I'm not much for video games, but I do love NCAA Football. That was the only game I would ever tell people I was any good at when playing. I knew my stuff. I love college football, so a game fully dedicated to it was right up my alley. You can ask RD. I've talked about it on the pod and this website. I was legit in that game. I knew what worked, what didn't and how to slow down my opponent. When it went away I was bummed. The old iterations of it were still available to purchase on the Xbox up until about two years ago. That bummed me out too. I tried other versions of college football games, but none were the same. Nothing compared to the EA original.

When NIL became real, and college athletes were starting to get paid for their likeness, it felt like the game may come back. Then they announced the return. And then they started to show little bits of gameplay. It all began to feel real, like it was actually going to happen. I was, and still am, stoked that this game may be back. I heard that 2024 was the expected release year, and that March was a rumored month. I let myself get excited. But now I am starting to get a little antsy. Stories have been coming out that are not so good for the release of this game. I am worried that they will have a hard time getting it to the public and that we may never see another EA NCAA Football game ever again.

First some players put out a statement saying they were offered a very minimal sum of money to appear in the game. I get that it is trife and looks bad, but imagine if your face was on something and you got nothing, or next to nothing for that. They just put it out there, didn't tell or ask you and it was there for all to see. You'd expect something, right? So when the rumored small amount of money for the likeness came out, I read 50 dollars, I thought the athletes were right to put up a stink. This game is going to make more than enough money to pay these athletes. They should get, at minimum, 500 dollars. That was what I thought the going rate was going to be for some not as noticeable college football players. I figured the more noticeable would get upwards of a grand. But EA is being stingy and trying to withhold money. That is wrong. And this afternoon I saw some other company, the Brandr Group, is suing EA for not being included in negotiations for NIL deals being offered to athletes. This is now another avoidable obstacle that this game is facing. It feels like the people at EA thought they would be able to release the game with no questions asked. I think they thought that the public wants it so bad that no questions would be asked. But college athletes are smart. They have loads of people watching out for them now. They have lawyers and agents on retainer trying to get them as paid as they can before going pro or getting hurt. They understand the current landscape of the NIL and they will not be taken for granted. I applaud them for that.

This game feels like it is teetering on the edge right now. It feels like one more lawsuit may strike it down and that will be the last we ever hear or see of this game. I hope they figure it out, but that seems like a longshot at this moment. EA needs to wake up and do the right thing. These athletes deserve proper compensation. It is the fair, and right thing to do. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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