Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic’s college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox.“This is a women’s soccer school,” UNC hoops coach Dean Smith once said. Based on World Cup histories, he was also referring to the United States as a whole.The Video Game: Is NIL fun? Sort of, in a wayAfter five years of hearing coaches bemoan the difficulties of keeping teams together in the NIL era, EA Sports’ new College Football 27 is giving the rest of us our first go at it.Having spent a dozen hours on roster management over the holiday weekend (it was for work), I can confirm NIL is a handful (all five of my running backs want raises, so best wishes to four of them), though the game’s depiction only somewhat reflects reality.First, the good news:
Each team’s payroll — which comes from the same pool of funds that go toward assistants, staffers and weirdly temporary facility upgrades — feels realistic. Ohio State could spend Kent State’s entire budget on a single player. It’s in the game.
If you enjoy strategy games, including sports sims like Out of the Park Baseball, then Dynasty Mode is now more your thing. Rebuilds of UMass-type teams are even more challenging now — at least at the outset, when you might not be able to afford a single three-star receiver’s money asks. Winning eventually loosens more cash.
