EA is bringing back a beloved college football video game (and paying $6 million in NIL money to do it)

EA Sports College Football is back, and this time, players will get to see actual names on the back of jerseys — not “QB #7”. A landmark series of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals will revive EA’s beloved franchise, which went dormant more than a decade ago.

From 1993 to 2014, EA Sports put out annual college football video games, which eschewed the use of player names to abide by the NCAA rules at the time. The franchise became a classic and still has a strong cult following more than a decade after the release of its most recent title.

EA Sports College Football went away in the wake of a 2013 court decision, which awarded more than $40 million to a group of former college athletes. The plaintiffs, led by Nebraska and Arizona State quarterback Sam Keller, successfully argued that EA Sports had to right to profit from College Football players when the athletes themselves could not.

The advent of the NIL era changed everything. Now that players can profit from the franchise, it’s coming back — and EA is paying a pretty penny to make sure EA Sports College Football 25 will have as many names in it as possible. The California-based video game company offered players $600 and a free copy of the game if they agreed to lend their likenesses to the upcoming title. More than 10,000 football players said yes to that agreement, which means that EA’s total NIL bill will range between $6 million and $7 million.

Approximately 1,000 players opted out of the game. That number includes Arch Manning, the nephew of legendary quarterbacks Peyton and Eli. EA will protect players’ choices by preventing gamers from manually adding those athletes to their College Football rosters.

Not everyone is thrilled with the return of College Football, but gamers who grew up with the franchise in the 90s and 00s will be thrilled to return to it. Hopefully the NIL era convinces EA Sports to make more college sports games. I for one would play the heck out of a college hockey simulator.