The return of EA Sports’ college football video game has been making headlines lately.
On Tuesday, The Brandr Group sued EA over the company’s attempt to acquire player NIL rights while circumventing Brandr Group’s group licensing deals with schools. Front Office Sports first reported on the lawsuit. This comes after public opposition over how much athletes are being paid to take part in the game. Will this actually affect the game’s release? Probably not.
Here’s what we know:
When is the game coming back?
On February 2, 2021, EA Sports announced the college football game would return for the first time since 2013. The news came amid changes to the naming, image and likeness rules that allow players to earn money for these rights. The NCAA officially allowed NIL deals this summer.
The video game was shut down due to lawsuits over players and their NIL rights, most notably against former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon. EA Sports said it’s willing to pay players, and O’Bannon said he doesn’t want the game to shut down just so players can make money. But the NCAA didn’t want to allow players to make money, and the video game ended for being the most public dartboard about athlete compensation. EA Sports did not want to deal with any further lawsuits. While real players weren’t technically named in the old games, their images and likenesses were obvious. A settlement paid thousands of players an average of $1,600 (net of costs and legal fees) and the game disappeared.
Following EA Sports’ decision to bring the game back, EA’s correspondence with the schools stated that the new game was set to launch in the summer of 2023. In November 2022, the company announced that it would instead come out in the summer of 2024 due to the…how much work it would take to develop a new game.
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How much will players earn from the new game?
In May, EA Sports announced a deal with OneTeam Partners for group licensing, a licensing move often leveraged for team-wide individual NIL usage such as jerseys. Players only need To to play the game. OneTeam has previously worked with EA Sports on group licensing for games like Madden. On3 reported that each player would likely make around $500 (an estimated $5 million pool), excluding royalties.
The reported $500 figure angered some gamers’ rights activists, although the media’s portrayal of a player boycott has never been accurate. Jason Stahl, executive director of the College Football Players Association, wrote that players should boycott the game, but the CFBPA is not a players’ union and has nowhere near enough membership to boycott it. Stahl tried last year to lead the eventual failed organizing initiative surrounding Penn State Football. There is no organization that speaks for the majority or even the majority of college football players. At least for the moment there is no boycott.
What Stahl and The Brandr Group argue is that since there is no union negotiating it, players should have a greater say in the parameters of the deal. NFL players make thousands of dollars at Madden even though there are fewer NFL players than collegiate players.
Why did Brandr Group sue EA over the game?
Brandr Group is another group licensing company that has been in talks to finalize the college football deal with EA Sports. It has partnerships with more than 50 football schools including Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan and more. Depending on the school, Brandr Group has either “exclusive” or “preferred” group licensing rights, which the Company defines as three or more athletes on a school’s team or six or more in multiple sports using school imagery. The Brandr Group states that their athletes receive 70 percent of the video game grant.
The lawsuit alleges that EA notified Brandr Group in May 2022 that EA would make arrangements through Brandr Group “100 percent” for its partner schools. But in May 2023 that did not happen. As EA Sports is exclusive to OneTeam, how can Brandr school players sign up for the game?
The Brandr Group claims EA has notified Brandr partner schools that players can individually sign up for the game without circumventing Brandr contracts. Brandr claims it was unauthorized interference as schools were pressured into potentially violating their Brandr contracts.
“TBG has learned from some of its partner schools that EA was pressuring schools that had not yet signed up for the game to approve their participation in the game by June 30, 2023,” Brandr Group alleges in the lawsuit.
Brandr Group also claims that they would give players a better deal than OneTeam.
“As we have previously stated, our primary concern is to advocate for student athletes and ensure they have a voice and are fairly represented in all matters involving the use of their name, likeness and likeness (NIL). ‘ the company said in a statement on Tuesday. “We believe that student athletes are not getting fair market value for their NIL rights and that the required contractual rights could limit other NIL play opportunities. We have no further comment at this time.”
(Separately, EA’s agreements for use of school licenses, such as logos, are made through Collegiate Licensing Company or another group.)
Is this really about players or just business?
While Brandr Group’s public comments focused on gamers, the lawsuit is mostly about business. The company has not asked EA to stop the game or NIL deals. It has asked the court to recognize that the Brandr Group holds these exclusive rights and that EA, through Brandr, works with these Brandr partner schools and players, along with monetary damages.
The lawsuit’s argument is essentially this: If EA can bypass our group license agreements to make group NIL deals, then group license agreements mean nothing.
Will this affect the release of the game?
The game looks set to stay on schedule for summer 2024. The game doesn’t need real players, but it’s something everyone wants to have. It does no one any good not to have it. The Brandr Group has not asked to stop EA from producing the game, and sports business attorney Mit Winter told The Athletic that an injunction to stop the game was unlikely to succeed. This is largely a sports business and licensing issue, not a game release.
Also, uploading the player pics isn’t as time-consuming as creating the actual gameplay, and the game can download squad updates when needed.
What can we expect in the game?
As The Athletic and other media have reported, the game will be based on the Madden engine, with a focus on the Road to Glory and Dynasty modes. There will be a wide variety of uniforms, as well as school-specific traditions and music. The game is also expected to include the transfer portal and an expanded college football playoff.
(Photo: Edward Linsmier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)