EA Sports College Football

EA Sports College Football
Genre(s)Sports (American football)
Developer(s)EA Sports
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Platform(s)Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD
PlayStation, Windows
PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube
Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3, Wii, iOS
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
First releaseBill Walsh College Football
June 1993
Latest releaseEA Sports College Football 25
July 19, 2024

EA Sports College Football (formerly known as Bill Walsh College Football, College Football USA and NCAA Football) is an American football video game series developed by EA Sports in which players control and compete against current Division I FBS college teams. It served as a college football counterpart to the Madden NFL series. The series began in 1993 with the release of Bill Walsh College Football. EA eventually acquired the licensing rights to the NCAA name and officially rechristened the series with the release of NCAA Football 98.

In July 2013, the NCAA announced that it would not renew its licensing contract with Electronic Arts because of an ongoing legal dispute regarding the use of player likenesses in the games. However, this contract only covered the use of the NCAA name and related logos, not those of individual schools and conferences, which are negotiated individually or through the Collegiate Licensing Company. The CLC concurrently announced that it would extend its existing licensing deal with EA through 2017, ensuring that EA Sports could continue the series without the NCAA branding and EA made plans to continue the series under the old College Football name.[1][2] However, the series was placed on hiatus in September 2013, following three major conferences pulling their trademark licenses from EA, and uncertainties surrounding the results of lawsuits involving the use of player likenesses in-game.[3]

In February 2021, Electronic Arts announced that the series would be returning for next-gen platforms no earlier than summer 2023.[4][5][6] During an interview with ESPN.com in November 2022, an EA Sports executive revealed that the game would be released in mid-2024 "because of the enormous undertaking of creating the game from scratch".[7]

  1. ^ Schrotenboer, Brent (July 19, 2013). "EA Sports re-ups on college football after NCAA snub". USA Today. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference polygon-cf15 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt-easettle was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Makuch, Eddie (February 2, 2021). "EA Is Reviving Its College Football Series For PS5 And Xbox Series X, But No Player Names Or Likenesses". GameSpot. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  5. ^ "EA Sports Resurrecting College Football Video Game Series".
  6. ^ "EA Sports is bringing college football back on next-gen consoles". 2 February 2021.
  7. ^ "EA Sports to launch college football game in '24". 22 November 2022.