There has been an update to the story of EA potentially bringing the NCAA Football line of games back. According to Polygon, EA has responded to the hype surrounding their mysterious video by denying everything. "We have no new plans or announcements to make regarding the EA SPORTS NCAA Football series," someone at EA told Polygon. "Today's National Championship game reminds us more than ever that the hearts in our community still beat for college football."
It seems the video was only meant to hype up the NCAA National Championship game. Sorry folks, nothing to see here.
The original story is as follows:
Heads up, sports fans! It seems that we may be going back to college this fall, with publisher EA teasing a return of their NCAA Football line of games. This rumor comes straight from the official NCAA Football Facebook page.
Our heart still beats for the big game... #NationalChampionship
Posted by EA SPORTS NCAA Football on Monday, January 11, 2016
As the three-second video above shows, there is still a heart beating somewhere in EA for NCAA football. Obviously this doesn't confirm anything, but seeing as how the Facebook account for EA Sports NCAA Football hasn't been active since the summer of 2014, this clearly means something is coming.
Fans may recall EA had stopped making new NCAA football games in 2013, with NCAA Football 2014 being the last game in the franchise. The reason for this stoppage was due to contractual disputes. Many college players felt that they should be compensated in some way due to the video games using their likeness. This would, however, violate NCAA rules regarding athletes getting paid money.
Ultimately, the SEC, Big 10 and PAC-12 all pulled their licensing agreements. EA, instead of continuing forward without some of the biggest colleges in football, opted to cancel development on any future NCAA football games. It's possible those three conferences will not be represented in this hypothetical NCAA Football 2017, but nothing has been mentioned by any party outside of the teaser video above.
And why would this be a hypothetical NCAA Football 2017? Assuming EA Sports has been developing a college football game over the past few months to a year, we will see a release some time this summer. Because sports games are always dated weird, a sports game coming out this summer will be for next year's season. For example, NCAA Football 2014 was released in July 2013.
So what do you think? Are you excited to see the NCAA Football line of games coming back from EA? Are you more interested in Madden and professional football? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
