EA's College Football Games Lose the SEC (Branding)

#1
TrueOrange

TrueOrange

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#1
Per IGN

EA's College Football Games Lose the SEC Branding

The Southeastern Conference and the SEC Championship won't be included in future games.



On the heels of losing the NCAA branding, EA Sports' line of college football games will also no longer feature anything related to the Southeastern Conference, it was announced today.

The SEC has decided to stop licensing its trademark for use in what has been, up until now, the NCAA Football series, reports ESPN. While the individual members of the SEC remain free to license themselves for inclusion in future games, any mention of the SEC or the SEC Championship will not be allowed.

"Each school makes its own individual decision regarding whether or not to license their trademarks for use in the EA Sports game(s)," an SEC statement reads. "The Southeastern Conference has chosen not to do so moving forward."

This could be considered a major blow for the game considering an SEC team has won the last seven BCS National Championship Games, and nine of the first 15.

Last month, amid an ongoing lawsuit alleging that the likenesses of student athletes were used in EA games without the players being paid, the NCAA announced it would not be renewing its contract with EA Sports. This hasn't put an end to the company's NCAA Football series; instead, future games will simply not use the NCAA's name or its trademarks.

EA Sports has already signed a new, three-year deal with the College Licensing Company that ensures upwards of 150 colleges, conferences, and bowl games will be included in its next few college football games. Among those schools are some that belong to the SEC, though it remains to be seen how their inclusion will be handled and if the SEC's decision today will impact decisions by the remaining schools -- and, indeed, other conferences who have yet to sign -- to continue working with EA Sports.

If there was any doubt the SEC's decision was motivated at least in part by the player likeness lawsuit, today's statement makes that clear when it states, "Neither the SEC, its member universities, nor the NCAA have ever licensed the right to use the name or likeness of any student to EA Sports."

Will the loss of things like the NCAA and SEC branding have any effect on your interest in future college football games, or do you only care that the various schools themselves are included?
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Sorry, I'd post a link but I'm on their mobile site.
 
#3
#3
Big 10 also won't be licensing their trademarks to EA Sports for their College Football games


The Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten have joined the NCAA in announcing they will no longer license their conference trademarks in the EA Sports NCAA football video game.

The move comes a month after the NCAA said it would not license its trademarks, either. That ruling, however, allowed each individual institution and conference to license its trademarks with EA Sports for future college football games.

"Each school makes its own individual decision regarding whether or not to license their trademarks for use in the EA Sports game," the SEC said in a statement. "The Southeastern Conference has chosen not to do so moving forward.

"Neither the SEC, its member universities, nor the NCAA have ever licensed the right to use the name or likeness of any student to EA Sports."

The Collegiate Licensing Company recently announced it completed licensing agreements for approximately 150 of the institutions it represents, including some SEC institutions.

The NCAA's statement last month included similar language about current student-athletes but cited legal costs as the reason for not renewing its contract with EA Sports.

"We are confident in our legal position regarding the use of our trademarks in video games," the NCAA said. "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."

The NCAA is currently embattled in a lawsuit with current and former student-athletes, led by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon, over the alleged use of their likenesses in EA Sports video games without compensation.
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#5
#5
EA's treated the series like their red headed step child for as long as I can remember.
 
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#8
#8
BearCat204 said:
scrap NCAA then and put all efforts into Madden IMO
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They're not putting efforts into anything as long as they have NFL and NFLPA licensing exclusivity! I wish so much that 2K sports could make NFL licensed games again! Their NFL 2K5 game was the tits and their NBA 2K games continue to be terrific!
 
#10
#10
PAC-12 has also done the same, per IGN:

UPDATE: The Big Ten and Pac-12 have joined the SEC in announcing that they will not license their trademarks to EA Sports' next college football game.
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#11
#11
Pac-12, SEC, Big Ten pull trademarks from EA Sports game - NFL.com

Get ready for a case of semantics that would make a logician's head spin.

The Pac-12, SEC and Big Ten will not renew contracts with Electronic Arts to allow their conference logos and trademarks to be used in video games moving forward. However, the schools that are members of those three conferences can enter into agreements with EA on an individual basis if they so choose.

Basically, as long as the schools agree, gamers will still get to play virtual representations of Alabama against Auburn, Ohio State against Michigan, USC against UCLA, only they won't be SEC, Big Ten or Pac-12 conference games. Expect EA to go with generic conference names -- say the "South" for SEC, "Midwest" for Big Ten and "West" for Pac-12 -- assuming the schools sign off.

If they don't, then and only then would EA likely decide to abandon making new college football and basketball games entirely. The average gamer wants to play in his or her favorite team's jersey and helmet. Take away LSU or Wisconsin or Oregon and the reason for buying the game goes out the window.

The announcements are lingering fallout from the lawsuit brought by former UCLA basketball star Ed O'Bannon against the NCAA and EA over the use of likeness rights of current and former student-athletes without compensation.

If "EA College Football '15" never gets made, there's always hope for the return of "Mutant League Football," where the spinning heads were real.
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#12
#12
As far as the others go:

SEC, Big Ten, Pac-12 follow NCAA’s lead and end licensing deals with video-game maker EA - The Washington Post

NEW YORK — The Big Ten, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference are following the NCAA’s lead and will no longer allow EA Sports to use league logos in its college football video games.

The NCAA announced last month it will no longer allow Electronic Arts Inc. to use its logo starting next year. The move comes as the NCAA fights a high-profile lawsuit that says the governing body owes millions of dollars to former players for allowing their likenesses to be used for free.


ESPN first reported the SEC would end its licensing agreement with EA, and a spokesman confirmed that to the AP Wednesday.

Spokesmen for the Big Ten and Pac-12 say their conferences also will not renew agreements with EA.

The conference contracts do not cover individual schools, which can sign their own licensing deals. That would allow EA to have games depicting top-level football programs, such as Alabama from the SEC, Ohio State from the Big Ten and Oregon from the Pac-12. The games would not be able to make any mention of their conferences.

Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said in an email to the AP that “there is no change in status for the Big 12 Conference at this time.”

Spokespeople for Conference USA, the American Athletic Conference, Mountain West Conference and Sun Belt gave similar statements, saying their leagues will be evaluating the situation.

The commissioners of the other FBS conferences — Atlantic Coast Conference and Mid-American Conference — were not immediately available and it was unclear whether their leagues would follow the growing trend.


Former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon is the lead plaintiff among 16 former college athletes in the long-running legal battle that could fundamentally alter how the NCAA operates.

Basketball Hall of Famers Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson previously joined the lawsuit that also names EA and the Collegiate Licensing Company. Five current college football players were added to the lawsuit last month, including Vanderbilt linebacker Chase Garnham, Clemson cornerback Darius Robinson and Arizona linebacker Jake Fischer.

Also, EA is being sued by former Arizona State and Nebraska quarterback Sam Keller over the use of his likeness in video games.
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#19
#19
To be clear, EA sports made a one year deal with the College Licensing Company, so teams involved with it should be included. It's just the conference names, trademarked logos, references, etc, can't be anywhere in the game.

The issue for them is going to be making individual deals with the colleges not involved with the CLC (which is a surprising number of big name schools).
 
#20
#20
Well, so long college football games. I don't want to play as the Tennessee Volunteers in Dynasty mode trying to win the EastSouthern championship
 
#21
#21
I've been clamoring for a reboot to the mutant league games for awhile now!!
 
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#23
#23
Awful blow to the series. I worry this will be the end of college based sports games for the foreseeable future.
 
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