College football players will participate in the new EA Sports college football game for the first time. Here’s what you need to know.
- EA Sports has contracted with OneTeam for group licensing, EA Sports confirmed in a statement to Athleticism. ESPN broke the news for the first time.
- The partnership allows players to participate in the game using their name, image and likeness. The revenue split for the players has not been determined.
- The college football video game was discontinued after NCAA Football ’14 due to lawsuits regarding the name, image, and likeness of players in the game.
- The new game is expected to release in the summer of 2024.
What they say
“We wanted to showcase college athletes in a meaningful way early on in our journey to bring an EA Sports college football experience back to our fans,” the company said in a statement. “We are excited to have an agreement in place with OneTeam Partners that will allow us to include the names and likenesses of eligible college football athletes at schools in the NCAA Division 1 Football Subdivision who elect to be featured in EA Sports College Football.”
Pass
The most famous name, image and likeness debate and trial was Ed O’Bannon’s trial over the appearance, jersey numbers and characteristics of players appearing in video games without their names. real and without compensation. O’Bannon didn’t want to end the game, instead he wanted to allow players in the game to be compensated, but NCAA amateur rules didn’t allow it, so the game ended in settlement in the middle. fear of further litigation.
In 2021, the NIL rules came into effect, allowing players to enjoy their likeness, which opened the door for the game to return. EA Sports announced in February 2021 that the game would return, then went quiet without any retail. Report by Athleticism and other outlets have confirmed the game will include real players once it secures a group licensing partnership and releases in summer 2023, based on what EA is telling schools. But in November, EA announced that the game would release in 2024 instead as it worked to lock down all of the many assets needed for the game, including music, jerseys, stadiums and more.
What does that mean?
It was the last and biggest hurdle for the game to happen. Players can simply sign a deal to be in the game, and many but not all could have their faces scanned, like NFL players in Madden. OneTeam has worked with EA Sports on group licensing for other sports. If a player chooses not to register, a generic player and avatar will be used instead. Barry Bonds was not in the old MVP Baseball video game series, but filled in by the fictional “Jon Dowd”.
More than 120 of the 133 FBS schools have pledged to license their participation in the game through the Collegiate Licensing Company, but EA Sports sources say Athleticism last year they expect to have all 133 teams. An expanded College Football Playoff is also likely to be in play, as is the transfer gate, likely similar to free agency in professional sports games. The game is only expected to be available on next-gen consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. After a decade-long absence, the game will finally be back.
Required reading
(Photo: Edward Linsmier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)