How much does EA College Football 25 pay programs to be in the game? Breaking down tier-wise payroll for schools

EA's College Football 25 boasts an impressive roster of real college teams from across the country, and constant updates to the game also include newly signed teams following the game's release. Apart from the game's stellar gameplay, one of the biggest selling points for CFB 25 was its depiction of real college football teams and players from across the country.

It was revealed before the release of the game that EA had spent a considerable amount of money on building its roster of teams and players, by signing over 10,000 players to likeness deals in accordance with their NIL deal guidelines.

EA also paid lump sums to each college featured in College Football 25 via four tiers used to categorize the teams that they signed deals with. The difference between the sums paid to each tier is considerable.

EA College Football 25 payroll tiers for schools

Tier 1 is filled by powerhouses like Oregon, Alabama, LSU, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and a few others. These teams each received just short of $100,000.

Tier 2 features some exceptional teams as well, such as USC, the Texas Longhorns, Ole Miss, Arizona, and UCLA, among others. With a considerable drop in price, these teams accepted deals for almost $60,000 each.

Tier 3 and 4 are interesting cases. While they both feature a few stacked teams with large fanbases and impressive accolades under their belt, these teams were still placed in lower tiers and given smaller deals than one would expect. For example, Syracuse and Georiga Tech are in Tier 3 while Nebraska, Duke, and Illinois State are in Tier 4.

Tier 3 colleges were paid just under $40,000, while Tier 4 received just under $10,000.

Each team's tier placement was reportedly decided by the final AP Polls of the last 10 years. A top 25 placement within any of these years earned each team one point.

Fans of the game were predictably unsurprised when they found schools like LSU and Clemson at the top of the list, and amused to find USC being placed on the same level as UCLA. The placements of all Florida teams were also a point of contention and sparked debates about what teams like FSU and Utah really deserved.

Most fans of College Football 25 won't pay much attention to these deals once they get to actually playing the game, and these rankings are not set in stone. It is, however, interesting how winning and losing have affected these teams, even in virtual worlds.