It’s been two weeks since a Wake County judge signed an order allowing high school athletes in North Carolina to profit off their name, image, and likeness, but so far the impact of that policy has been non-existent.

Athletes who sign NIL deals are required to submit copies of the deals to their athletic director. The athletic director is charged with forwarding that information to the N.C. High School Athletic Association, which will provide the State Board of Education with a summary of high school NIL agreements on an annual basis.

As of Tuesday, which marked two weeks since the NIL policy went into effect, the NCHSAA says it has not received a single report of a signed NIL deal at a member school.

“To date, we have not received any proposals or signed NIL deals. So the total amount, based on what has been reported to us, would be zero,” a NCHSAA spokesperson told HighSchoolOT.

That does not mean some high school athletes have not started the process of making NIL agreements though.

HighSchoolOT has learned there are some athletes in North Carolina who have started the process to become eligible to profit off their name, image, and likeness, and some are in discussions about potential NIL agreements. However, those agreements are not required to be reported to the NCHSAA until an NIL agreement has been signed.

Prior to an agreement being signed, a copy of the proposed agreement must be submitted to the school’s principal, athletic director, superintendent, and chair person of the local board of education. The student-athlete and their parents must also provide a certificate of completion for the NFHS Learn NIL course.

The order from the court required the State Board of Education to implement a series of proposed rules that the board was scheduled to put before a public comment period this fall. The board tentatively planned to vote on the rules in January before the policy would take effect in July 2025.

The family of Faizon Brandon, a five-star quarterback at Grimsley High School who has committed to Tennessee, sued the State Board of Education over its policy preventing Brandon from monetizing his name, image, and likeness. The judge found that the board’s ban on NIL activities did not comply with a state law passed last year that required the board to implement rules allowing student-athletes to use their name, image, and likeness.

North Carolina was in the minority of states that prevented high school athletes from using their name, image, and likeness to make money. More than 30 other states had already implemented policies to grant NIL rights to high school athletes.

In 2023, the NCHSAA said its research showed the averaged high school NIL deal in states that had policies in place ranged between $60 and $120.

The Georgia High School Association implemented an NIL policy last fall. Earlier this year, the state association said 44 of its more than 400,000 student-athletes had signed NIL deals.

North Carolina’s high school NIL policy is different than the policies set for colleges. Athletes and their families must complete educational requirements to become eligible to profit off NIL, there are reporting requirements, and there are restrictions on the type of activities an athlete can participate in and products or businesses they can be involved with.

Schools, coaches, booster clubs, and other people associated with athletic programs or teams are not allowed to involve themselves in NIL deals on behalf of athletes. Recruiting athletes in high school sports remains illegal, and programs cannot use NIL deals or the prospect of NIL deals to attract athletes to a school.

Source: highschoolot.com