Return of the game
EA Sports series to return after hiatus
Pitt is part of EA Sports’ “College Football”video game relaunch.
It’s happening. No, really, it’s actually happening.
After years of players and fans alike clamoring for its return, EA Sports is bringing back its college football video game. The series’s last installment, “NCAA Football 14,” was released in 2013.
The game, which developed a cult-like following over the years, will not be produced in time for the 2021 season, EA Sports vice president Daryl Holt told ESPN. But in the next few years? That seems possible.
EA Sports has partnered with CLC, a college athletics licensing company, to make the game happen. The EA Sports and CLC partnership gives the gaming company access to logos, stadiums, uniforms, mascots and other traditions.
ESPN’s Michael Rothstein notes over 100 Football Bowl Subdivision schools will be included in the game. Pitt will be one of those schools, a source told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pitt is one of CLC’s licensing and trademarking clients. Also among CLC’s clients are Penn State, West Virginia and four of the Power Five conferences: the ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC.
At the moment, this iteration of the game will not include the players’ names, images and likenesses. However, EA Sports “is continuing to watch those developments closely,” according to a press release issued by CLC.
Current NCAA rules prohibit players from profiting off their NIL rights while in school. That could — and is likely to — change in next year or two by Congress, state legislatures or the NCAA.
Of course, the original “NCAA Football” series ceased after lawsuits, including the famous O’Bannon v. NCAA suit, were filed in regards to the lacking compensation for players’ likenesses. EA paid out $60 million to players who appeared in EA Sports’ football and men’s basketball video games from 2003 to 2014, according to CBS Sports.
Players weren’t named in past installments. However, players’ physical appearance, skill set and uniform numbers were often identical to real life. For example, in “NCAA Football 13,” Pitt star running back Ray Graham wasn’t named. But any Pitt fan playing the game knew the tailback wearing a No. 1 jersey was Graham.
It’s unclear if a former college football star will grace the game’s next cover. Former Pitt receiver Larry Fitzgerald was the cover star for “NCAA Football 2005.” The last cover athlete was Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson on “NCAA Football 14.”
Interestingly — and perhaps unsurprisingly — EA Sports will not call the game “NCAA Football” moving forward. Instead, it will use “EA Sports College Football.”
“It all starts really with where we see college football going. There’s a lot of things happening, and there’s a lot of things happening in sports,” Holt told ESPN. “EA Sports College Football gives us a name and a brand to kind of work around for some things that might evolve, as well as what we’re focusing on really out of the gate, which is really the FBS Division I schools and the road to the College Football Playoff and College Football Championship.”