10,000 athletes sign NIL contracts with EA Sports

More than 10,000 athletes have accepted an offer from EA Sports to have their likeness appear in an upcoming college football video game, the developer announced today.

EA Sports began reaching out to college football players in February to appear in the game, which is scheduled to launch this summer.

According to EA Sports, players who choose to participate in the game will receive a minimum of $600 and a copy of EA Sports College Football 25. There is also an opportunity to earn money by promoting the game.

EA Sports said that players who opt out will be permanently kicked out of the game and will no longer be able to manually add or create gamers, but did not say how.

John Liseberg, vice president of marketing, communications and partnerships at EA Sports, tweeted that offers had been sent to more than 11,000 athletes.

The developers say all 134 FBS schools will be participating in the game.

Production on EA Sports' annual college football game was halted in 2013 after a lawsuit over the use of players' likenesses for free. The game featured players who may not have real names, but who resembled that season's stars in almost every way.

That major hurdle was alleviated with the approval of NIL contracts for college athletes.

EA Sports is working on a new game for at least 2021, and announced at that time that it would pay players for appearances.