When EA Sports College Football 25 arrives in stores this summer, there will be thousands of real college football players in the game. The video game series, which last appeared in 2013, will feature all 134 FBS teams, and the company making the game hoped for 11,000 players to opt into their NIL offer of $600 and a free copy of the game to appear. Well, just over a week after that initial offer, over 10,000 players signed up to appear.

“In just eight days, more than 10,000 players have opted in for EA Sports College Football 25,” Front Office Sports reported on Monday. “That's already 87% of the game's goal.”

This is a huge victory for both EA Sports and college football players after years of controversy that kept this and the NCAA Basketball series off of shelves for a decade.

The catalyst that led to NIL in college athletics was UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon suing the NCAA for profiting off his name, image, and likeness rights without him getting a dime. At the heart of the lawsuit was his likeness in the EA Sports video game.

Now, college athletes can make money off of their name, image, and likeness, and that is why NCAA College Football 25 is here. And it should be better than ever.

One of the weaknesses of the NCAA College Football franchise in its previous incarnation was that, while the game had player's likenesses and general attributes, there were no names. With this NIL deal EA Sports has struck with players, the game will now have more realism than ever, with the actual named players appearing in the game.