GOOD NEWS: Number of MHSAA schools using pay-to-play decreasing

he annual Michigan High School Athletic Association participation fee survey completed for the 2025-26 school year continued to confirm the positive direction that has emerged this decade as the rate of member high schools charging student-athletes to play sports fell to its lowest in more than two decades.

Of the 703 MHSAA member schools (93 percent of membership) which responded to the most recent survey, only 38 percent (270 schools) charged participation fees in 2025-26 – a drop of two percent from the year prior and the lowest percentage since 34.5 percent of member schools reported charging a fee for the 2004-05 school year.

Welcoming drop

Over the two decades between, the rate of high schools charging participation fees reached a high of 57 percent in 2013-14. Rates consistently have measured in the low 40s after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The MHSAA began conducting the participation fee survey with the 2003-04 school year. For the purposes of the survey, a participation fee is anything $20 or more regardless of what the school called the charge – registration fee, athletic fee, etc.

All four school-size classifications also saw rate decreases, with Class A schools leading the way with 46 percent charging fees – which was still a reduction of seven percent from 2024-25.

Class B was down slightly to 39 percent charging for participation, while Class C schools were down six points to 28 percent charging and Class D schools were down four points also to 28 percent.

Breaking down the numbers

A standardized fee for each team on which a student-athlete participates – regardless of the number of teams – has remained the norm over the history of the MHSAA’s survey, and for the second-straight year 43 percent of schools charging a fee did so in this way during 2025-26.

That was followed by 33 percent of responding schools charging a one-time standardized fee and 13 percent assessing fees based on tiers of the number of sports a student-athlete plays (for example, charging a larger fee for the first team and less for additional sports).

For 2025-26, the median maximum amount a school charged per student-athlete for the school year was $150, and the median annual maximum charged per family was $350.

For schools charging student-athletes a one-time fee to cover all sports played, the median was $125. For schools charging a fee per sport, the median was $80 for each team.