For the first time in over a decade, EA Sports is making their return to the college football realm with College Football 25. However, news broke on Friday morning that the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) has chosen to opt out of being featured in this year’s game.
This is the first college sports video game that’ll compensate players for their name, image, and likeness to be included in the game. It was announced earlier this week by the company that over 10,000 athletes have opted-in.
National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) opts out of College Football 25.
The association’s president Mark Wolpert said that it wasn’t worth the offer to allow the awards to be featured.
“The offer that has been made is not adequate for the rights fee for the awards,” Wolpert said.
For football fans, what does this mean? This simply means that fans who play in career modes such as Road to Glory or Dynasty, do not have the chance to win the real trophies that college football players normally are awarded annually.
The list of awards that will not be featured in this year’s game include the Maxwell (Best Player), Chuck Bednarik (Best Defensive Player), Jim Thorpe (Best Defensive Back), Davey O’ Brien (Best Quarterback), Doak Walker (Best Running Back), Fred Biletnikoff (Best Wide Receiver), Outland Trophy (Best Interior Offensive Lineman), Lou Groza (Best Kicker), and Ray Guy (Best Punter). However, this does not mean there won’t be awards in the game. Instead, these awards may just be called “best quarterback”, “best running back”, etc.
Wolpert stated to On3 Sports that the awards weren’t being valued appropriately, so he felt the exposure in the games weren’t worth it.
“It was not something that was representative of any either major awards, assigning image rights and usage rights to a game which we all believe is going to be very popular and going to sell a lot of copies based on past history,” Wolpert said. “There’s an appetite for that game. And if brands are going to be represented there, we want to be compensated properly. So when I explained that to the EA rep, the response came back to me that if we choose not to do that, they’ll just make their own awards up and put them in the game.”
What about the Heisman Trophy?
The Heisman Trophy is operated by the Heisman Trust, not the NCFAA, and so the belief is that the coveted award can still be featured in the upcoming video game.
There is no word on whether the Heisman Trust has accepted an offer from CFB 25. However, there is an assumption that the Heisman will opt in according to On3 Sports.
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