EA has dropped a teaser for the return of their college basketball video game series.
The official EA Sports Twitter account shared this message, with a picture of a basketball with EA Sports written on it:
Bring the Madness. Let’s run it back. #CBB #ItsInTheGame
This aligns with a report from outlet Extra Points. If their source and reporting is accurate, the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) shared the idea of a new college basketball video game around the industry, putting out a request for proposal (RFP). Five companies responded to indicate interest, and three companies filed formal bids. The CLC then recommended to their member colleges accept EA’s proposal for a new EA Sports College Basketball game, saying that they:
…offered the best overall opportunity for revenue and institution participation…
As we reported all the way back in 2013, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sued EA and the CLC for breach of contract over the two trying to make deal for new games without the NCAA’s involvement. This was part of a bigger lawsuit, where former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon sued the NCAA. The NCAA’s bylaws restricted college athletes’ ability to make money and get compensation, which became an issue for O’s Bannon an unnamed player in EA’s NCAA Basketball 09 who had his semblance, and also matched his athletic stats.
Both EA and the CLC settled to bow out of this lawsuit, and O’Bannon would eventually beat the NCAA in court, with District Judge Claudia Wilken finding that NCAA violated antitrust laws. In the fallout of this suit that took over a decade, when EA finally decided to bring back their college football game last year, they did not renew the NCAA license in respect for O’Bannon’s victory and Judge Wilkin’s verdict.
Interestingly enough, Extra Points writer Matt Brown also claimed that EA Sports had another reason to stop their college football and basketball game. Apparently even in 2013, sales for both franchises were down, so it simply made sense for them not to come back to it. Jumping to today, it seems that CLC is eager to get back into making collegiate video games with EA Sports. Hopefully, EA Sports will give better deals to their athletes than what they originally received. They need to go beyond the bare minimum and give players reasonable compensation, perhaps something comparable to the what WWE superstars receive for their likeness being used in the WWE 2K video games.
