College Football Set For Video Game Return

Electronic Arts is bringing back its college football video game. 

The popular franchise was discontinued after its “NCAA Football 14” release in 2013. Various issues surrounding the use of NCAA, conference and school imagery, as well as player likenesses, contributed to the game’s eight-year hiatus.

Everything in that department isn’t ironed out yet, either.

“EA Sports College Football” won’t have rosters that include real-life college players for the time being.

EA did, however, ink a new partnership with the Collegiate Licensing Company to use imagery from FBS “schools, traditions, uniforms and playbooks.”

• Over 100 teams will be in the upcoming game, which is currently in the early stages of development.
• Since the series was paused, multiple colleges have licensed their team names for use in EA’s “Madden NFL” story mode. 

The NCAA was scheduled to vote in January on new rules to allow athletes to profit from the use of their name, image and likeness, but the vote was delayed.

When NIL rules do get changed — by the NCAA, individual states, or Congress — it’s far from a sure thing that the player group licensing agreements needed for a game like this would be on the table.

“We’ll just keep tabs on everything as it develops and we’ll be ready,” EA Vice President Daryl Holt told ESPN. “That’s been going on for a while and certainly wasn’t a ‘Wait to see what happens here,’ even as continued legislation gets proposed.”

“EA Sports College Football” isn’t expected to launch for at least a year.