After eight years on the sidelines, EA Sports returns to college football

There is some news that comes across the wire which makes me incredibly happy, and that’s what happened on Tuesday when I learned EA Sports was going to make a college football video game again. I am an avid gamer, and I enjoyed playing “NCAA Football” video games back in the day.

Playing NFL football on “Madden” is fun (unless everyone beats me in The Fan tournament), but playing college football is something different. The experience, the gameplay, the atmosphere within the game is just better as an experience. That’s why I was so delighted when the internet blew up with the news about the return of college football to video game consoles.

For those who never stopped believing…#EASPORTSCollegeFootball pic.twitter.com/2vDUYnbXEJ

— EA SPORTS (@EASPORTS) February 2, 2021

Here’s what we know about EA’s return to the college football landscape.

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Rules Violation

The reason given for halting production of “NCAA Football” by EA Sports was that teams lost interest in selling the rights for their logos and names to the company. At the time, “NCAA Football” was incredibly popular and a must-play title for most sports gamers out there. This excuse always seemed a bit off to me as there was something else going on during the time that likely caused the demise of the beloved franchise.

That reason could have most likely been the agreement EA Sports made to settle a lawsuit led by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon. The $40 million settlement was huge, and the implications of future games was probably considered too risky to continue. The lawsuit argued that it was illegal for sports games to feature players who look similar to real players without compensating them for the use of their likeness.

For example, No. 15 for the Florida Gators just happened to look and play like Tim Tebow – even though it didn’t say Tebow on his jersey. That is just one player of the hundreds of big-name players over the years who could be in the game without really being in the game.

Current NCAA rules do not allow players to get compensation from their names, images and likeness (NIL) in video games. That legislation is being looked at right now, so when the game is eventually released, then that may not be the case. For the time being, EA Sports can move forward with making a game that features the schools, the mascots, the logos and more generic players who aren’t remotely identical to those who actually suit up for the colleges.

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Name (and Game) Have Changed

The last college football game put out by EA Sports was back in 2013. Called “NCAA Football” (and then the year associated with the game), it flew off the shelves every year as college football soared in popularity. Before that, the game was originally known as “Bill Walsh College Football,” followed up by “College Football USA.” Now, the game is merely going to be branded as “EA Sports College Football.”

EA Sports is working with Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) – the licensing partner for most of the schools in the FBS and there is set to be over 100 teams represented in the game. I hope that it will somehow tie into “Madden”-like games of the past used to.

There’s something satisfying (although super nerdy) about transferring the draft class from your college football game to your NFL game. It’s perhaps only for the hardcore fans like me, but it would be a nice touch for those who take so much time to carefully craft players and rosters for the future – both in college football and the NFL.

I remember debating the upside of Denard Robinson in the #NFL with the @SklarBrothers while watching #Broncos training camp. Robinson was the cover athlete on the last #EASPORTSCollegeFootball – it's been TOO long! pic.twitter.com/QT2Vb961vW

— Cecil Lammey (@CecilLammey) February 2, 2021

Things have changed since 2013, so what will this new game look like? I love old option football, and college football games have that playbook where you do not have the same selection of plays in an NFL game. I can’t wait to play as the CU Buffaloes and pitch the ball on an option like back in the 90s. That’s more old-school football, but new college football is all about the passing game.

I’m sure the passing attack in this game will be crazy, especially for the high-powered teams. The “Air Raid” offense that used to be reserved just for schools like Texas Tech or Houston now are featured by many teams across the college football landscape. As much as I like to run the ball playing football video games, there’s going to be some fun had when it’s time to air it out with one of those high-flying offenses.

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When Can I Play It?

We don’t yet know when the game will be released as it’s still very early in the process. EA Sports vice president Daryl Holt told ESPN there is no date on when the game will return. He continued and stated that there isn’t even a day on the calendar to announce when it will return – just that it won’t be coming back for this year.

This is going to be the painful part of the process. Gamers got used to not playing college football, and those like me just kept playing the older version on the previous generation of consoles.

Conversations about bringing the game back started over a year ago, and there have been Easter eggs sprinkled in here and there to tease a return was coming. Now, we have confirmation of a return but not much else to go on.

Will you be playing EA Sports College Football when it’s eventually released? Hit me up on social media and let me know!

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