Another day, another university has pulled out from being a part of EA Sports College Football, this time it’s Northwestern University.
According to Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun Times, the suburban-Chicago university won’t be in the first college football game since 2013.
Greenberg states that the decision to opt out is similar to that of Notre Dame. The school wants rules to be established that will allow student athletes to benefit from their likenesses being used in video games.
While Notre Dame was the first school to come out and say it won’t be a part of the game, the Northwestern news is a bit of a bigger deal. By opting out, Northwestern is the first program that fully belongs to an NCAA conference — the Big 10 — to decide not to be a part of EA Sports College Football.
Some news: Like Notre Dame, Northwestern will not be participating in the next version of EA Sports College Football until rules are created and finalized that allow players to benefit financially from use of their names, images, performance histories, etc. (1/4)
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) February 24, 2021
Will More Schools Drop EA Sports College Football?
We’ve long wondered what would happen if single schools from conferences would choose not to be in the game. It was even questioned whether it was possible. Not only does Northwestern show that it’s possible, but it also opens the door for more universities to follow suite.
One school we know for sure will be a part of the over 100-university lineup of teams is the University of Illinois. Illinois has an agreement with the Collegiate Licensing Company, the body that is handling nearly all of the school licensing in EA Sports College Football.
Illinois decision to be a part in the game is due to an internal belief, Greenberg says, that should an NIL agreement be reached that allows players to profit, EA will work to include the players for compensation.
As we continue on, it’s certain that we’ll learn of more schools being in or out of EA Sports College Football. Should even more larger schools decide to pull their names from the game, it’ll be interesting if it puts more pressure on EA to help push an NIL agreement or not.
For now, we just have to wait and see what happens between now and the game’s likely 2023 release date.