EA Sports will pay Kentucky second-tier money to be in new College Football 25 video game

DrewFranklinKSR

More information continues to emerge about EA Sports College Football 25 before the video game’s mid-July release date. We were blessed with the game’s cover art and first glimpse at gameplay earlier this month. The official trailer fueled the anticipation for EA’s first college football game in over a decade.

Also from the May information dump, a FOIA request by Cllct.com revealed how much each school will be compensated for participating in the game. According to Cllct.com, the 134 FBS schools were split into four tiers based on the last 10 years of AP poll results, with each tier attached to a set royalty payout. Schools in Tier 1–the 13 best of the best college football programs–will receive nearly $100K each for their inclusion in the game. Tier 4 makes one-tenth of that, earning almost $10K in royalties.

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Kentucky fell into Tier 2, along with 40 other schools beneath the top 13, making $59,925.09 for being a part of College Football 25. Tier 2 also includes Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Auburn, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, and Missouri from the SEC, while Arkansas and South Carolina are Tier 2, and Vanderbilt is the SEC’s only Tier 4 school. Alabama, Georgia, LSU, and Oklahoma represent the South in Tier 1, pulling in the biggest paydays at $99,875.16 apiece.

SCHOOL PAYOUTS

Tier 1: $99,875.16
Tier 2: $59,925.09
Tier 3: $39,950.06
Tier 4: $9,987.52

Payouts were determined on a four-tiered system.

Tiers are determined by each team's finish in the final
AP Poll over the last 10 seasons, per documents obtained by cllct.

When a team finished the year in the AP's Top 25, it received one point. pic.twitter.com/SLRp7100i1
— cllct (@cllctMedia) May 24, 2024

Player Payouts

As first reported in February, every player who opts in will receive $600 and a free copy of the game. You can learn more about the player opt-in program here.

College Football 25 launches worldwide on July 19th, 2024.