EA’s NCAA future rests on the agreement of ‘each and every individual athlete’

EA would love to make another NCAA sports game, but it would require the developer to secure the rights for the likenesses of ‘each and every individual athlete’ featured in the game (via The Gamer). 

EA hasn’t made an NCAA game since NCAA Football 2014. No, the developer wasn’t hit on the head with a flying pigskin and only just remembered that the popular sports series existed.  In 2009, a former UCLA basketball player – Ed O’Bannon – filed a lawsuit against EA, the Collegiate Licensing Company, and the NCAA requesting royalties for the college athletes who were featured in the sports games. The former two companies settled the lawsuit for $60 million in 2014, whereas the NCAA gave $20 million to the various Division I football and men's basketball player plaintiffs who were included in EA games between 2003 and 2014. 

Previously, the NCAA would not allow college athletes to profit from their likenesses and would remove them if they accepted gifts, compensation, or began liaisons with a professional agent. However, a recently passed California law requiring the NCAA to allow college athletes to receive payment for use of their likeness has EA intrigued. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal,  CEO Andrew Wilson said it ‘would jump for the opportunity’ to restart development on a new NCAA game.

Like nearly everything in this world, that’s more easily said than done. ‘If Electronic Arts decides to bring back a college sports video game, it will hit a roadblock, because it has to get permission from each and every individual athlete, since there is no larger union/organization to negotiate with,’ Stephen McArthur, video game lawyer, explained in a statement. Professional sports organisations such as the NBA, NFL, and MLB have unions, but the NCAA does not. In consequence, there is no collective that would be able to provide EA the rights to these athletes so that they are fairly compensated.

There are over 30,000 athletes in Division I NCAA football. That’s a lot of paperwork if EA is to speak to each athlete one by one to secure their likenesses. Moreover, McArthur added that the developer would need to obtain the rights to university logos, conference logos, music, and so on. ‘There are so many different rights owners involved in making collegiate athletics video games,’ McArthur said. ‘An organization will need to spring into effect to aggregate the negotiating for the rights of each player so that video games don't need to independently negotiate the rights of hundreds or even thousands of separate players.’

Respect the grind. Until a union is formed for NCAA college athletes, EA may hold off on its plans to revive the NCAA sports series.