Name Image Likeness

Tennessee Quarterback Commit MacIntyre Signs Exclusive Leaf Partnership

Five-star future Volunteer George MacIntyre to create a range of NIL trading cards

Noah Henderson

Brentwood Academy quarterback George MacIntyre answers questions during new conference after
Brentwood Academy quarterback George MacIntyre answers questions during new conference after / Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA
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Brentwood, TN native George MacIntyre has signed an exclusive multi-year deal with Leaf Trading Cards. The five-star quarterback in the 2025 class is committed to in-state powerhouse Tennessee and is expected to suit up for the Volunteers next fall. According to an announcement from Leaf, the exclusive trading card collection will feature a range of cards, including autographed editions, short prints, and special edition cards that highlight pivotal moments from MacIntyre’s career.

The NIL Collectibles market has been on fire in 2024, and competition between sporting memorabilia manufacturers has been fierce in the NIL space. Without the union representation seen in professional sports, college athletes are left to team group-licensing deals and individual agreements with sports card manufacturers. 

This has led to heated competition to acquire the NIL rights of prominent collegiate athletes –– and even more heated competition to acquire exclusive NIL rights. The secondary market has shown keen interest in NIL memorabilia, notably a one-of-one Arch Manning card that recently became the highest-value item sold on Panini’s auction platform at over $100,000. The exclusive and rare cards created by Leaf for MacIntyre’s collegiate career have the potential to become prized commodities, determined only by the trajectory of his play. 

 

MacIntyre’s geography is a large part of what makes this deal possible. Predominantly governed by each state’s High School Athletic Association, NIL regulation for youth athletes is prohibited everywhere. A slim majority of states (thirty-one of the fifty-one U.S. jurisdictions, including MacIntyre’s home state of Tennessee) permit prep athletes to engage in NIL deals. 

Without this ability to engage in NIL deals as a high-school athlete, MacIntyre would have had to wait until college to cash in on his Name, Image, and Likeness or do what certain athletes who aren’t as fortunate to reside in a state like Tennessee have already done and move out of state to cash in on their athletic talents and influencer potential.

Athletic programs have risked investment in the talents of high school athletes since the dawn of college athletics. In the NIL era, collectives began placing risky investments in players through pay-for-play salaries. Now, sporting memorabilia companies are jumping into gambling on the future of promising prep athletes.   

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Noah Henderson
NOAH HENDERSON

Professor Noah Henderson teaches in the sport management department at Loyola University Chicago. Outside the classroom, he advises companies, schools, and collectives on Name, Image, and Likeness best practices. His academic research focuses on the intersection of law, economics, and social consequences regarding college athletics, NIL, and sports gambling. Before teaching, Prof. Henderson was part of a team that amended Illinois NIL legislation and managed NIL collectives at the nation’s most prominent athletic institutions while working for industry leader Student Athlete NIL. He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law in Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Economics from Saint Joseph’s University, where he was a four-year letter winner on the golf team. Prof. Henderson is a native of San Diego, California, and a former golf CIF state champion with Torrey Pines High School. Outside of athletics, he enjoys playing guitar, hanging out with dogs, and eating California burritos. You can follow him on Twitter: @NoahImgLikeness. 

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