College football players from all 134 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision can choose to participate in EA Sports College Football 25 starting Thursday, officially setting the stage for players to be paid for their first time in the video game.
EA Sports announced Thursday morning that all 134 FBS teams will participate in the game, including soon-to-be FBS member Kennesaw State. OneTeam Partners will handle the group's license for this game and is also expected to announce on Thursday that players will be able to opt in through Learfield's COMPASS NIL app.
A spokesperson for EA Sports said: The Athletic All players who opt in will receive $600 and a copy of the game (worth $70). Many college athletes in and out of football will also become ambassadors for the game and receive additional NIL compensation. Players who do not opt in will be shown with a generic player avatar, as Barry Bonds famously appeared in many of his MLB video games. Over 11,000 players are expected to participate in the game, which is believed to be the largest group NIL partnership of its kind. (For comparison, the NFL has about 1,700 players on the active roster at any given point during the season.)
The game is scheduled for release this summer.
According to a OneTeam spokesperson, players are encouraged to opt-in by April 30 to guarantee their participation in the first iteration of the game. The sooner players opt in, the sooner they can receive payments. Unlike professional video games, players do not have their faces scanned because the number of players is so large. Information and images are taken from the team roster. Air Force, Army, and Navy players are not allowed to accept NIL transactions or payments, but are expected to participate in the game.
OneTeam Partners has worked with EA Sports for many years, handling group licensing with the NFL Players Association for Madden and MLS and NWSL for EA Sports' soccer titles. OneTeam previously partnered with the COMPASS NIL app on a Fanatics college football jersey group licensing agreement.
“Including players in the return of the EA Sports College Football franchise ensures they will directly benefit,” Shelbi Hendricks, senior vice president of OneTeam Partners, said in a release. “Our partnerships with industry leaders like EA Sports and (Collegiate Licensing Company) focus on authentic representation and emphasize the critical role that today's players play in shaping the game. .”
This official announcement brings to a close one of the first major NIL controversies. It's been 11 years since EA Sports last released a college football game. More than a decade ago, lawsuits over players' inability to profit from NIL focused on video games where anonymous players had the same numbers, measurements, and hometowns as real athletes. .
Former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon is a plaintiff in a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA that forbids players from profiting from the use of their likeness in games, and is the plaintiff in a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA that prohibited players from profiting from the use of their likeness in games. He said he didn't want it to happen, he just wanted it. The players will receive compensation. EA Sports also said in court filings at the time that it was willing to pay players. However, the NCAA did not allow it. EA Sports ultimately settled with the plaintiffs before the trial and ceased production of the game due to concerns about litigation. More than 29,000 athletes received their share of his $40 million, with the average being around $1,200, depending on a player's usage in a match.
EA Sports announced the return of the college football video game in February 2021, and NIL rules passed that summer allowed real players to participate in the game. In late 2021, Notre Dame announced that it would no longer allow its logo to be used in-game unless players were paid to participate in the game. The Fighting Irish will enter the game along with 133 other FBS schools.
EA Sports College Football 25 is expected to be fully available in May ahead of a summer release. Some details of the game are already known. Sources connected to the game say the game will be built on his Madden engine, but is not a reskin of Madden. Dynasty Mode and Road to Glory will once again be featured modes. A transfer portal is also expected. Over the past three years, schools have submitted thousands of assets to EA Sports, including stadium photos, jerseys, crowd cheers, and more. A CFP spokesperson said Wednesday that images from the College Football Playoff will be used, and developers continue to plan as many details and changes to the sport as possible before the game's release.
“This is my first game playing as myself,” Kansas quarterback Jaron Daniels said. The Athletic last fall. “I'm playing NCAA '14 with a revamped roster, and to say there's going to be an actual game there that I don't have to make is going to be exciting.”
(Photo provided by EA Sports)
