Before NIL, Scott Frost snagged a lucrative NCAA GameBreaker 99 cover deal: $500 and three games. Discover the stark contrast to today's athlete endorsements.
Today, being the cover athlete for sports games like NBA 2K or Madden is a huge honor that comes with being at the top of your sport. Most recently, elite talents like Saquon Barkley, Josh Allen and Christian McCaffrey have graced the covers of the last three Maddens.
But, 26 years ago, before Electronic Arts turned the Madden series into a household name, UCF's very own Scott Frost made his cover athlete appearance. Frost, pictured in his No. 7 Nebraska jersey was picked to be the cover star for NCAA GameBreaker 99, one of the earliest college football games released.
Frost joined the UCFast Cast to talk about the game and what he earned from being on the cover.
"This is before NIL, so the only people who could be on something like this were people who's eligibility was exhausted," Frost said. "You know, I had a scholarship only and barely had enough for McDonald's at the end of the month. But, I was on the cover of that football game after the '97 season and I think I got $500 and three free copies of the game."
Today, cover athletes are compensated through “quarterly premium royalty payments and annual equal-share royalty payments,” according to the NFL Players Association. These payments are most likely worth much more than the couple hundred of dollars and additional games that Frost received 26 years ago.
Still, being chosen as a cover star is no small honor - and if he ever feels nostalgic, Frost can always fire up the original PlayStation and see himself staring back from the loading screen.