'Check-in Champ' Back with More Prizes
August 30, 2017
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The Michigan High School Athletic Association and SuperFanHigh have again launched the "Check-in Champ" app to allow students, faculty, alumni, community members and all fans to earn prizes and college scholarships by showing support for high school football teams.
And there’s plenty of time to catch up and win season and weekly awards as the season moves into its second weekend.
To participate, fans simply need to download the “Check-in Champ” app for free from Apple iTunes by searching “MHSAA” or by searching “BOTF” on the Google Play online store and then check in at high school football games they are attending this season. SuperFanHigh will track these check-ins and provide standings of fans who attend the most events statewide. Fans “checking in” accrue points toward prizes including a total of $4,000 in college scholarships powered by MI Student Aid.
For the remainder of this Michigan high school football season, fans who attend games will earn points. When registering on the app, fans must select their favorite school. Schools will be divided by Class: A, B, C and D. A $2,000 scholarship will be awarded to the fan who earns the most points overall across all four classes, and $500 scholarships will be awarded to fans who earn the most points in each class.
Only student fans will be eligible to use the college scholarships; however, fans who are not students may still compete for the scholarships and designate them for specific students should they win the contest. All fans, including those who are not students, will be able to earn app “badges” as they accrue points, and each week those who check into games will be registered into a drawing for a $50 gift card.
The app provides other information for students and fans including their selected schools’ football team schedules, MHSAA news and an opportunity to share photos through a ‘fan cam.’ Participants may accrue bonus points by answering MHSAA football trivia questions and promoting their “check-ins” on social media.
SuperFanHigh is a division of its parent company, SuperFanU and provides fan experiences for more than 300 high schools and colleges/universities across the country. The company is leading the market in developing innovative platforms that allow the communication and marketing between students/fans and schools to be more engaging and efficient.
MHSAA Survey Reveals Participation Fee Usage Remains at Lower Post-Pandemic Level
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 6, 2025
The annual Michigan High School Athletic Association participation fee survey saw record response for the 2024-25 school year and revealed good news as the percentage of member high schools charging student-athletes to play sports remained consistent with lowered post-pandemic levels.
Of the 720 schools (95 percent of membership) which responded to the most recent survey, only 40 percent of MHSAA member high schools (286) charged participation fees in 2024-25 – consistent with the rates between 40-41 percent revealed annually by the survey the previous four school years after the COVID-19 pandemic struck during the late winter and spring of 2020. Prior to the pandemic, a high of 57 percent of member schools charged participation fees in 2013-14, and 48 percent of high schools required pay-to-play in 2019-20.
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.
Class A schools, as has been the trend, made up the largest group charging fees in 2024-25, with 53 percent of respondents doing so. Class B schools followed, with 40 percent charging fees, while 34 percent of Class C schools and 32 percent of Class D schools also charged for participation.
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 43 percent of schools charging a fee during 2024-25 did so in this way. That was followed by 34 percent of responding schools charging a one-time standardized fee and 17 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 2024-25, 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 $370. 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 $100 for each team.
The survey for 2024-25 and surveys from previous years can be found on the Pay-To-Play Survey page.