Will We Ever Get Another NCAA Football Game?

A discussion on the complicated history (and future) of the franchise

*Be sure to check out my follow-up article on what features and modes a new NCAA game might have, if it ever happens!

If you were to take a survey of the most rabid gaming fans out there, sports gamers would be at the top of the list. Within that fan base, there is no more passionate group than college football fans. Yet they have been without a new game in the storied NCAA Football franchise since 2013, and many wonder if it will ever return. Let’s take a look back, then examine the forces that will determine the answer to that question.

The college football game we know today has its roots way back in 1993, when Electronic Arts published Bill Walsh College Football. The franchise really took off when EA managed to convince the NCAA (college athletics’ governing body) to sell it the license to make games with names and imagery from the actual schools.

College football is all passion and pageantry, with alumni and fans swelling with pride at the mere mention of their school’s name. It’s no wonder then that the games, showing pregame and halftime rituals, mascots and the like, were a huge success.