More details are emerging about EA Sports College Football 25 as we approach the release of the game, and now we have a figure on how much each player will make for signing over the name, image, and likeness to appear in the game.
According to a report from The Athletic each athlete will receive $600, and a copy of the game for allowing themselves to be featured. With potentially over 11,000 players being represented when the game hits shelves it would represent a cost for EA Sports upwards of $6.5M to put athletes in the game this year.
To compare, the deal reached between EA Sports and the NFLPA in 2021 for NIL rights on the Madden series gave $500M to players for a five-year deal, which represents approximately $33,000 per player per year they appear in the game.
It remains to be seen if we really will see every player in the game. For low-level college athletes, or those without substantial followings the $600 payment will be enticing enough to opt in, but it’s unclear how that will jive with top-tier Power Five players. Would Shedeur Sanders or Quinn Ewers accept $600 in an NIL market where their individual brands are worth substantially more than that? Only time will tell.
The nature of NIL deals surrounding the game is complicated. On the one hand the payment seems woefully small, especially when compared to other sports — but the re-launch of a college football game isn’t without substantial risk on the part of EA Sports as well. It remains to be seen whether the hype behind the return of a college football game will be backed up by actual sales, and if we assume development costs of $25-30M (easily inside the ballpark for an acceptable figure) then this gets a little murkier.
A publisher, on average, receives approximately $30 per digital sale, and $22 of each physical copy of a game sold. This means EA Sports College Football 25 would need to clear over 1M sales to break even. That should be attainable, but it’s definitely an unknown quantity at this point.
The hopes moving forward is that this $600 figure is just the first step. Hopefully we see a mammoth, successful return of College Football in video game form — and that in turn will allow for players to earn more money in 2025 and beyond. If the game is as successful as it could be, then moving forward players (especially top talents) should make substantially more from signing over their name, image and likeness.
