The EA Sports college football games were once a staple of sports gaming entertainment. Players could create teams, develop new recruits, and coach existing college football teams to season after season of National Championship wins. However, that changed in 2013 when EA Sports said there would be no college football game for 2014 after a host of college athletes filed lawsuits against EA for using their names and likenesses with no financial compensation.

After eight years with no news on the return of the franchise, EA Sports announced it would be bringing back college football, dropping the NCAA titles of the past games and going with the name of EA Sports College Football. Fans immediately reacted in excitement, eager to dive into the college football experience once again with updated rosters and potential new mechanics after 7 years of technological advancements in games. However, recent documents obtained by a college sports news reporter suggest that even though EA Sports College Football is still happening, it's much further away than fans think.

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Reporter Matt Brown of the Extra Points newsletter was recently given records from the College Licensing Company (CLC) via an Open Records Request. These records indicate that EA Sports plans to launch the EA Sports College Football game in July of 2023. While this seems like a long way off, EA Sports is having to start from square one on the project to avoid the pitfalls of the NCAA College Football series.

To avoid lawsuits, EA Sports needs to be able to obtain college football assets without using student names, images, and likenesses. Some of the documentation received by Matt Brown addresses how EA Sports plans on retrieving this assets, as well as other information about the game. Much of the preparation process for the development of EA Sports College Football involves scanning all the different assets needed for the game, like team logos, mascot costumes, and even uniforms. EA Sports may also make requests for specific assets from schools like marching band recordings to be able to use them in the game.

While the obtained documents also hinted that there would be over 100 teams in the game, it does seem that college football fans won't be able play as big teams like Alabama exactly the way they appear in today's football games. The removal of player likenesses could mean that even if the quarterback of Ohio State in EA Sports College Football has the same jersey number as the real person, they may look nothing alike. However, if it's true that the game won't be coming out until 2023, EA Sports has a lot of time to iron out the minutia of the process and hopefully create a game fans will be happy with.

EA Sports College Football is in development for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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