EA Sports is finally releasing a College Football Game this summer and while fans are rejoicing about it, no group seems to benefit more than NCAA players.
According to ESPN’s Michael Rothstein, EA Sports will offer every athlete who “opts in” to be int eh video game will receive $600 and a copy of the game as a “baseline payment with the potential for more lucrative NIL opportunities.”
As part of Thursday’s announcement, EA Sports explained all 134 FBS teams will be in the game with approximately 11,000 players expected to be included. If players decide not to give their NIL rights to EA, they will be filled in on the team’s roster with a generic avatar.
Since EA Sports last released a college football game — NCAA 14 — back in July of 2013, the company has come up with a new system to deal with name, image and likeness, now that players can be compensated for their image rights.
“We feel very proud that we’ll be the largest program, likely the highest-spending program,” Sean O’Brien, EA Sports’ vice president of business development, told ESPN. “And really an inclusive opportunity with an equitable distribution of funds across the board.”
If a player maintains their opt-in throughout the duration of his career, then he will receive an annual check. The compensation was determined by looking at how other games on the market were negotiated, and the money is guaranteed regardless of the game’s success.
A player will have the ability to opt into one annual version of the game and opt out of a later one. Transferring will have no impact on a player’s ability to be in the game as long as he is on his new team’s roster. Teams will have a maximum of 85 players per school — the scholarship limit for schools at the top level of college football — during the initial release.
“There’s nothing been done on this scale that EA is doing, where every student-athlete that participates in the game is guaranteed revenue,” Cory Moss, the CEO of the Collegiate Licensing Company, told ESPN.
The game is scheduled to be released in July of 2024.
