(RADIO.COM Sports) This is not a drill.
While details are vague, EA Sports announced Tuesday that its legendary college football series is returning.
The last edition of the game was "NCAA Football 14," which was released on July 9, 2013 and featured former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson, now 30 years old, on the cover. So yeah, it's been a minute.
The game won't be back in time for the 2021 season, EA Sports vice president/general manager Daryl Holt told ESPN reporter Michael Rothstein, but the news it's coming at some point is welcome.
While there have long been calls for the game to be revived, the game's production was halted after former NCAA players sued Electronic Arts -- the parent company of EA Sports -- for essentially profiting off of their likeness without sharing said profits with the players.
Holt updated EA Sports' current position on how it plans to make the game in a way that won't lead to more legal trouble. From the ESPN article:
"For now, EA Sports is planning to move forward without rosters that include the names, images or likenesses of real college players. Current NCAA rules prohibit athletes from selling their NIL rights while in college.
"However, those rules are likely to be changed at some point in the coming year -- either by the NCAA, state legislatures or Congress. It's not yet clear if the evolving rules will allow for the kind of group licensing arrangements that would be needed for EA Sports to negotiate with athletes to use their names in the game."
By the time that the game is ready for release, perhaps EA Sports will be in a position in which the laws will have changed to allow the company to release a game with current players while compensating them for doing so. If not, maybe some of the fake college players whom the brand creates will reach legendary status like other fictional sports video games characters, such as Pablo Sanchez and Jon Dowd.
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