"By now, most fans will have heard that EA's licensing agreement with the NCAA is set to expire and that we have agreed to part ways. I'm sure gamers are wondering what this means.
This is simple: EA Sports will continue to develop and publish college football games, but we will no longer include the NCAA names and marks. Our relationship with the Collegiate Licensing Company is strong and we are already working on a new game for next generation consoles which will launch next year and feature the college teams, leagues and all the innovation fans expect from EA Sports.
We took big creative strides with this year's college game and you’ll see much more in the future. We love college football and look forward to making more games for our fans."
The NCAA has confirmed that it will not renew its contract with EA Sports. In a statement on NCAA’s official site, the organization wrote that it “has made the decision not to enter a new contract for the license of its name and logo for the EA Sports NCAA Football video game.”“We are confident in our legal position regarding the use of our trademarks in video games,” the statement says. “But given the current business climate and costs of litigation, we determined participating in this game is not in the best interests of the NCAA.” The NCAA notes that its current contract expires in June 2014, but “our timing is based on the need to provide EA notice for future planning.” As a result of the decision, NCAA Football 14 “will be the last to include the NCAA’s name and logo.” “The NCAA has never licensed the use of current student-athlete names, images or likenesses to EA,” the statement concludes. “The NCAA has no involvement in licenses between EA and former student-athletes. Member colleges and universities license their own trademarks and other intellectual property for the video game. They will have to independently decide whether to continue those business arrangements in the future.”
We’ve reached out to EA about the announcement and will update this story with any comment we receive.
NCAA Football 14 was released on July 9th. For more, read our review. Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.