For college football fans wondering what? the NCAA’s new policy on athlete endorsement means for a video game series, the answer is – well, nothing specific yet. But in a statement Thursday, EA Sports said it is aware that the NCAA has lifted the restrictions that have brought the popular NCAA football franchise into so many legal troubles and that there are signs of an early resumption of the series.
EA’s full statement on Thursday morning:
We are closely monitoring the latest developments in the name, image and likeness of student-athletes. It’s still a very early stage right now and we plan to look into the possibility of adding players to EA SPORTS College Football. Right now, our development team is focused on working with our partners at CLC to ensure that the game authentically presents the great sport of college football and the 100+ institutions that have signed up for our game.
EA Sports refers to the interim policy, which comes into force on July 1st, which enables college athletes to make money endorsements and sponsorships while remaining eligible. Previously, college athletes were totally banned from making money using their name, image, and likeness, which is why EA developers based the list on real players in the 20-year history of the original NCAA football series, but removed their names before shipping the finished version. Behind the scenes, EA had advocated an exception at the NCAA that allowed them to pay players to appear in video games, but was turned down.
A trio of lawsuits filed by current and former college football and basketball players compelled Electronic Arts, the NCAA, and its licensee to file a $ 40 million class action lawsuit that also included the NCAA football series in the 2013 was canceled.
Earlier this year, EA Sports announced that it was working on a new game called. is working EA Sports college football, and was ready to move on without real players. Still, the label noted that it and the Collegiate Licensing Committee were watching the NCAA grapple with the NIL issue – an issue fueled by the fact that state lawmakers in California, Georgia, and other major college football – States had passed or were considering laws prohibiting the NCAA or any college agency from sanctioning athletes who benefited from the use of their name, image, or likeness. A unanimous judgment of the US Supreme Court
The NCAA’s tentative policy on NIL appears to pave the way for a video game featuring real college players. Of course there would have to be a structure to compensate for them. This is probably why EA is “investigating the possibility of players in for the time being EA Sports college football. ”In the professional sports it adapts for video games, EA buys a group license from a players’ association that allows it to be used by all members. Such an organization does not yet exist for college football players.
Still, the first hurdle to the existence of college football video games that fans remember and love has been removed. Players can now be compensated for using their name in such a work, and Electronic Arts, whose revenue in fiscal 2021 was $ 5.6 billion and whose legal comparison was about $ 400 per player in 2013, has the money, to compensate them.
