The Oregon Ducks have teamed up with Pathway Sports and Entertainment, a firm dedicated to monetizing athletes’ name, image, and likeness, or NIL rights, via the video game EA Sports College Football. As reported by Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, the organization will be “offering players four-figure guarantees through video game NIL contracts.”
Pathway Sports has officially signed more than 450 athletes from schools such as Oregon, Alabama Crimson Tide, Georgia Bulldogs, Illinois Fighting Illini, Wisconsin Badgers, and Texas Tech Red Raiders.
The organization is guided by a three-person leadership team featuring former Altius Sports Partners CEO and NFL Players Association executive Casey Schwab. He declared that every player will receive $1,500 as an initial payment along with the possibility of royalties.
The majority of athletic directors and college football coaches aim to assist their football players in earning real commercial income. “The response has been outstanding up to this point.” – Casey Schwab via Yahoo Sports
“A fresh initiative is acquiring the video NIL licensing rights of FBS college football players for use in the college football video game.” Pathway Sports and Entertainment, established by Casey Schwab, has secured contracts with most football players from Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Texas Tech, according to the company. “ESPN’s Pete Thamel via X
Schwab aims to recruit players from various institutions such as Clemson, West Virginia, Missouri, and Tennessee. His aim is to enroll every scholarship football player from the 134 FBS institutions.
EA Sports entered an agreement with the NIL licensing organization OneTeam Partners last summer. In its comeback to the market since NCAA Football 14, College Football 25 generated more than $500 million in sales within the initial two weeks after being released to consumers. It became the top-selling sports video game in the history of the United States. However, each player who signed on received only $600, which corresponds to two percent of the overall sales from the video game.
The main goal is for athletes to earn more money than we observed during the inaugural year of the video game. We are generating shared benefits in this situation. This is beneficial for athletic directors, coaches, and schools as they strive to develop genuine opportunities for their athletes. These are valid. “Casey Schwab through Yahoo Sports
Schwab believes his company is well-positioned to advocate for players, as it solely focuses on representing athletes for college football video game agreements and nothing else.
“I think the ideal approach to create the largest pie is to ensure passionate representation from both sides of the intellectual property table.” – Casey Schwab via Front Office Sports
An official release date for College Football 26 has not been revealed, but it is anticipated to arrive sometime in the summer.
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