NIL law in North Carolina — Executive Order 223 and the ACC framework

State: North Carolina (NC)

Last reviewed 2026-05-18

[Reviewed by Darren Heitner or contracted NIL counsel — TBD]

Implemented via executive order

North Carolina implements NIL through Governor Cooper's Executive Order 223 (2021) rather than a standalone statute. The order applies to every UNC-system institution and operates alongside ACC institutional standards at UNC, Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest.

Statute citation

North Carolina NIL Executive Order

Executive Order No. 223 — N.C. Exec. Order No. 223 (2021)

Enacted 2021 — effective 2021-07-02

Issued by Governor Roy Cooper, Executive Order 223 permits North Carolina postsecondary student-athletes to earn NIL compensation and prohibits the UNC system and athletic associations from preventing them from doing so.

Read the statute on the official source

What the law actually says

North Carolina chose to implement NIL through executive action rather than legislation. Governor Roy Cooper issued Executive Order 223 in July 2021. The order applies to UNC-system institutions and provides that student-athletes may earn NIL compensation, may retain professional representation, and may not be punished by their school for accepting compensation that complies with the order. Because the framework is an executive order rather than a statute, the operating rules tend to be tighter on institutional policy and looser on a single codified text — the binding reading lives in each school's NIL policy. North Carolina's executive-order approach was a pragmatic choice in 2021, designed to put a NIL framework in place quickly while the General Assembly continued to debate a permanent statute. The trade-off is that the executive order is shorter and less prescriptive than peer-state statutes, so the institutional policy at UNC, NC State, Duke, and Wake Forest does heavier lifting than the policies at schools in states where a detailed statute is on the books.

Allowed NIL activities

Endorsement and sponsorship contracts with permitted categories.
Hiring an agent or attorney for NIL representation.
Group licensing, autograph signings, and athlete-run camps or clinics.
NIL deals while at a UNC-system institution, subject to the school's policy.
Use of NIL in athlete-owned media and apparel, subject to school marks restrictions.

Restricted or prohibited NIL activities

NIL compensation as a recruiting inducement.
Endorsements of categorically restricted products (alcohol, tobacco, gambling, controlled substances).
Use of school marks, logos, or uniforms without an institutional license.
NIL activity that violates the school's codified conduct standards.
Contracts that conflict with the school's existing institutional sponsorship roster.

How individual schools layer their own policies

Because North Carolina's framework lives in an executive order, the institutional policy at each ACC school carries more operational weight than the statute. UNC, Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest each maintain their own policies. ACC institutional standards layer on top, and the conference's evolving NIL stance materially shapes what each athlete is allowed to sign.

UNC-Chapel Hill

UNC operates a disclosure platform and an NIL education program for athletes. The school's policy includes ACC institutional standards and a school-specific list of prohibited categories that can be tighter than the executive order.

Duke University

Duke's NIL policy adds private-institution conduct and academic-integrity standards on top of the ACC framework. Use of Duke marks is licensed separately, and the school reviews NIL agreements against its athletics sponsorship contracts.

How RevU covers North Carolina

RevU's analysis treats North Carolina deals as ACC institutional reviews first and executive-order reviews second — because that is how the schools actually read them. The engine flags exclusivity scopes that conflict with school sponsors, disclosure language that does not align with the school's platform, and conduct clauses calibrated to brand rather than to the school's own conduct policy.

RevU is a software tool, not a law firm. The output is meant to make the conversation with your attorney more efficient — not to replace it. For binding legal advice on a North Carolina NIL contract, engage a licensed attorney in your state.

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