Most sports gamers rejoiced at the recent news, heralding the return of the long-dormant EA Sports ‘NCAA Football’ franchise, now known as ‘EA Sports College Football’. Despite the fact that the sport’s governing body (the NCAA) is not appearing in the game, EA still managed to partner with the Collegiate Licensing Company to attain the rights to use individual university’s logos, team colors, traditions, and more in the upcoming game.
One very visible school, however, is notably not a part of the CLC.
Notre Dame, a team known for their shiny gold helmets, instantly recognizable fight song, and long and storied football history have always held their own licensing rights, and will not be committing to inclusion in ‘EA Sports College Football’ until new rules are in place to determine if college athletes can profit from sales of licensed products.
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced today in a statement that the school would not participate in ‘EA Sports College Football’ until “such time as rules have been finalized governing the participation of our student-athletes.”
Swarbrick added, “[I]t is our strong desire that student-athletes be allowed to benefit directly from allowing their name, image and performance history to be used in the game.”
Notre Dame is the first school to announce their specific stance on inclusion in the ‘EA Sports College Football’ video game, which has yet to be given a release date. The game is set to be playable on the Microsoft Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation 5 gaming consoles, both of which were just released this past year.
When the new college football game was announced on Feb. 2, EA Sports vice president and general manager Daryl Holt said that over 100 Division I FBS schools would be represented in the game. Currently, 130 teams participate in the FBS subdivision.
Also of note is the fact that the CLC owns the rights to the College Football Playoff, the end-of-year, four-team tournament that decides the sport’s national champion. However, the NCAA itself does not officially recognize a Division I FBS winner.
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