The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, has announced that it will not renew its contract with EA Sports when it expires in June of 2014.
In a statement released on the NCAA website, the association said that this announcement “is based on the need to provide EA notice for future planning.” It also confirmed that NCAA Football 2014 would be the last “to include the NCAA’s name and logo.”
The first EA Sports football game to have the NCAA name and logo was NCAA Football 98. EA has since then released 16 consecutive NCAA Football games.
In addition to NCAA Football, EA produced a NCAA basketball game titled NCAA March Madness. The first game was NCAA March Madness 98, with a yearly release until NCAA March Madness 10. EA Sports also released two NCAA baseball games titled MVP: NCAA Baseball, with a 2006 and 2007 version.
The statement from NCAA continues with “the NCAA has never licensed the use of current student-athlete names, images or likenesses to EA.” There is currently a class action lawsuit against the NCAA led by former student athlete Ed O’Bannan. The lawsuit alleges that EA and the NCAA used the likeness of current and former student athletes without compensating any of the athletes.
You can find the full statement from the NCAA here.
