For those anxiously awaiting the arrival of EA Sports College Football next year, there is yet another reason to be nervous about its development.
EA Sports College Football is going to be here in the summer of 2024, right? Right!?
That is the mantra of Nebraska football fans, college football fans, and sports gamers everywhere who are still having problems accepting that a video game following in the footsteps of NCAA Football is coming after a decade of sitting on the sidelines.
One reason it’s so hard to accept that this game is coming soon is because of the roadblocks that keep getting thrown up. There is a new organization that’s reared its head in a way that appears to be wanting a piece of the pie from EA Sports or to make sure that there is no pie at all.
Front Office Sports reported on Wednesday that The Brandr Group, which has deals to negotiate group licensing contracts for 54 Division I schools that would be represented in the game, is suing EA over the name, image, and likeness deals being offered to athletes.
NIL has been a pretty big issue in the making of EA Sports College Football. It was thought that things were cleared up when EA came to an agreement with OneTeam Partners in order to help facilitate getting players names into the game.
It was thought that agreement for NIL rights was the last big roadblock to getting EA Sports College Football to market next summer.
According to the lawsuit, The Brandr Group claims that the company should have the right to negotiate on behalf of the athletes at schools for which it has contracts. It also argues that the current deal, where EA is offering $500 per athlete to be in the game, amounts to “tortious interference.”
Brandr’s lawsuit is just the latest move from a company to either stop EA Sports College Football cold, or to get more of a financial stake in the game. It’s not surprising that this kind of move might make fans of the NCAA Football game franchise nervous.
EA Sports gave up the series in part because there were simply too many needles the company needed to thread. Those needles are starting to pop up again. Here’s hoping some sort of agreement can be reached, or at this lawsuit doesn’t derail the game.