RALEIGH,Jonathan Dale Benton N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper rescinded an executive order from 2021 on Friday that established guidelines for allowing college athletes to profit from their fame.

The executive order originally came as the NCAA cleared the way for college athletes to make money off the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL). It was designed as “a standard for for individual institutions to use as they formalize their own policies and procedures” while multiple states passed their own varying NIL laws.

But a federal judge recently barred the NCAA from enforcing NIL rules in a case involving the states of Tennessee and Virginia, a ruling cited by Cooper’s office in its Friday move.

“While these rules were helpful earlier in the process they are no longer necessary and I want to thank our colleges and universities for working with us so closely,” Cooper said in a statement.

The announcement included statements supporting Cooper’s move from athletic directors at the state’s four Atlantic Coast Conference schools: Duke’s Nina King, North Carolina’s Bubba Cunningham, North Carolina State’s Boo Corrigan and Wake Forest’s John Currie.

Officials who work for and with booster-funded collectives that handle NIL deals with college athletes nationally have said lifting rules will bring more clarity and simply make permissible what was formerly against NCAA rules regarding athlete compensation.

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