EA Sports College Football seems close to its goal of players opting into the game just one week after EA announced players were allowed to sign on. With new players opting into the game every hour, the game has officially crossed 10,000 players opting in. For reference, there are about 16,500 FBS college football players. However, the game only plans on featuring 85-player rosters, which comes out to a total of about 11,400 players.
The number puts the game at about 87% of all their players opting in.
Fear of Protest Subsided…For Now
There was a little fear that players may protest the game because of NIL and trying to draw a line in the sand. Essentially the idea was that a starting QB for a big-name school should be getting more NIL money from the game than a third string left tackle at a low G5 school, however that hasn’t seemed to be an issue.
Perhaps the main reason for this is the threat by EA that it is an all-or-nothing deal. Essentially EA said that if a player was going to complain and opt out, they would just be left out of the game. This seems to be enough for most players just to accept the deal and be content with it.
One has to wonder, once the novelty of the game wears off a bit if a group of top players will band together and demand more. If the top five or ten players all protested the game, EA would likely cave and have to make more individual deals since the value of the game would go down without the best players.
Player Involvement in EA Sports College Football
Unlike Madden or 2K, the EA Sports College Football Game actually won’t be bringing any players in to mimic their style and personality. Instead, everything will be designed virtually with hours of research and development, but not using any technology that involves other players.
This may be another selling point to the better players in college football. Essentially, they don’t have to do anything expect opt in and sign their name on a piece of paper to get the $600 and a copy of the game.
All in all, EA Sports College Football is off to a great start with getting players invested in the game, and EA may end up getting very close to getting every big name they want in the game.