I Love EA's NCAA Football, But I'm Glad It Went Away For A Decade

EA Sports College Football 25 has arrived, and even in early access, it looked like one of the year's biggest releases. None of this seemed possible in 2013 when the lawsuit O'Bannon vs. NCAA asked all the legal and ethical questions about athlete compensation the NCAA couldn't be bothered to. Athletes' names and likenesses had been used to hawk everything from bobblehead dolls to cookbooks without them seeing a dime. The process wasn't sustainable, and these legal proceedings were the beginning of its end.

With what we now know about CTE, we know athletes (especially football players) are trading years of their lives to provide our weekend entertainment. Because of the dollars in play, it's a trade most are still willing to make. The system was never fair, but those with money and power don't surrender either commodity easily.

Before all this transpired, few would have predicted that the video game industry was where the dam would break. However, according to the Entertainment Software Association, United States consumer spending on games was over $57 billion in 2023. EA has announced that over two million players purchased the $99 Deluxe Edition of College Football 25. NCAA Football went away just as Ultimate Team was hitting its stride, so add a couple of zeroes to all the previously mentioned numbers.

As College Football 25 revealed info, which athletes would appear got as much press as which features were new. It wasn't an easy effort, but the players have finally wrestled at least some of the power from the executives. After all, nobody is tuning into to these games to see how well the athletic director signs forms. I'm happy one of my favorite game franchises is back, but even happier the guys who really make it possible are finally getting fairly compensated.

We also have to discuss the matter of innovation. Fans have been begging EA to consider giving its franchises a year off to fix the repeated nagging issues. They are far too busy rolling around in money to seriously listen. The only times EA has paused its annual release cycle are when the publisher has been forced to. NCAA Football left because of legal issues.

NBA Live crashed under its own weight after the ill-fated NBA Elite 11 demo's infamous Jesus Glitch. The problems that had slowly been building for years ended the once venerable franchise. Reviews for CFB 25 are glowing, suggesting 11 years in gestation is the best thing that could have happened to it.