Name Image Likeness

Ewers, Dart, Hunter Highlight Early EA Sports College Football 25 Ambassadors

EA Sports partners with Opendorse to launch a large scale athlete ambassador campaign

Noah Henderson

Ewers, Dart, Hunter Highlight Early EA Sports College Football 25 Ambassadors
Ewers, Dart, Hunter Highlight Early EA Sports College Football 25 Ambassadors /
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Yesterday, it was announced that all FBS scholarship football players will receive $600 and a complimentary copy of the highly awaited EA Sports College Football 25 video game if they choose to grant EA Sports license to utilize their likeness in the aforementioned game.

EA Sports has made it clear that there will be no negotiation to be for NIL licensing in the upcoming title. Without a union for college athletes, the opt-in process looks much different than their professional peers, whose respective unions handle the NIL licensing agreements on their behalf.  Now, EA Sports has partnered with Opendorse to provide compensation to elite student-athletes beyond the opt-in licensing payment.   

While the novelty and honor of being included in the first iteration of the reimagined franchise seems like enough for most of the roughly 11,000 eligible players to jump at the $600 offer, for those with the biggest NIL valuations, this number is a complete low-ball compared to their rate for other endorsement deals utilizing their NIL.

In order to sweeten the pot for some of the nation’s brightest stars, quell any resentment towards a low licensing fee, and establish a useful marketing tool, EA Sports has partnered with Opendorse to create a large-scale athlete ambassador program. EA Sports, through Opendorse will collaborate with over one hundred of the nation’s most notable men’s and women’s college athletes from football and beyond to create a vast social media marketing campaign.

The compensation for the ambassador program varies from athlete to athlete and is determined by the respective ambassador’s social media following, a more equitable form of payment than the fixed rate offered from EA Sports opt-in program. While this compensation is not tied to a player’s appearance in the game, if nothing else, it serves as an acknowledgement to payment inequity for big name players. Other NIL bonus compensation will go towards any athlete(s) who appear on the games cover or other promotional material.

So far, many notable colleges football players have already signed the dotted line and begun to cash in for their promotion of the new game as official EA Sports College Football 25 ambassadors. Notable players include:

Cade Klubnik, Clemson (QB)

Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss (QB)

Malachi Moore, Alabama (DB)

Will Johnson, Michigan (DB)

Nick Singleton, Penn State (RB)

Garrett Nussmeier, LSU (QB)

Luke Altmyer, Illinois (QB)

Travis Hunter, Colorado (WR/DB)

Quinn Ewers, Texas (QB)

Donovan Edwards, Michigan (RB)

Jalen Milroe, Alabama (QB)

Quinshon Judkins, Ole Miss (RB)

Carson Beck, Georgia (QB)

Denzel Burke, Ohio State (DB)

Overnight, EA Sports launched one of the most ambitious college athlete campaigns ever seen in the NIL era. With a target number north of one hundred players for the ambassador program, this campaign will be omnipresent.  Sam Weber, Head of Brand Marketing at Opendorse, acknowledges that “the Scale and Impact of this campaign make it special.” EA Sports made the decision to align themselves with the NIL industry giant Opendorse for good reason. Since inception, the Opendorse marketplace has helped facilitate over 100,000 endorsement deals for over 100,000 athletes.

Within this experience comes a quiet confidence, in a statement from Weber, “Ultimately, this is what we do. No company on the planet is better at bringing athletes and brands together for NIL Campaigns. EA Sports came to us with a special vision and I’m proud that our team has brought it to life with some of the biggest stars in college sports.”

Within one day of launch, EA Sports and Opendorse have already blasted social channels with endorsements from some of the brightest stars in college football. Strategically this plan is genius: utilizing high-level athletes to promote one of the most anticipated games while simultaneously reducing discontent with low NIL licensing fees. Bravo, EA Sports. Bravo, Opendorse. 

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Noah Henderson
NOAH HENDERSON

Professor Noah Henderson teaches in the sport management department at Loyola University Chicago. Outside the classroom, he advises companies, schools, and collectives on Name, Image, and Likeness best practices. His academic research focuses on the intersection of law, economics, and social consequences regarding college athletics, NIL, and sports gambling. Before teaching, Prof. Henderson was part of a team that amended Illinois NIL legislation and managed NIL collectives at the nation’s most prominent athletic institutions while working for industry leader Student Athlete NIL. He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law in Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Economics from Saint Joseph’s University, where he was a four-year letter winner on the golf team. Prof. Henderson is a native of San Diego, California, and a former golf CIF state champion with Torrey Pines High School. Outside of athletics, he enjoys playing guitar, hanging out with dogs, and eating California burritos. You can follow him on Twitter: @NoahImgLikeness. 

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