Frankly, I don't think schools should be involved in any extracurricular sports at all. They should be spending the money I'm forced to send them on academics, not so Johnny can launch his NFL career or Susan can letter in Track. If it's that important to them, let every sports team do what these outlier athletes in the article are doing. You don't need school sponsorship to play.
Maybe then schools would have enough money to pay for the ever-increasing list of supplies they expect parents to buy every Fall. When I went to high school, I don't remember my parents buying me anything except notebooks and clothes.