College Football 26: EA Sports more than doubles payments to every player appearing in game

After the success of College Football 25 for EA Sports, they’re upping the compensation for players participating in this year’s iteration of the highly-anticipated video game. According to Chris Vannini of The Athletic, they’re more than doubling the payment for inclusion in College Football 26.

“Players will be paid a lot more money for appearing in this year’s edition of EA Sports’ college football video game,” Vannini noted. “In an email to Football Bowl Subdivision players sent Tuesday afternoon, EA Sports said it would increase players’ name, image and likeness payments from $600 to $1,500 for their inclusion in the upcoming College Football 26 video game.

“They will also receive a Deluxe Edition of the game, a carryover from the compensation system for College Football 25. As was also the case last year, some athletes will receive additional compensation to serve as brand ambassadors to promote the game.”

That’s a hefty raise for players to be included in this season’s game. College Football 25 went on to become the highest-selling sports video game of all-time in total dollars, so it makes sense the team at EA Sports is rewarding players with a little extra coin this time around.

As part of the announcement, EA Sports vice president of business development Sean O’Brien released a statement. He commended the NIL program his team has created, and believes it’ll continue putting “athletes first” now and in the future.

“From the beginning, we’ve designed our NIL program to be accessible, direct, voluntary and equitable for all, offering the same base-level compensation to every FBS athlete that opts-in using the OneTeam platform and COMPASS NIL app,” O’Brien said in a statement, per Vannini. “This approach empowers each athlete to make their own decision. College sports are growing and changing, and our focus at EA Sports is on continuing to put athletes first as we bring them in the game in College Football 26 and beyond.”

That’s pretty awesome from EA Sports, even if it’ll be a hefty bill: “In total, EA Sports will spend more than $16.5 million for the NIL rights of players, the largest single-sport NIL deal ever,” Vannini added. “That does not include the additional payments to ambassadors, the $100 value of the game or additional compensation for cover athletes, of which there appear to be many.”

Time will tell if College Football 26 can mimic the success of its predecessor. Nevertheless, college football players will be able to make a nice chunk of change for being included in the game, and fans can get excited for another fun one this summer.