2019 saw the return of a college football game for the Xbox and PlayStation consoles. Could 2023 be the official return of the NCAA Football franchise?
The likelihood of what has been a dream of so many sports gamers for years took a big step towards reality on Monday. An announced partnership between the NFLPA and the National College Players Association touted attempts to monetize the likenesses of college athletes. Gaming was specifically mentioned in the areas being explored in the official press release.
“To date, college athletes’ group licensing and broadcast rights have been sold by schools, conferences and the NCAA. These organizations take all revenues and profit derived off the athletes’ work without even acknowledging that athletes deserve a fair share. Under this new partnership, the NFLPA and the NCPA will explore opportunities for merchandise, gaming and other officially licensed products.”
EA Sports’ NCAA Football has been dead and gone since 2013. At the time, Electronics Arts pointed to the difficulties around licensing players’ likenesses without paying those players for them. At issue was the NCAA’s ban on allowing players to accept money from outside entities.
NFLPA exploring how to group market college athletes when state bills come into effect. Is this the return of EA Sports NCAA Football? pic.twitter.com/sHaajQcuLL
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) October 28, 2019
A bill passed in California, set to take effect in 2023 would allow college athletes the ability to make money off their name and likeness. Despite threats by the NCAA other states have been slowly following suit.
Now with the powerful NFLPA behind the effort to get college athletes paid, it feels like threats to the contrary will carry less force and effect. None of this guarantees that EA is going to make an NCAA Football 2024 but the incentive to do so is only growing. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to see the NFL push such a development when talking renewal of the Madden license.
Certainly, there is still a myriad of hurdles to be cleared for the return of NCAA Football. What should encourage fans of the long-running series is a couple of very serious organizations are going to give it a look.