CFBPA Organizing Boycott of 2024 EA Sports College Football Video Game
The College Football Players Association (CFBPA) is organizing a boycott of the upcoming 2024 EA Sports College Football game after details emerged about what players would be paid for their likeness in the game.
Last month, it was announced that EA Sports would allow players to “opt-in” to the game, and would receive some form of compensation for their name, image, and likeness.
According to On3, that compensation would be around $500 to every player in the FBS, no more, no less with roughly 10,000 eligible FBS players splitting an estimated $5 million cash pool evenly. Perhaps the worst part is, there is no plan for royalties to be paid to players, nor is there room to negotiate additional payment.
In response to this, CFBPA vice president Justin Falcinelli is urging players to boycott the game, in hopes that EA will reconsider its payout plans.
“All current players should boycott this deal. It is an opt-in deal, and they should not opt into it. It is just a ridiculously low amount of money,” Falcinelli told On3. “Given the context and the hype that surrounds this game. When we first heard the number, we’re like, ‘Alright, that sounds low. Let’s go figure out if it is low.’ And started talking to guys, talked to some of my friends, some guys who are still playing in the NFL. ‘So, what are NFL players getting paid for Madden?’ And the numbers we were given were from 2019, it was disclosed that they got, I think, about $17,000. And then a current NFL player told us that he got a check for $28,000 this year for Madden.
“You should not participate in this. It is a simple cash grab to just try to get you for the lowest amount possible. And it’s OneTeam Partners and all these organizations that don’t really represent the players’ best interest.”
Falcinelli claims that EA Sports is “exploiting” college football players by only paying them the flat rate of $500, but using Madden as a baseline could be problematic. While there are 10,000 players in the FBS, there are around 1,700 players in the NFL. Plus, Madden was frequently outselling NCAA Football games by a wide margin when the two co-existed around a decade ago.
Is $500 low? Perhaps, but comparing that to the $28,000 check that NFL players got last year for Madden? That just doesn’t seem like a feasible argument, given the number of players that need to be compensated. It’s clear there are still some hurdles to be cleared before a college football video game can be rolled out smoothly, but at least we’re back on the road to seeing one released for the first time since 2013.
