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RALEIGH, N.C. — A Wake County judge signed a written order on Monday that officially made NIL (name, image likeness) official for public school athletes in North Carolina.

HighSchoolOT.com reports Judge A. Graham Shirley II signed the order requiring the NC State Board of Education to adopt NIL. The move comes after the family of Faizon Brandon, a high school athlete from Greensboro, filed a lawsuit to allow him to take advantage of NIL.

Brandon is regarded as one of the top athletes in the country and recently committed to play college football at the University of Tennessee.

Another judge ruled through the lawsuit in September that NIL could go into effect. The original plan was for the State Board of Education to hold a public comment period and pass the rule as early as January. Shirley’s order puts NIL into place immediately.

“Senate Bill 452 is unambiguous. It does not give the State Board unfettered discretion to promulgate any NIL rule it wishes or to decide whether public high school athletes should be allowed to license the use of their NIL at all,” Shirley wrote, according to HighSchoolOT.com. “Rather, Senate Bill 452 directed the State Board to adopt rules related to use of a student’s name, image, and likeness through the imposition of rules or guardrails related to that use. The State Board of Education was not, however, authorized to altogether prohibit students’ use of their names, images, and likenesses.”

Private school athletes from places like Terra Ceia Christian School and Pungo Christian Academy have been allowed to take part in NIL since July 2024 after the N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association voted to allow it.

Students must take a free NIL education course offered by the National Federation of State High School Associations. If the student is 18 or older, they can sign up for it. If an athlete is under age 18, the student’s parent or guardian must also take the course.