EA Will Pay Student-Athletes $1500 To Appear In CFB 26, More That Double Last Year's Rate

After paying college athletes $600 to appear in College Football 25, EA will pay players more than double that for this year's CFB 26. EA Sports confirmed to FBS players in an email today, obtained by The Athletic, stating that players will get $1,500 if they opt in to appear in this year's game. This is no surprise, as this information leaked earlier this year.

Additionally, players will receive a Deluxe Edition copy of the game--this was also offered in 2025. EA will pay some athletes more for appearing as brand ambassadors, just like last year.

A spokesperson for EA said, "College sports are growing and changing, and our focus at EA Sports is on continuing to put athletes first as we bring them in the game in College Football 26 and beyond."

More than 11,000 student-athletes appeared in CFB 25 through Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals, with EA spending more than $6 million to cover that. A spokesperson told The Athletic that EA will double its payment to players to more than $16.5 million to help them feel recognized for the success of CFB 25. Of note, the $16.5 million figure reportedly does not include any further payments to certain players who have ambassador deals or for further payments to cover athletes.

That game was the No. 2 best-selling game of 2024 overall in the US, only surpassed by Black Ops 6. CFB 25 was the best-selling sports video game in US history based on dollar sales.

According to Front Office Sports, EA is also potentially going to negotiate royalty-based payments for certain players on top of the $1,500 appearance fee.

CFB 26 is in the works now and is expected to launch in July. EA Sports executive Daryl Holt told The Athletic that the team knew it was never going to be able to get everything it wanted to in 2024's game. "So there's a lot of meat left on the bone," he said.

Holt declined to get into specifics regarding new features for CFB 26, but teased, "We've got a lot of things still to come."

He added: "We release a game, we understand what's important to players and what they play and what they would like changed, improved or added. This is a game for fans built by college fans ourselves, and we want it to be that type of relationship to understand what's important to them."