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Year-End Awards: Best NIL Deal — EA Sports College Football 25

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Year-End Awards: Best NIL Deal — EA Sports College Football 25

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The O’Bannon v. NCAA lawsuit that ultimately ushered in the name, image and likeness era to college athletics had one early casualty: the end of college football video games.

For 11 years, starting with the 2013 release of EA Sports College Football 2014, fans of the sport had no video game to supplement their Saturdays.

That all changed with the release in July of EA College Sports Football 25. According to a report from market research company Circana, it is now the best-selling sports video game in U.S. history (by dollar sales). In an outcome that surely made Ed O’Bannon himself happy, it also trumpeted its presence on the NIL scene with the largest such deal ever created, one that took two years to pull off between EA, Learfield and OneTeam Partners, and has resulted in the game winning SBJ’s Best NIL Deal of the Year honor.

“For a single deal, for a single product, in the marketplace across your sponsorship deals or a licensed product, this is an unprecedented offering to this many players,” said OneTeam President Frank Arthofer. “The ability to, in an ideal world, capture the significant majority of DI college football players to participate in this game and partnership with EA and our friends at CLC is the first of its kind. 

Electronic Arts offered every athlete in the FBS — more than 14,000 — $600 and a copy of the new college football game for opting in to an NIL deal facilitated by Learfield (via its Compass app), with OneTeam Partners handling the offers, signups and payments. EA also offered what it termed “ambassador” deals to players such as Colorado’s two-way star (and eventual Heisman Trophy winner) Travis Hunter and quarterback Quinn Ewers of Texas, which included more money and exposure.

11,000 — College football players (out of 14,000 offers) who were included in the video game’s return edition


In a July interview, EA Senior Vice President Daryl Holt said he’d hoped the giant video game publisher could “help influence” the NIL conversation. “We did, to a certain extent … use our game as an example,” he said. Having 14,000 athletes opt in to the NIL program in EA College Football 25 is “really the largest [NIL program] of its kind,” added Holt.  

Not every one of those 14,000 received compensation, as EA included 11,000 in the final game. Some players opted out, while others, such as backup Texas quarterback Arch Manning, declined to take the deal at first before later opting in.  

EA’s approach to NIL has been a resounding success, and it hopes it can bring such offers to other college athletes in the future, including women.  

“We know we’re making a college football game, but there could be a female volleyball player or gymnast that really embodies and represents the spirit and pageantry of a particular school,” said Sean O’Brien, EA Sports vice president of business development. “And as an amazing spokesperson for that school, we’re absolutely going to lean into different types of athletes in different genders to represent that particular school.”

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