Former Clemson player organizing boycott of new college football game, says it's exploiting players

Former Clemson center Justin Falcinelli says the $500 payout per player for the new EA Sports college football game is "ridiculously low."

by TigerNet Staff - Wed Jun 07 10:40:35 GMT-04:00 2023

A college football game is set to come back under the EA Sports umbrella for the first time in over a decade after issues with usage of name, image and likeness of players have seemingly been resolved.

One former Clemson lineman is unconvinced over the deal, however, which is set to pay $500 per to players who opt-in before the game is ready next summer.

Former Clemson starting center Justin Falcinelli is a leader with CFBPA, along with former Clemson teammate Tremayne Anchrum, to help represent players better and he told On3 Sports that this deal doesn’t work for the athletes and they should not opt-in to it.

“I am excited for a new college football game. I know how much people love it and how much hype there has been,” he said. “It’s exciting that we’re now at the point to where you can create group licensing deals for college football players to create this game. I think that is a huge milestone.

“But as soon as you get below the surface, it’s a bad deal. It’s another one of those things that seem to be the pattern in college football. Like, ‘Oh, there’s one thing that’s happening that sounds great.’ But then you dig into it, and you’re like, ‘Alright, maybe a step in the right direction, but it’s still just exploiting the players.'”

Falcinelli said they polled players who received payments from the Madden franchise recently and heard figures from $17,000-28,000 doled out per player by EA Sports.

“It is just a ridiculously low amount of money,” Falcinelli said of the college football deal. “Given the context and the hype that surrounds this game. When we first heard the number, we’re like, ‘Alright, that sounds low. Let’s go figure out if it is low.’...It is a simple cash grab to just try to get you for the lowest amount possible. And it’s OneTeam Partners and all these organizations that don’t really represent the players’ best interest.”

On3 said there was consensus at a NIL Summit recently of players saying that $500 was too little for top performers and there could be holdouts from the game.

“I could definitely see it, especially with the highest college football players that are in the nation right now. If they’re getting paid as somebody who a lot of people really don’t know of, and they’re the most known person in college football, I can definitely see their agent saying, ‘Alright, what’s going on here?’” Kansas QB Jalon Daniels said.