Deep Dive: How NIL & Transfer Portal Integration Transforms EA Sports College Football 25

EA Sports College Football 25 is scheduled to release this summer. However, a lot has changed since the series entered its hiatus in 2013. College football will never be the same as it was back then. When the last game was released in July 2013, Johnny Manziel was the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and Alabama had just blown out Manti Teo and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the BCS National Championship game.

The new game will enter a world where NIL and the transfer portal both exist. EA Sports has already confirmed that both of these will be in the game. We aren’t quite sure yet how they will be implemented. With the game set to be revealed next month, we still have some time to speculate about how these two new mechanics will work in game.

Recruiting

NIL Rules

The biggest part of the game that will be impacted by the addition of NIL and the transfer portal is recruiting. Let’s start with the NIL part. Now, according to official NCAA rules, NIL is not allowed to be used as an incentive in the recruiting process. So, if the game were to follow this rule, then NIL could not be used in recruiting players to your school.

However, there is reason to believe the game will not have to follow this rule. First, anyone involved in college football today knows that this rule is being ignored. There are plenty of statements from coaches, players, athletic directors, analysts, and so on that say that NIL is 100% being used as a recruiting tool at every school around the country.

Second, the NCAA is currently in a court battle about whether they can enforce this rule or not. Several states have sued the NCAA to prevent them from enforcing the rule against NIL being used in recruiting. In February of this year, a federal judge issued an injunction that prevents the NCAA from enforcing this rule until the case is resolved. This could take years to wrap up, so the NCAA has its hands tied for now.

Third, this game isn’t called NCAA Football 25, it’s College Football 25. It has not been confirmed yet if the NCAA license and branding are involved in the game at all. So if the NCAA isn’t in the game, why would the game have to follow NCAA rules that aren’t even being enforced?

How Will it Work?

With all that said, NIL deals will likely be used as a part of recruiting in College Football 25. We don’t know yet how it will be implemented, because we don’t know how recruiting in general will work in the game. The new game could take a hands-off approach similar to NCAA Football 14, or a more involved system like NCAA Football 10. Either way, NIL expectations will be involved. If I were making this decision, I would have the NIL system be similar to the rookie slot bonus system found in MLB The Show’s Franchise mode. Here’s how it would work.

NIL Collective

First, before you even start talking to recruits, you would need to build your collective. The money for your NIL collective would come from two sources: fan donations and corporate sponsorships. Fan donations would be directly tied to team success and fan interest. The better the team has been over the last few years, the more fans will be willing to donate to keep the team good.

Meanwhile, you will try to sign corporate sponsors to partner with your collective. These will be the companies that will do the actual NIL deals with your players. So if you have Taco Bell as a corporate sponsor, then your players will have NIL deals with Taco Bell. That includes things like commercials, billboards, celebrity appearances at local restaurants, etc.

Now that your collective is built, you will have to figure out how much NIL money a recruit wants. Remember, you still have to continue paying your current players their NIL money, so not all of your collective’s money can go to recruits. You will need to scout players and talk with them to learn about what they are expecting. You can then offer them more or less what they are asking for, and that will show up in their interest either increasing or decreasing the following week.

Coach Upgrades

There could also be Coach upgrades like NCAA Football 14 had that help you progress your NIL collective. One might be an upgrade that increases the percentage your collective money increases each season. Another one might increase the chance a player will be willing to accept less NIL money to play for your school.

Regardless of how EA Sports decides to implement it, NIL is going to be a big part of recruiting in College Football 25. It should make the recruiting experience more engaging, without feeling like money is the only thing a recruit cares about. You shouldn’t be able to buy literally every player you want. It needs to be balanced so that you have to make the hard decisions on how to manage your money. If you make bad decisions, you need to feel the consequences of that.

Transfer Portal

The transfer portal is the part of College Football 25 that I’m the most excited about. This will be something you’ll need to keep an eye on throughout the year. It isn’t uncommon for players to leave their team and enter the portal during the season. This could happen to your team if one of your highly-rated recruits doesn’t get the playing time you promised him.

Meanwhile, you’ll need to watch out to see what players from other teams have entered the portal and you can start recruiting to your team. Perhaps you missed out on that 5-star QB last year in recruiting, but now he has entered the portal halfway through his freshman year. Now you have a second chance to get him on your team.

Choosing to recruit transfers or high schoolers will be a big choice for players to make. High schoolers offer more potential for growth and more years of eligibility. Meanwhile, transfers would likely be higher rated, offering more immediate help to fill some holes in your team.

One final part that the transfer portal could affect is bowl games. Every year now we see tons of players sit out of bowl games. These players plan on entering the portal and don’t want to risk an injury. If this is a feature in College Football 25, it will make bowl season a lot more interesting. You could fight your whole season to make a bowl game, just to have your top players sit out and then transfer somewhere else.

Looking Ahead

NIL and the transfer portal are two of the most exciting new features coming in College Football 25. While we still don’t know how it will all work, it is fun to speculate and think up scenarios we might see in the new game. Hopefully we will get more information about these two components of college football when the game is officially revealed next month.