First of its Kind Class Action Seeks to Gain Rights to Profits for HS Athletes

A former California high school football star has filed a lawsuit against California's high school governing body, as well as several media companies, for allegedly depriving student-athletes of their rightful pay from broadcasts, ticketing and other revenue.

The lawsuit challenges current rules established by the California Interscholastic Federation that restrict payments to high school athletes. 

According to Reuters, the class action lawsuit appears to be the first of its kind to unleash compensation for the commercial use of the names, images and likeness of potentially hundreds of thousands current and former high school athletes.

The lawsuit comes amid the settlement of the House lawsuit that was recently settled by the NCAA and paves the way for the direct payment of collegiate athletes. 

"Like the cases that have led to important reforms in college sports, we're asking a simple question: if corporations are cashing in on high school athletes' hard work, then why can't the athletes themselves?” said attorney Yaman Salahi, who filed the California lawsuit. “We're pushing to make the system fairer and to bring long-overdue rights to young athletes."

Media companies, such as 2080 Media Inc., Spectrum SportsNet LLC and SBLive were all named in the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit seeks class action status for California student athletes who competed for member schools since May 30, 2021. The named plaintiff, Dominik Calhoun, is now enrolled at Boise State University, where he will play football.

The Federation currently allows California high school athletes to receive payments within a narrow scope of NIL deals. Such endorsements or advertising can’t be made on school property, and the student is not allowed to appear in uniform.

Other payments from broadcasting agreements, ticket sales and sponsorships are currently forbidden under the federation’s rules.