EA Sports Has Started Sending NIL Contracts to Players for College Football 25: Report
According to the original report from Extra Points’ publisher Matt Brown, EA Sports will start sending out NIL contracts to over 11,000 student-athletes on Thursday.
The contracts, which will allow EA to use the athletes’ name, image, and likeness in the upcoming College Football 25 video game, have a base value of $600 per athlete. Brown also reports that EA will offer additional ambassador contracts to a select number of college football players, who will be paid to promote the video game on social media.
This update puts College Football 25 one step closer to being ready for release in July, with athlete’s direct involvement being one of the most speculated parts of the game. However, EA has been confident since announcing the game’s return that it would work out, and now they’ve reached the final stages of putting all the pieces together.
Brown also released other key details about this stage of the game’s development that are worth noting.
First, the athletes will have until April 30 to sign the contract with EA Sports, confirming their inclusion in the game. This will allow the athletes to be paid in a timely manner and give the development team enough time to get all 11,000+ players’ likeness into the game files.
The second detail is that virtually all student-athletes in college football will be “eligible” to participate in the game, although there are some exceptions. Athletes at the service academies (Army, Navy, Air Force) are not allowed to accept compensation for NIL, but EA still expects athletes from those programs to be in the game. According to Brown, EA is looking for a way to compensate those athletes in a compliant manner.
The NIL deal will not be limited to scholarship players, per Brown, but will, “go out to all eligible FBS football players with EA SPORTS aiming to achieve a roster size of 85 players per team, consistent with NCAA scholarship limitations, but not limited to the scholarship status of the players. From now until the start of the season, there will be incoming freshmen, roster movement, injuries, transfers, etc., that will impact and increase the players eligible to participate.”
EA Sports released a teaser trailer for the game last Thursday, sending college football and video game fans alike into a frenzy. College Football 25 is expected to be released sometime in July and will be the first licensed college football video game since the release of NCAA Football 14, which was released in 2013.
