Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points
A couple of announcements today. Let’s get right into it
First, I am going on a family vacation from July 17-28. Because I am a big stupid idiot, I amdriving my familyfrom Chicago to Wyoming, then down to Salt Lake City, before going back to Chicago. I think this is gonna end up being, like, a 3,000-mile lap around the middle of America
Our plan is to run some freelance stories while I’m gone (and maybe a pre-written post or two if I can find enough time to knock ‘em out), and while I’ll be very reachable on the phone, I’ll be slow to respond to emails and whatnot. So if you have some mission critical thing you want to send me, well, do it soon! Folks who want to contribute freelance stories, send us pitchesat[email protected]
A quick follow-up about freelance stories: While Iloveto get pitches from journalists and professional writers,I am also happy to publish (and pay for) freelance stories from industry leaders, current or former college athletes, conference leaders, etc.I saw, for example, thatBaylor athletic director Doug McNamee recently published an editorial about the fan experience in USA TODAY. Iknowa lot of ADs and CEO-types read Extra Points … so if the spirit moves you to share your thoughts about something, I am happy to pass the microphone.
Second, I want to make you all aware of something new we’re buildingce. We want to be able to take a school’s financial reports, coach contracts, vendor agreements, benchmarking and sport-specific analysis and roll it into one comprehensive report.We’re going to start with Michigan
This report will unpack the financial picture of the athletic department and show how it compares to others in the Big Ten. It’ll share where Michigan ranks in spending (and revenue) in every major sport, trends over the past few years and much, much more
The digital report will be ready on July 28 and will be freefor all Extra Points users withan annual premium subscription plan($84/year).Pre-order your report here by upgrading
If you are interested in a report for another school,please let me know which schools you’d like to see here
Here’s a quick preview of one of the charts we’ll be including:
BTW, please nobody tell the ol’ alma mater that I did Michigan first
Okay, enough housekeeping. Let’s talk about video games for a second
Boy, parts of the internet sure are mad about EA Sports College Football 27
Yesterday marked the formal global release of EA Sports College Football 27, the much anticipated third release since the series returned in 2024. Extra motivated users could pay a little more money to get their hands on the game early, which thousands of folks did
Typically, any EACFB game has fourmajorgame modes: a competitive mode where players compete online with current rosters, an Ultimate Team card-collecting roster builder, Road to Glory (where players start out as a fictional high school player and play out that person’s college career) and Dynasty (where players take over a program, sign recruits, expand their coaching skills, etc.). Of these four, Dynasty is the most popular
After all, who doesn’t want to take over a program like Kent State or Sacramento State and turn it into a massive powerhouse?
In CFB25 and CFB26, the only game mode that included microtransactions (prompts to spend real moneyafteryou’ve already purchased the $70 game) was Ultimate Team. Most sports games have similar game modes now, which can be very lucrative for video game publishers. While players don’thaveto spend any additional money to complete game challenges or compete online, if they want to compete at the highest levels, theyprobablyneed to spend money to increase their chances of getting better cards for their team.
This systemis often criticized as anti-consumer, pay-to-win, etc. But if gamers don’t want that experience, well, they can play single-player or pick one of the many other game modes and simply not engage with the microtransaction world
But for CFB27,EA Sports introduced microtransactions into Dynasty and Road to Glory
You certainly don’thaveto spend any extra money on those modes if you don’t want to. But while previous versions of the game allowed players to modify how quickly they could progress, EA moved some of those customization options behind an additional paywall. You want to max out your Dynasty coach skills on your single-player experience without spending 27 years going undefeated? Well, time to open the wallet
Inpractice, these particular microtransaction options won’t impact the vast majority of casual players. If you’re only playing a dynasty for a few seasons — or you aren’t trying to get your Road to Glory player all the way to 99 overall — you absolutely don’t need to spend any money
But consumers,already frustrated with EA’s less-than-stellar reputation, pushed back on principle.Many Youtubers and creators who previously had commercial relationships with EAled an online movement, sharing their anger over feeling that the video game publisher was trying to nickel and dime them. You might have seen the hashtags on social media, #EAplaydontpay
That frustration is starting to show in how the game is being received by the market. As of Thursday evening,the review scores for CFB27 are meaningfully lowerthan theother games in the series
As of Thursday evening, EA had walked backsomeof the microtransactions in Dynasty mode but had not removed them from Road to Glory
Okay, but why should I care if video game fans on the internet are angry? Video game fans on the internet arealwaysangry
That’s a fair point. There is no way to completely placate all of sports video game Reddit, and some folks are always gonna be angry. Online fan backlash to microtransactions in sports games isn’t new, either — and it isn’t confined to just EA! — but the industry doesn’t seem to be slowing the practice down
Still, I do think it is important foreverybody, from video game publishers to athletic directors to small business owners, to remember that customer goodwill is not a limitless reservoir. If you constantly make withdrawals from that Bank of Goodwill without making deposits, eventually, your checks are going to bounce
In 2024, EA held a truly massive amount of leverage over the college sports industry because it understood how badly schools, and athletes, wanted to be in that game. Consumers had gone a decade without it and were going to buy itno matter what. That meant EA could secure relatively favorable licensing terms, lean on schools to do the dirty work of signing everybody up for Compass and whatnot, and even get free marketing from campus partners
But I don’t think that’s the case in 2027. The novelty of a college football game has died down a bit, and thanks to the surge in AI, plus international politics,console video gaming has suddenly become a lot more expensive.Consumers are also remembering why they were so frustrated with EA over the past decade. People are still going to buy the game, don’t get me wrong … but the product can’t rely on nostalgia and vibes alone to power sales, especially now that acombination of Jared Kushner and the Saudi PIF own EA. It’s gonna have toworkfor that loyalty.
The same thing is true with colleges. In an era where every single school is terrified about not generating enough revenue, colleges are raising ticket prices, slapping sponsorships on stuff that never had sponsorships before, changing how ticketing and parking work and asking even more aggressively for money. You can do that, and you sometimes need to do that, but if you don’t demonstrate to consumers that youcare… eventually, they’re going to stop giving
Now, in the interest of full disclosure: I didbuymy copy of CFB27. I’ve played for a few hours already and plan to play more over at least the next two months. But I can certainly feel myself looking at the game with a more critical eye, and not just because of the social media backlash over pricing. I don’tneedthe game, and if it doesn’t improve, or if it becomes more anti-consumer, I simply won’t play it or buy it again
I don’t think we’re anywhere close to the point where enough consumers will do the same and make EA really scared. But it’s happened before and could happen again. Nobody should take their customers for granted
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Here’s what else we’ve worked on recently:
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I talked to folks at Ursuline and Gannon, two Division II schools, abouttheir recent lawsuit over the complicated conference realignment implications of merging campuses.Today, the battle is with the G-MAC … but they won’t be the last schools to merge, that’s for sure
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KC Smurthwaite interviewed Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould.They talked about where the league is trying to go and how it will make peace with what it used to be
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I blogged through my frustrations as a Brazilian soccer fan,which I think is a lot like rooting for USC football, or maybe Indiana basketball, these days. It’s a deeply unfun place to be
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And I pushed moreupdates to NIL Agent Tycoon 95 and our other games
I’ve got some other reporting coming about jersey patches, plus lots of other fun stories. If you like Extra Points and want to support our work, consider upgrading to a full subscription todayhere. It’s only $9, and you get alotof stuff
Thanks, friends. I’ll see you on the internet
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