College Football 25: After $6.6M NIL program, EA Sports announces major decision not in favor of gamers

EA Sports has made another major decision for the upcoming video game College Football 25.

EA Sports unveiled a massive NIL program earlier this week in which college football players can opt-in to College Football 25 and get paid for it. The program is worth worth $6.6m. Up to 85 players per school will initially appear on rosters in the game, which comes out this summer.

The players that opt-in to have their name, image and likeness appear will eventually receive $600, plus a copy of the game. The sum will be paid annually for every year they are in the game.

"We feel very proud that we'll be the largest program, likely the highest-spending program," EA Sports vice president of business development Sean O'Brien told ESPN. "And really an inclusive opportunity with an equitable distribution of funds across the board."

However, EA Sports decided that gamers can't create any college football player who has opted out of the program. It's uncertain how EA Sports will block gamers from creating those players.

"I won't reveal how we're dealing with that," EA Sports esenior vice president Daryl Holt, said. "But yeah, you won't be able to edit that."

For any player that opts out of the game, EA Sports will create a generic avatar based on the traditional strength or weakness of a position over the past decade for that school.

Everything else you need to know about College Football 25

The other big news about College Football 25 is that all 134 FBS schools have agreed to be in the game. The biggest hurdle was getting Notre Dame to agree to be in College Football 25. However, the school announced it will be part of the video game.

“The work that EA SPORTS is doing to provide over 11,000 college student-athletes opportunities to benefit directly from their name, image and likeness is a first-of-its-kind undertaking and we’re proud to have been involved in the process,” Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said in a statement on social media.

EA Sports College Football 25 doesn't have a release date but could be released this summer.

The commentators for College Football 25 will be Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler, who announced the news on social media. Analysts David Pollack and Jesse Palmer and anchor Kevin Connors confirmed they will also be in the game.