The Name, Image and Likeness story in college athletics will come full circle next summer.
The NIL era was born way back in 2009, when former UCLA basketball player Ed O'Bannon filed a class action lawsuit against the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company, alleging that he was not properly compensated for his likeness appearing in the EA Sports NCAA video game. The case was finally decided in 2014, when judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the NCAA's practice of not compensating athletes for likenesses that were clearly based on them violated antitrust laws.
Sensing what was coming, EA Sports canceled the NCAA Football video game in 2013, and degenerates have been playing NCAA Football 14 for nearly a decade now.
With NIL payments coming to college football that summer, in February 2021 EA Sports announced it would bring back the video game, under a new name, in 2024. It was not immediately clear if all FBS schools would license their logos and properties over to the game, depending on if and how EA Sports compensated the players who would appear in the game. No one wanted to be party to an O'Bannon v. NCAA Part II.
On Wednesday, the EA Sports announced it has reached an agreement with OneTeam Partners to compensate athletes for their likenesses appearing in the game.
This means that when EA Sports College Football hits shelves in 2024, players won't have to play Arch Manning as "Texas QB #16." They can play him as "Arch Manning."
Players will have to opt in to the program, and those who do not will see their likeness replaced by a generic player. From ESPN:
Details -- such as how much an athlete will receive and the structure of payments -- are still being finalized, but the EA Sports representative said the goal is to be "as inclusive and equitable as possible." On the OneTeam website, the company stated that if the influence of individual sales couldn't be figured out -- including for video game licensing -- then "revenue will be divided equally among the athletes included in each licensing program."
As of Wednesday, 120 FBS programs had opted in to the game, along with all 10 FBS conferences and the College Football Playoff. This news means the dozen or so hold outs will likely join as well.