NC public high school athletes can profit off name, image and likeness, judge rules
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by a top North Carolina high school football player.
from Brian Murphy with HSOT and WRALSportsFan.com….CLICK HERE
North Carolina public school athletes can profit off their name, image and likeness, reversing state board policy, a Wake County judge ruled Tuesday.
Wake County Superior Court Judge Graham Shirley granted a preliminary injunction in the case involving the family of Greensboro high school football player Faizon Brandon, a top-rated recruit in the Class of 2026. The decision stops the state board’s prohibition.
The change will not take effect until after a written order is signed, Brandon family lawyer Mike Ingersoll said. It is up to Ingersoll to write the order, according to the judge. He hopes to have it done by the end of the week.
Brandon’s mother, Rolanda Brandon, filed a lawsuit in August. Brandon has committed to Tennessee.
(Brandon, who is a junior, had an NIL offer from a national trading card company that he was not able to accept. The lawsuit said that the “cumulative financial impact to [Brandon] and his family from the Board’s NIL prohibition is over one million dollars.”)
“It’s been a long and hard fight, but we are grateful to God that justice has been served, not only for Faizon but for all public high school students in North Carolina,” Rolanda Brandon said in a statement.
Shirley ruled that the state board’s proposed permanent rule for name, image and likeness, which could go into effect at the state of the 2025-26 season, will be the new rule now.
“We are extremely happy with the Court’s well-reasoned decision today, which we believe was the right outcome,” Ingersoll said in a statement.
“In an effort to collaborate and work cooperatively, we recently proposed a consent injunction to the State Board of Education, through its attorneys, that is similar to the injunction the Court ordered from the bench today, but the State Board declined our offer to work together to find a mutual solution. Nevertheless, the correct outcome was reached today. We are proud to work with the Brandon family and are excited for our client and the opportunities he will soon be able to maximize upon entry of the Court’s written order.”
State Sen. Amy Galey, the chair of the education committee, wrote a letter to the state board’s general counsel in September that echoed many of the main points of the lawsuit.
“That decision put our public school athletes – and the schools they attend – at a disadvantage,” Galey wrote.
The legislature makes Que Tucker and the NCHSAA look positively brilliant when it comes to running HS sports. Berger King, Moore Is Less and Sen. Leghorn should stick to what they know, taking bribes from for-profit charter school companies and turning buffoons like Mark Robinson into national embarrassments.