Byline credit to Ethan Bock
EA Sports, the creator of many football video games, will allow college football players to use their name and likeness in the next edition of the series. EA Sports hasn’t produced a college football video game since 2013, but has been rumored for the last couple of years to bring the game back.
The game is scheduled to come out in the summer of 2024.
ESPN’s Mike Rothstein first reported the news on Wednesday that EA Sports has partnered with OneTeam to handle NIL rights in the newest game. Eligible FBS players will be allowed to use their names and likeness in video games for the first time. Rothstein also reports that other factors are still being finalized, such as how much money each player will make for being in the game. OneTeam will distribute the revenue equally to the student-athletes participating in the game if the influence of individual sales can’t be figured out.
If you remember the older editions of EA College Football, players didn’t have names and instead had positions and numbers used. Now, if your favorite player opts-in to the game, you can control that player without any problem. If a player doesn’t want to be in the game, EA Sports would create a generic player in its place.
Over 120 FBS programs have committed to being in the game, now it’s up to the individual players on each team to opt in. Notre Dame is the most notable team to not commit to being in the game. Rothstein reports that Notre Dame has been in contact with EA Sports.