Update: According to Owen Good (Kotaku Sports Columnist) EA has not renewed their “NCAA” license meaning This covers only the name NCAA on the product and the NCAA’s logo. The CLC is a separate license which is a group license for all 127 teams. This means they can make “College Football 2013″ but not “NCAA College Football 2013″
In a press release earlier today, the NCAA said they will not be renewing their contract with EA Sports and left it up to individual colleges to make their own deals. Currently, the NCAA contract with EA will expire in June 2014, but the college association needed to give EA time to prepare for future planning. In a statement on the NCAA website, they said:
As a result, the NCAA Football 2014 video game will be the last to include the NCAA’s name and logo. We are confident in our legal position regarding the use of our trademarks in video games. But given the current business climate and costs of litigation, we determined participating in this game is not in the best interests of the NCAA.
According to the NCAA, they have never licensed the use of current student-athlete names, images or likenesses to EA, and the NCAA has no involvement in licenses between EA and former student-athletes.
We’re not sure why this announcement happened today, but might have something to do with the antitrust lawsuit that EA went through last year with the NCAA and the fact they couldn’t enter into exclusive rights with the college organization. There has been criticism that EA used player likenesses in the past, as evidenced by the lawsuit filed against the NCAA on behalf of its Division I football and men’s basketball players over the organization’s use for commercial purposes of the images of its former student athletes.
Source: NCAA.org