Fans are sharing their love for EA’s NCAA Football franchise on Twitter and calling on the publisher to bring the series back. The last entry in the popular franchise came with NCAA Football ‘14, and players have been hoping for a comeback ever since.
Unfortunately for fans, the reason for NCAA Football’s disappearance is more complicated than EA simply not thinking another game in the series is worth its time. After NCAA Football ‘14, a lawsuit found that the games were illegally profiting from the players’ likenesses. It’s important to note that EA has already said it would be willing to pay college players for use of their names and likenesses in the game, but the NCAA’s own rules prohibit it. There’s been talk of reviving the franchise before, but it’s always run up against legal issues, particularly since NCAA players lack a union that could negotiate contracts for all of them at once, meaning that EA would need to sign a separate deal with each athlete represented in the game.
That hasn’t stopped fans of the game series from repeatedly calling for its return, and those calls have gotten louder recently. The renewed interest in the franchise seems to have started when Fifth Quarter SEC posted on Twitter rallying support for a new NCAA Football game, which eventually got the series trending on Twitter. ESPN also posted to Twitter asking followers to choose between several cancelled sports game franchises, and NCAA Football was the winner by a clear margin in the thread’s replies. There’s been no response yet from EA, but it’s clear that fans’ excitement about NCAA Football hasn’t diminished in the years that it’s been gone.
Despite the lack of official updates on progress toward the franchise’s revival, it’s not out of the question that NCAA Football could return. The push for college athletes to be able to profit from their likenesses in general has been stronger than ever in the past few years, and there’s even talk of a group licensing option that could let college athletes collectively make licensing deals even without a union. EA sports games are still massively successful for the publisher, and if it’s able to navigate the legal waters to bring back NCAA Football, there seems to be no good reason for it not to.
Calls for NCAA Football to return are being led by fans who miss the games, rather than any hint that EA is actually considering it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. EA still has its lucrative Madden franchise to make football games with, but clearly that’s just not the same for many players.
Source: FifthQuarterSEC/Twitter, ESPN/Twitter