Tag: EA Sports College Football

NCAA Football Video Game Returns: Notre Dame Players We Missed Out On

Which Notre Dame player would have been the best to play with?

College football has its own cult-like following that makes it truly unique compared to any other American sport.  Even in that group there are sub-groups that are even that much more passionate.

One of those groups includes anyone who was ever a fan of the NCAA Football video game by EA Sports.

Personally, I can’t begin to estimate the total hours spent as a high school student in my parents house playing that game, the amount of hours I invested in it during college, or the hours I spent in my early-20’s with it.

However, it went away after the NCAA Football ’13 edition, meaning we’ve gone a full decade (2014-2023 seasons) now without the game.

So which players in that time did we especially miss playing with if we would have been playing as Notre Dame?

Here are the 11 we missed out in video game form the most.

EA Sports plans 2024 release for college football video game franchise’s return

EA Sports still on track to bring college football video game back in 2024.

It has been a decade since the last time EA Sports released a title in the former NCAA Football video game franchise, but the drought is about to come to an end. In a story published by On3, a spokesperson confirms EA Sports will release its highly-anticipated college football video game in the summer of 2024.

“We’re incredibly excited to bring back an authentic college football experience for fans and athletes that have shown such passion for the franchise, and we’re looking forward to delivering it in Summer 2024,” an EA Sports representative said in a statement to On3.

EA Sports put its famous NCAA Football franchise on the shelf after the release of NCAA Football 14 in the summer of 2013. Legal battles about the use of player likenesses helped pave the way for today’s world of Name, Image, and Likeness we have today. And one of the biggest questions many fans of the franchise wondered once the NCAA adopted NLI policies was how soon it would be before a college football video game returned to the market.

EA Sports previously announced it was beginning the planning and development of a newly revived college football video game under the working title of EA Sports College Football, and a 2024 release window was previously suggested as the timeline. And what a year to bring the video game back to the masses.

The 2024 season will mark the beginning of the 18-team Big Ten with the additions of USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington and an expanded Big 12 (Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah) and SEC (Oklahoma and Texas). The start of the new 12-team College Football Playoff is scheduled to begin in the 2024 season as well.

EA Sports has yet to share any information about the college football video game just yet, but it should be expected to be available on current generation consoles like the Sony PlayStation 5 and Xbox One. Nintendo Switch fans will likely be the ones left for disappointment, but hopefully those of us with a Switch will be able to take our favorite college football video game on the go.

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Imagining a Patrick Mahomes EA Sports College Football cover that never was

Our friends at @College_Wire recently pondered which players could have been cover athletes on EA Sports’ College Football games in each year since 2014.

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Fans will soon get a new NCAA college football video game with, EA Sports College Football reaching an agreement to compensate athletes for the use of name, image and likeness.

That means a whole new era of college athletes will get an opportunity to see themselves in a video game and perhaps even as the cover athlete before reaching the NFL. But what of the players who should have had their moment and opportunity over the past 10 years?

The last game from EA Sports, NCAA Football 2014, featured Michigan Wolverines QB Denard Robinson on the cover. Our friend Patrick Conn of College Sports Wire recently explored which athletes could have since been the cover athletes. While he thinks the 2017 edition of the classic video game franchise would have featured Lamar Jackson on the cover, he also considered the possibility that Mahomes could have landed on the cover too.

Mahomes’ team might not have won very many games, but he put up those ridiculous video game numbers in 2016. Not to mention who can forget the number of NCAA records set in the Oklahoma-Texas Tech matchup that season. Mahomes finished 2016 with 5,337 yards of offense and was responsible for 53 touchdowns.

Mahomes certainly had the statistical numbers to garner consideration, but the fact that his team didn’t win a whole lot of games and didn’t compete for championships really would have hurt his cause. Conn certainly isn’t wrong about that barnburner with Oklahoma, though. That would almost certainly be the game that a moment worthy of the video game cover would come from.

