EA Offering College Athletes $600 To Appear In New Football Game

EA Sports is reviving its college football game series this year with EA Sports College Football 25, and now a major new detail about it has come to light. EA Sports confirmed to ESPN that it will offer athletes $600 for their name, image, and likeness (NIL) to appear in the game.

Additionally, the terms of EA's NIL deal with athletes state that players can get a copy of the game on a platform of their choosing, and that EA could pay certain high-profile athletes to be ambassadors and promote the game to their social media audiences. ExtraPoints confirmed these details and that EA believes this NIL deal is the largest ever.

The $600 offer will go out to the more than 11,000 FBS players, totaling more than $6 million if every player signs on. That is seemingly unlikely to happen, and it'll be interesting to see which players--high-profile or not--decide to opt out.

ESPN also confirmed with EA Sports that EA Sports College Football 25 will include the transfer portal--a significant element of college football in real life that has changed the game in a significant way--in the game in some way. Additionally, all 134 FBS teams, the 12-team playoff, and every bowl game will be featured in the game.

EA Sports College Football 25 will not, however, feature the likenesses of college coaches, ESPN reported. The game is expected to be revealed in full this May before it launches during the summer.

ESPN's Chris Fowler, one of the most prominent voices in college football broadcasting, confirmed on social media that he is "honored to be one of the voices" in the game. Kirk Herbstreit, another college football broadcast legend, is also in the game. He's lobbied EA to get his dog Ben into the game, but we'll have to see if that materializes.

This will be EA's first college football game since NCAA Football 14 in 2013. EA put the series on hiatus after that due to lawsuits and other issues that made releasing more games not worth it for the publisher. Things have changed now, though, and the series is coming back.

The NCAA is not involved with the new game, which is why its name and branding is nowhere to be seen. In 2023, the College Football Players Association told players to boycott the revival due to the low payments offered to each player, which was reported at the time to be in the realm of $500. EA was also sued by The Brandr Group, which has deals to negotiate group licensing contracts for 54 NCAA Division I schools.

EA's biggest sports game is EA Sports FC (formerly known as FIFA), and the company also makes officially licensed NFL, NHL, PGA Tour, and UFC games. In 2023, EA released its first baseball game on console, Super Mega Baseball 4, in 10+ years following its acquisition of series developer Metalhead.