it happens, so be it.
I just hope the young men and women who may profit from the NIL have wise financial advisors to help them along the way.