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After years of anticipation, EA Sports’ return to the college football video game world wth College Football 25 was a huge hit. The game, in terms of revenue, is the best-selling sports video game of all time.
The game was brought back after an eleven-year hiatus due to players getting rights to profit off of their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Last year, the vast majority of players included in the game were paid $600 and given a free deluxe edition of the game on the console of their choice, but that’s about to increase significantly.
That $600 was enough for pretty much every player in the country to opt-in to being part of the game, though only 85 guys for each FBS team were included. Even Arch Manning, who initially wasn’t going to be in the game, announced he had opted in shortly before release last July.
Now, players will get more than double that amount for opting in. Here’s The Athletic with more.
In an email to Football Bowl Subdivision players sent Tuesday afternoon, EA Sports said it would increase players’ name, image and likeness payments from $600 to $1,500 for their inclusion in the upcoming College Football 26 video game. They will also receive a Deluxe Edition of the game, a carryover from the compensation system for College Football 25. As was also the case last year, some athletes will receive additional compensation to serve as brand ambassadors to promote the game.
“From the beginning, we’ve designed our NIL program to be accessible, direct, voluntary and equitable for all, offering the same base-level compensation to every FBS athlete that opts-in using the OneTeam platform and COMPASS NIL app,” EA Sports vice president of business development Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “This approach empowers each athlete to make their own decision. College sports are growing and changing, and our focus at EA Sports is on continuing to put athletes first as we bring them in the game in College Football 26 and beyond.”
EA Sports told The Athletic in January that it had no news on changes to the player compensation model for this year’s game. But in February, a new NIL group called Pathway Sports & Entertainment began obtaining the video game NIL rights of players, paying $1,500 up front. Around 1,000 players from schools like Alabama, Georgia and Oregon have signed with Pathway; the group’s goal is to get every scholarship FBS player and negotiate a larger deal.
A representative for EA Sports said Pathway’s actions did not impact EA’s decision to more than double the player compensation for this year’s game and instead that the rate was increased to make sure athletes feel recognized for the success of the game.
This is welcome news for current players. Most importanly, we’re all just thrilled that we can play a new college football video game every year now.