Tulane Football Can Tap Into New NIL Royalties in EA Sports College Football 26

Now that the House v. NCAA settlement has been approved, college football enters a new era where schools will pay players directly for their NIL.

The Tulane Green Wave is one of the most competitive Group of Five teams in the nation in contention for the College Football Playoff spot.

As head coach Jon Sumrall makes a push in his second season, fans can now chip in to retain star talent through NIL in a unique way.

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The release of EA College Football 26 will have innovative changes that allow schools to profit off fan play.

Green Wave Fans Can Help by Playing EA Sports College Football 26

As reported by cllctmedia's Matt Liberman, schools will now be paid for the use of name, image, and likeness in the newest version of the game.

Crucially, the frequency with which the teams appear in gameplay will determine their royalties.

The video game will now compensate all 136 FBS schools, including the Green Wave, for their fan popularity.

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College Football 26 is set to be released July 10, and the highly anticipated new version will look to capitalize on last year's, which was the most played sports video game ever with over 1.7 billion streams.

Liberman obtained documents outlining the new royalties structure through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

“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," a document obtained by Liberman stated. "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.”

In the sample scenario presented, let's say the total royalties reported in the university pool are $5 million, and the total number of games played is seven hundred million.

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If a school's game was played seven million times within that total number, that would allocate 1% of the total $5 million to come out to $500,000 in royalties.

This groundbreaking change should transform the ability to retain star talent, as breakout players are used more often in games and would therefore garner increased NIL funds to be paid.

The royalty allocations were previously broken into four tiers based on real-world success, or actual games played on the field.

The last 10 years' final AP Poll results determined the tier for teams that opted in last year. Teams received one point for each year they finished in the Top 25.

This situation is certainly challenging for Tulane football, as their appearance in the 2022 AP Top 25 marked their first ranking since 1998. That was the only season they ended the year ranked, with a No. 9 finish.

That makes them one of 26 schools in Tier 3 with a $39,950 payout.

With Tulane's recent success, that all stands to change with the new royalties structure and will better match their play on the field with a comparable payout.

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