The long wait of convincing EA Sports to make a new NCAA Football game is officially over. On February 2nd, EA Sports announced they are going to reboot their college football series for next generation consoles. With that being said, there’s still a lot of details to sort out about what the game will look like, what its structure will be and even when it will be available.

EA Sports announced it would stop making its college football game in 2013 shortly before the company agreed to pay part of a reported $40 million to former college players to settle a lawsuit. This lawsuit argued that it was illegal for EA Sports to sell a game with characters that looked strikingly similar to real athletes without paying those athletes. While some believe the lawsuit is the reason production was stopped, the real reason is due to the NCAA and some conferences that no longer wanted to license their logos and team name to the game makers.  

At the time of its discontinuation, it was a very popular game and its return remained high on the list of priorities for the company. Those schools that weren’t interested in different licensing agreements in the past are now willing to revive their partnerships with EA Sports. It has been reported that there is nothing preventing the company from producing this game once again as of right now. 

There is still some debate over names, image, and likeness of players in the NCAA that could be implemented into the game. Although real players don’t have to be featured in this game, they could be if the rules change. The NCAA is in the process of trying to provide college athletes some opportunities to profit from endorsements in the future. The reason pro sports video games don’t have any issues is because the game makers negotiate with the league’s union on a price for the NIL rights for each player. The union then makes sure each player gets a piece of the total payment. The NCAA argues that college players shouldn’t be able to form a union due to the fact that they are students not employees. 

First Release of College Football Video Game: Bill Walsh College Football (June 1993)

Last Release of College Football Video Game (As of Right Now): NCAA Football 14 (July 2013)

There is actually some hype within Timberlane with this game. I spoke with senior Nick Matthews and senior Cam Noyes and they both expressed excitement about this game coming back to gaming consoles. When I asked Nick what his thoughts were on the game coming back, he replied with “I’m wicked excited that they are bringing it back. It was one of my favorite games as a kid and I can’t wait to play it again”. I asked Cam the same thing and he replied with, “Absolutely GOATed, many college football fans have been waiting for this day for years”. Along with them, there are many other people within Timberlane that are ecstatic about this game coming back too.

From personal experience with NCAA Football 13, I’m very excited for the return of this game. I hope the rules are figured out in a way that allows the game makers to use the names, images, and likeness of the real players in college football. As a college football fan, I watch the games and see different young stars in the making. I believe it would be more fun knowing these players are in the game instead of random names I’ve never heard of.