Over seven years have passed since “NCAA Football 14” was released, and the prospects for the resurrection of the series were looking quite good when the NCAA Board of Governors voted unanimously to consider updates to bylaws and policies that oversee the ability of college athletes to “benefit from the use of their name, image and likeness in a manner consistent with the collegiate model.”
That was in October. It is now December and we haven’t really heard anything concrete yet about the game coming back.
That was until NCAA president Mark Emmert was asked about the game series during a panel hosted by The Aspen Institute for sports.
He laid out three key issues surrounding the relaunch of the series, per Jane McManus.
- Emmert doesn’t want any more lawsuits, like the Ed O’Bannon case that is largely responsible for this push in the first place.
- He wants a group license for the athletes depicted in the game. This is a pretty obvious one, and is probably the only way this would happen.
- Emmert doesn’t want this to lead to a player union. We saw this issue come up a few years ago, when Northwestern players began to make noise about a potential player union. While it remains a relevant issue, it is unclear that the video game series would be the thing that necessitates a union.
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Not the news fans want to hear, but he presents key points. The game is likely to return at some point, just a matter of when.