The record-setting performance saw 125 total points, which was the second-most all-time between ranked opponents. Mahomes came a yard shy of the record for the most pass attempts in a single game (88) and tied the NCAA record for passing yards in a single game (734).

With what we’ve seen from Mahomes in the NFL, he’d gladly trade all those stats and numbers for the win.

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Actual players will be allowed in ‘EA Sports College Football’

Will this influence your decision to buy the game?

When EA Sports announced that college football would be returning to its lineup, former enthusiasts rejoiced. Now, thanks to the advent of NIL, the rechristened “EA Sports College Football” will be even better. That’s because EA Sports has confirmed to ESPN that actual Football Bowl Subdivision players who opt in will be featured in the game. Those players will be compensated.

It is not yet known whether Notre Dame will agree to be included in the game, which is slated for release in 2024, but it appears a major hurdle for that scenario has been cleared. When EA Sports made the fateful return announcement in 2021, the university was among a handful of schools that said it wouldn’t participate in the new game unless NIL compensation could be agreed upon. Northwestern and Tulsa opted in after this latest announcement, so it appears to be only a matter of time before the Irish domino falls.

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New report sheds light on the return of ‘EA Sports College Football’ video game series

The last version of the game was released back on July 9, 2013!

Earlier this week, Brandon Farcello and 247Sports released details on the long-awaited return of EA Sports College Football. The famed video game franchise hasn’t released a new edition since NCAA Football 14 almost a decade ago. Several months after the July release of that game, the Redwood City, California publisher announced that they would not be publishing a new college football game for the foreseeable future. General Manager of American Football for EA Sports Cam Weber issued a statement saying,

“We have been stuck in the middle of a dispute between the NCAA and student-athletes who seek compensation for playing college football. Just like companies that broadcast college games and those that provide equipment and apparel, we follow rules that are set by the NCAA – but those rules are being challenged by some student-athletes.  For our part, we are working to settle the lawsuits with the student-athletes.  Meanwhile, the NCAA and a number of conferences have withdrawn their support of our game.” 

And that was that. A franchise that started with Bill Walsh College Football in the winter of ’93/’94 was gone.

But many may forget that a former Nebraska quarterback filed one of the lawsuits that eventually led to the end of the partnership between EA Sports and the NCAA.

EA Sports reportedly targeting 2023 return of college football video game

According to information dug up by Matt Brown, college football video gamers will be very happy next summer.

College football fans have been without an officially licensed college football game for almost a full decade, but it looks as though Electronic Arts is hoping to end that drought a year from now.

According to information obtained through a FOIA request by Matt Brown, the author of the “Extra Points” college football newsletter, progress is being made on the anticipated revival of the dormant video game franchise. Multiple requests for information regarding the release date of the video game from developer EA Sports suggest on multiple accounts the game is being targeted for a summer 2023 release.

A summer release date for a college football video game would fall in line with the usual release window for previous college football titles produced by EA Sports. The college football game was traditionally released about a month prior to the release of EA Sports’ latest installment in the popular Madden NFL franchise. No matter when the game is ultimately released, college football fans with a modern video game console will be ready to dive right back into the action.

EA Sports announced the return to a college football video game franchise in February 2021 with a new working title of EA Sports College Football. The former NCAA Football franchise was put on the shelf as a result of the rising concerns over the handling of name, image, and likeness and lawsuits tied to the legal issues tied to them. But all of that is now a thing of the past thanks to the modern NIL era in college athletics.

Once it became possible for student-athletes to begin cashing in on their name, image, and likeness, it was believed to only be a matter of time before EA Sports returned to creating a college football video game. There may be more concerns and obligations tied to creating such a game now than ever before, but EA Sports is reportedly reaching out to schools to begin the work regarding rights to music and audio to create the authentic college game day experience.

