Back in 2013, the final edition of EA Sports’s “NCAA Football” video game was released, much to the chagrin of college football fans everywhere. This was because of the Ed O’Bannon case against the NCAA saying athletes were not being compensated for their likeness being used.
However, that case has been settled and that has many fans begging for the series to return. EA Chief Competition Officer Pete Moore has a strong belief that the games will be coming back sooner rather than later.
“NCAA Football became the lightning rod for bigger issues regarding college athletes getting paid for their performance, not only in football but all college sports,” Moore said in an interview with IGN. “And their likeness. It was a sad day when we realized, ‘We are in the sights of a number of lawsuits.’ A number of athletes which were all combined eventually into one singular suit and said, ‘That’s me.’ When your lawyers’ fees are more than the revenue you can expect to get in.
“It was an unclear future for us,” Moore said. “It was a really sad day and we said, ‘We just can’t do this anymore.’ And one day I know we’ll be back.”
This is terrific news for fans of that game as well as the college basketball series and March Madness, which focused solely around the NCAA Tournament. It is certainly going to be interesting to see what happens over the next few years.
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