After spending way too many hours playing NCAA Football 2005 on my Nintendo GameCube, I was devastated about the licensing lawsuit in 2014 that resulted in no compensation for student athletes and the loss of the iconic video game franchise. It has been a long seven years. With the recent announcement of the NCAA working towards a path to compensate players for their name, image, and likeness for marketing purposes for individual schools as recently as October, hope for an EA College Football game sprung alive. With its public announcement at the beginning of February to start right away making the next installment of the game, I am beyond excited so several reasons for this to come hope which includes marketing purposes for affiliated schools, my own personal enjoyment of the college football environment and most importantly, for the players directly involved.
All businesses take an active role in the marketing of their product or service, which understandable. How are you supposed to generate business when your potential customers do not know your solution to their problem exists? Schools are the same. They offer advanced education for those who desire with little separation between the hundreds of schools nationwide. I am sure there are schools that might have been a better fit for me in my undergraduate degree like LMU was, but all my life I wanted to get into USC. When I was younger, the ONLY reason I wanted to go to USC was that I was a passionate football fan. Things changed where I had other priorities when picking a school (thankfully) when I got older but going to a school with a sports culture was important to me. As a tool for marketing, these video games often act as an extension of the school sports programs, allowing fans to become engaged with their product for more lifetime hours, which in turn creates bigger and more passionate fans. The more passionate fan, in turn, spends more money on tickets and merchandise, which is the reason these schools have these programs in the first place. From a marketing standpoint, the announcement comes as a huge boost for every school with a college football program that will be included in the game. It is indicative of the school’s eagerness to participate in this marketing and the reason that ten of the top schools (included USC) opted to have their name and image as a starting point for certain game modes in the new Madden games.
As a passionate fan of the college game and USC football, I obviously have a vested interest in this most recent announcement. Not only will we hopefully get a quality football game, but one with the dynasty mode that made the former NCAA Football games so appealing. This game allows for creativity with the roster, formations, and personnel recruiting, which could allow for fans to not take to Twitter as much after a frustrating game/season. Who knows, the return of the EA franchise might allow for dispassionate fans to turn to their consoles to see a well-coached USC team. I just hope that they have all the divisions with the option to create a school because I have never wanted LMU to have a football team more than now and seeing them in a video game might help.
Of all the potential good that this causes, none is more important than players being paid for their name, image, and likeness. My favorite players of all time are Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush, and Vince Young is my least favorite. For me to make those connections and have this feeling 15 years removed from that fateful game says something about how important certain players are. These players are what the fans were watching while having a loose affiliation with the school. Football is a team sport and players, and coaches make up a team. For these schools that generate billions of dollars from just the single sport of Football, for players to not make ANY money off it is quite ridiculous when considering that certain coaches make millions of dollars a year. I have no solution as to how these players should be compensated but the point still stands. I would honestly rather talk politics for an entire day than think of a fair way for all parties to pay players (no, please do not talk to me about politics either). It is a good first step in the way of loosening the NCAA's restrictive stranglehold on players and their incomes.
EA Sports College Football is coming back. Just in case you did not read that, EA Sports College Football is coming back! This is a huge win for all involved (except the NCAA); from the schools all the way to the players and fans. there is no doubt in my mind that this series will become one of the most popular sports games upon release and probably for years to come. Now that this is officially coming out, I guess I can turn my thoughts and prayers for an EA Sports College Hockey game or a full fledge addition to the NHL titles with the same basic principles as the football series of old. A man can dream. #FireHelton
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