From Brown;

This ask suggests that beyond marching bands, EA Sports is seeking to recreate the stadium experience as closely as possible for each school. So, hypothetically, if your alma mater played a specific song at the end of the third quarter, well, EA is trying to add that (if copyright allows for it) into the game. If your student section has a specific chant, well, EA is trying to get everything they need to replicate it.

There is a valuable market space to be seized with a college football game for a servant fanbase that has been playing the same version of the game for nearly a decade on a Sony PlayStation 3. For some, it is the only reason to still own a PS3!

If nothing else, old versions of NCAA Football 14 are warm reminders of BCS controversy possibilities of the past.

Are you looking forward to EA Sports College Football when it is officially released? What system will you be playing on?

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EA Sports is bringing back a college football video game

The wait is nearly over for college football video game fans. EA Sports has announced its return to the college football video game world.

This has absolutely nothing to do with LSU. Not yet, at least. But EA Sports has announced the return of a college football video game franchise, and that is sure to please college football fans of every school.

In one simple tweet, EA Sports set college football Twitter ablaze with a simple tease for a game tentatively called EA Sports College Football.

Unfortunately, that is all the information we have available at this time. But there are a few quick takeaways we can have from this one tweet. The most noticeable revelation here is EA Sports has not included the NCAA branding in the name of its college football game. That may not be all too surprising given the legal issues that resulted in EA Sports shutting the popular video game franchise down following the release of NCAA Football ’14. But the times have changed and the door to bring a college football game back to the masses, while potentially allowing for players to be compensated in some form, has been opened in recent years.

Amid legal battles in court over licensing and issues related to player compensation, schools and conferences began backing out of the EA Sports franchise. It eventually reached a tipping point where EA made the decision to shut the entire video game franchise down and put it on the shelf for an undetermined amount of time.

So, how long must we wait to see the first college football video game since 2013? That remains to be seen. EA Sports vice president and general manager Daryl Holt told ESPN there is no confirmed outline for when we will see a college football video game on shelves and digitally available again, but EA Sports is committed to reviving the lost link in its sports library.

“Holt said there is not a date on when the game will return or even a date where the return will be announced other than it won’t be coming back for this year,” a report from ESPN’s Michael Rothstein says.

While that is a bummer, the crowd will be pleased to know the beloved video game franchise is set to return for next-generation hardware, including the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X. Nintendo Switch owners may have to cross their fingers if history is any indication.

There will be plenty of questions to answer regarding the new or revived franchise. And it looks as though we will have some time for EA to figure out just how it will go about this exciting project. A new College Football Playoff mode? Absolutely. An option to buy out your expensive defensive coordinator after a historically bad season? Why not?

In the meantime, you can still brush up on some NCAA Football ’14 on the PlayStation 3 if you want.

Madden ’21 will sort of bring College Football back to consoles

The video game football franchise will have an option to return to school and play out your career to the NFL.

If you’re a college football fan, as some point you have played a version of EA Sports NCAA College Football. The game was stopped being made after a judge ruled for former UCLA hooper Ed O’Bannon that using his likeness in the College Basketball edition in 2009. The ruling gave players who were in the games from 2003-2014 about $1,000 each for their likeness.

When you think about the payout was it really worth the hassle and backlash O’Bannon received after all us gamers lost a game we loved? I would say no but the NCAA was able to continue to claim their athletes as amateurs and thus the game was stopped after their 2014 version. Rumors of the game returning have begun with the potential for players to use their likeness again, but there are still hurdles remaining for it to make its return.

The good news however is that EA Sports Madden franchises newest edition will have an option for two years in college, but only 10 schools will be in the pool for you to choose from.

It’s a great idea but clearly isn’t quite as satisfying as a game dedicated to the greatness that is college football, mainly the recruiting aspect. It depends on the position you would make yourself as to where you would go. It’s a neat addition to the Madden franchise, and it scratches the NCAA itch, but not completely. Here’s hoping in the future EA is able to bring back its NCAA video games and we can get back to winning virtual championships with the Irish.