Fans and gamers alike rejoiced last year when EA Sports brought back a college football game for the first time in over a decade. But this year with the release of College Football ’26, it is taking fandom to a new and never before seen level.
One of the reasons why the beloved video game franchise was able to return is the changing landscape of college sports and the ability to pay players through NIL (and as of Friday night, the House settlement).
But College Football ’26 will present fans with an incredible new reality when it releases later this summer. As cllct reports, royalties will be distributed based on how many games are played with each school in the video game. This means that fans will have a direct impact on revenue given to schools based on how popular they are in College Football ’26.
Beginning with this new edition released in July, all 136 FBS schools that opted into the game will be compensated by their popularity with gamers.
One document states, “For each CFB product released by EA SPORTS, we (CLC Learfield) will provide a percentage for each institution based on the games played for that institution as a percentage of the total games played across all institutions. This percentage of games played will become the final allocation percentage for each school that will be applied to the total gross royalties for all institutions received.”
The original royalty plan called for funds to be divided between teams based on historical performance in the previous 10 years of the final AP Poll rankings with every school placed in one of four tiers. But now according to cllct, each team could see a different payout from EA Sports based on how often gamers play with their school of choice.
It’s a totally unique idea and could affect how college football fans approach College Football ’26. If you’re an Ohio State fan, but you love playing dynasty mode by taking the North Texas Mean Green all the way to the mountaintop, would you change your approach and just play with the Buckeyes knowing that your play time will put a little bit more in their NIL piggybank? Or will you go all in with the Mean Green and maybe become a fan of them in real life knowing that your hours on the console will go some way to evening the playing field between the haves and the have nots?
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