EA Sports’ college football future in jeopardy, sources fear

The future of EA Sports College Football is facing questions just two years after the franchise’s wildly successful return. In 2024, EA Sports released College Football 25, bringing back college football video games for the first time in 11 years following the demise of the former NCAA football franchise.

There was no official NCAA license with the new game, but that didn’t stop it from becoming one of the best-selling games in the United States in 2024. It sold so well that it led to an increase in sales of current-generation consoles like the Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5 and finished as the second best-selling game in the United States for the year, just behind Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. It even ended up as the video game of best-selling sport in U.S. history in terms of dollar sales.

Suffice to say that the game was a success.

This was followed by another successful year in 2025. Although it did not perform as well as the first game, College Football 26 was the seventh best-selling game of the year.

Moving on to College Football 27, there was some excitement, but it was followed by frustration and anger from some of the biggest members of the creator community when it was discovered that single-player modes like Road to Glory and Dynasty had increased microtransactions while removing options and sliders previously available to push players toward those additional purchases.

Eventually, EA gave in and removed the additional microtransactions.

At the time, they said the additional purchase options were added “independently of deeper progression in the mode, with the aim of giving players more choice, but what you said is that they don’t add the value we wanted.”

EA removed them, but the company still plans to reintroduce them in future releases.

The goal, EA said, for College Football 28 and future entries is to “deliver valuable features and content with greater transparency and communication.”

But what does this future look like? Where does EA Sports college football go from here?

In speaking to multiple sources, I’m told there is real concern about the future of the college football franchise. Although there is a game in the next few years, many of those who spoke, including a few who I would consider to be senior level in the game, expressed concern that the franchise would disappear in the next five years.

The game’s sales, while still strong, have gradually declined since the peak of enthusiasm in 2024. The game was the second best-selling game in July 2026, but fell out of the top 10 the following month. For previous releases, College Football 25 did not fall out of the top 10 until February 2025, while College Football 26 was dropped in December 2025.

College Football 27 ran for one month as a standalone inclusion. I say standalone because it’s part of the EA Sports Kickoff bundle which includes both College Football 27 and Madden NFL 27 for $99.99. It was 4th on the August 2026 bestseller list.

Games vary in popularity and not all games will sell as well as others. But why worry about the future of college football?

One of the main reasons is finances. College Football 25 paid $600 to each player who signed up to be on the game’s roster. With over 11,000 players in the game, that’s around 7-7.5 million players.

Fast forward to College Football 27, and that cost has increased to $1,500 per player. That means the studio is spending just under $20 million on NIL (name, image and likeness) payments alone.

To cover this, EA needs to sell around 275,000 copies at $69.99 to cover the NIL. This will certainly happen, but there will be other costs.

EA also has to pay to license universities, bowl games and other properties. Development and commercialization also cost tens of millions of dollars each year. Sales of the base game may not be enough to meet EA’s internal expectations, especially if more players purchase packs instead of the standalone game.

EA plans more monetization

Sources say there has been an internal effort now to find different ways to monetize because, as one put it, “Ultimate Team failed for us.” That still brings in a lot of money, but far below expectations to counter continued rising costs.

Regarding NIL, what started at the rate of $7-7.5 million could increase even more. Some believe that this amount could reach $30 to $40 million in the coming years if the current pace continues.

For monetization, each source reaffirmed that it will return in modes like Road to Glory and Dynasty. One said: “This is going to piss people off, and if it upsets some people enough it could have a bigger ripple effect on us.” »

But why is there this fear for the future of the game? A source put it bluntly.

We are not FC. We are not Madden. We don’t make as much money as they make, and everyone knows it. But we’re at the point where if we don’t find a way to keep players and, in turn, earn more, we’ll have nothing.

Forget 10 years from now, I’m afraid to know if we have a game by the end of the decade. Games aren’t getting any cheaper to make, and we’re all concerned that EA is going to streamline and only have a few key franchises and abandon everything else.

It is worth mentioning that some sources believe this concern is a bit exaggerated. They said EA “knows what we have with this franchise.” The idea of ​​shrinking the company to just a handful of franchises seemed “too dramatic”, although they didn’t necessarily want to belittle those working on the game who felt that way. They still believe, they say, that the future of the franchise is strong.

EA did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.

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