NIL in CB25
Posted: Fri Feb 14, 2025 10:02 amSo unsurprisingly one of the most talked about things so far is the addition of NIL into CB25 so I wanted to take a moment to discuss it.
I know some people hate it IRL and frankly I don't love how its done so for that reason I decided to make it optional in the game - if you want to play just like it is now then you don't have to have it as part of your recruiting experience.
For those who do like NIL (or maybe are willing to try playing with it) I have implemented it in a way which I feel is pretty realistic and does not allow you to "game" the option against CPU opponents. The way it works is that each team has a NIL Collective - this collective raises a certain amount of money at the start of a game year and this amount is based on things like your success the prior season, your school prestige, your conference prestige etc. When you go to recruit a player or recruit a transfer you have the option of instructing the NIL Collective to offer the player NIL money with his scholarship. The collective will decide how much to offer the player and if the player signs with another school then your money is returned to the collective. I chose this method because one it makes things a little less tedious and I think more realistic. If you had to make the actual dollar amount offer you would have to follow along all the NIL signings and see who is going for what and it would just be a massive task to keep up with. It would feel like NBA free agency x 50. Secondly this prevents a player from taking advantage of tendencies in the CPU offering and exploiting those.
It is not without its strategy though and that you will control. If you're a power school it will be easier because you can give NIL to everyone and the only real factor is what other power schools are in and how much is left in their NIL bank. For the mid to small schools you really get some new strategy options because not only are you competing in the same fashion for your players but you also don't have to spend it so if you want to build it up for a couple of years to be able to take a swing at a player who would command a higher amount you can or you might use it to go after a good player who has been overlooked or has poor test scores and can't qualify for some of the power schools and bring him into your program (for at least a year anyways before he might transfer)
The addition of this for those who want it will add a fun new strategy twist to recruiting and transfers and its also just the ground floor of the concept. As we see what works well and what people like I will expand upon it in the future.
I know some people hate it IRL and frankly I don't love how its done so for that reason I decided to make it optional in the game - if you want to play just like it is now then you don't have to have it as part of your recruiting experience.
For those who do like NIL (or maybe are willing to try playing with it) I have implemented it in a way which I feel is pretty realistic and does not allow you to "game" the option against CPU opponents. The way it works is that each team has a NIL Collective - this collective raises a certain amount of money at the start of a game year and this amount is based on things like your success the prior season, your school prestige, your conference prestige etc. When you go to recruit a player or recruit a transfer you have the option of instructing the NIL Collective to offer the player NIL money with his scholarship. The collective will decide how much to offer the player and if the player signs with another school then your money is returned to the collective. I chose this method because one it makes things a little less tedious and I think more realistic. If you had to make the actual dollar amount offer you would have to follow along all the NIL signings and see who is going for what and it would just be a massive task to keep up with. It would feel like NBA free agency x 50. Secondly this prevents a player from taking advantage of tendencies in the CPU offering and exploiting those.
It is not without its strategy though and that you will control. If you're a power school it will be easier because you can give NIL to everyone and the only real factor is what other power schools are in and how much is left in their NIL bank. For the mid to small schools you really get some new strategy options because not only are you competing in the same fashion for your players but you also don't have to spend it so if you want to build it up for a couple of years to be able to take a swing at a player who would command a higher amount you can or you might use it to go after a good player who has been overlooked or has poor test scores and can't qualify for some of the power schools and bring him into your program (for at least a year anyways before he might transfer)
The addition of this for those who want it will add a fun new strategy twist to recruiting and transfers and its also just the ground floor of the concept. As we see what works well and what people like I will expand upon it in the future.
