EA Sports to Pay College Football Players $600 to Appear in New Video Game

Topline

EA sports, a giant in college and professional sports video gaming, will give college football players $600 to appear in their upcoming EA Sports “College Football 25” game, the first time student athletes will be able to make a profit off their name, image and likeness for appearing in a video game.

players $600 to appear in the upcoming EA Sports College Football 25.SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Key Facts

More than 11,300 college football players eligible to have their names appear in EA’s “College Football 25” will also receive a copy of the game—valued at $70—if they opt into it.

Up to 85 college football players from 134 Division 1 schools featured in the game will initially appear on their teams’ rosters in the game, which is reportedly set for a July release date.

If athletes remain in the game for multiple editions, they will be paid annually to have their names appear, ESPN reported.

Shares of Electronic Arts have ticked up over 1% on the day, to a one-week high of nearly $143, just shy of its all-time high.

Key Background

College athletes have been slowly receiving increased benefits following the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in NCAA v. Alston finding the college athletic association’s prior rules limiting education-based compensation violated federal antitrust law. Since 2021, student athletes have also been able to make a profit off their names after the NCAA voted just weeks after the Supreme Court decision to allow them to earn money off their name, image and likeness—breaking longstanding college sports tradition of amateurism. Under that philosophy, the NCAA had argued college athletes should not receive pay for their performance, but instead compete in the name of their school. The NCAA’s decision to allow players to benefit from their name, image and likeness has since led to lucrative partnerships between athletes and brands, though schools still cannot pay their athletes outright.

Surprising Fact

Earlier this month, a National Labor Relations Board regional director issued a first-of-its-kind ruling enabling members of Dartmouth College’s men’s basketball team to unionize. In that decision, the NLRB claimed the Ivy League school “has the right to control the work performed” by the men’s basketball team, and that its players can be considered employees.

Tangent

In 2022, tech behemoth Amazon, in a potential bid to compete more heavily in the booming video game arena, reportedly pursued a purchase for EA, USA Today reported, causing shares of EA to briefly spike. Amazon later dismissed the report, and has not made an offer for the company.

Further Reading

basketball-players-are-school-employees-and-can-form-first-of-its-kind-union-nlrb-rules/?sh=11b20a2a6e60">Dartmouth Basketball Players Are School Employees—And Can Form First-Of-Its-Kind Union, NLRB Rules (Forbes)

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I am a Boston-based reporter. Before joining Forbes, I covered the environment, local government and the arts for a small-town newspaper on Nantucket. My previous work includes NPR, WBUR, WCAI and Nantucket Today. I am a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a degree in political science. Email me at [email protected]

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2024-02-22 15:57:17
#Sports #âCollege #Football #25â #Pay #Athletes #Appearance