EA Sports College Football 26is introducing an incredibly innovative and likely problematic feature that will reward the schools you play in the game with real-world royalty payments. This is an interesting development for college football fans from all walks of life, as it has some fascinating implications for how you might play the game. Players will now be able to have at least some level of impact on how colleges are financially compensated byCollege Football 26, and this feature could potentially shape what teams players decide to use.
The new feature is a big change fromCollege Football 25, which broke down royalty payments to institutions based on their real-world success on the field. These were divided up into four tiers, and the player’s choices had absolutely no impact on how compensation was divvied up. Whatever happened in the interim betweenCFB 25and26, this new payout method is an ingenious way to get players engaged with the game in a tangible way. College football fans are among the most dedicated and die-hard sports fans out there, and it’s just a matter of time before it gets weaponized.
College Football 26 Will Pay Schools That Players Use A Lot
Pay-To-Play In A Whole New Way
If you’re a die-hard college football fan and want to support your team in every way possible,College Football 26is going to give you a brand-new way to do so. Now, every time you play as your favorite school, that’s a small contribution to the total amount of royalties the school will earn as payouts from the game.This is an innovative and creative way to connect players with the gameand their favorite teams in a very tangible way, even if the total royalties are a drop in the bucket in terms of most schools' overall funding.
Players do get compensated monetarily for being included inCFB 26, but they are not awarded royalties in the same manner as their schools.
The implications here are pretty significant, giving players a way to impact real-world dollars being sent to their favorite schools, or conversely, prevent more money from being sent to rival schools. It’s a great incentive for college football fans to play the game, and might even bring in a bigger audience of players who are truly fanatical about their Alma Mater. While it’s a great idea in theory,I have a feeling things might get ugly in practice,despite the total royalties being paid out to teams being relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
CFB 26 Fans Could Weaponize This New Feature
Players Might End Up Boycotting Teams Or Rethinking Match-Ups
When you understand the implications of this new royalty model, it’s easy to see how players will end up weaponizing it at some point to attempt to put a dent in rival schools' payouts or totry to boost their Alma Mater’s compensation,even in the smallest way. If you’re tired of SEC favoritism and are sick of those schools getting the spotlight, you may stick it to them by avoiding those teams altogether. Or, duringRoad to Gloryor College Football’sunique Dynasty Mode, players may simply sim the games between teams they don’t want to support.
There are many other ways thiscan be gamed to eat into the profits of a particular school,but it’s hard to say exactly how much players are really going to focus on this feature, or if they’ll simply want to enjoy the game for what it is. In reality, most players may not even realize this is a feature at all, or if they do, they may not care enough about it to let it influence their gameplay decisions.
On the other hand, it’s also possible players will be so petty they start setting up CPU vs. CPU games between their favorite teams to try to squeeze a few cents out for their school, or even just starting and immediately exiting a game, assuming they don’t need to be completed in their entirety. Overall, I think this new innovative feature could be problematic, but at the same time, it will likely incentivize more players to pick upEA Sports College Football 26.
