Will Notre Dame be in EA Sports College Football?

NCAA Football used to be one of the most popular game franchises, with a legion of loyal followers.

Unlike many other games, the series didn't stop because of a lack of success.

With some recent tweets, EA Sports have fans excited with the news it is returning.

But will it have all the colleges you would expect?

History of NCAA Football

The NCAA (the governing body for college athletes in America) stopped the use of image rights across the board, and only the colleges themselves could profit from the sport.

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Recent steps to change the law to allow athletes to make money, this has brought with it the demand for an NCAA Football game to be remade.

We haven't had anything in the NCAA Football franchise since 2014.

This battle over licensing will continue through the development of the new game, with constant questions about what will be included.

And the question over Notre Dame is the first of these.

What is the problem with Notre Dame?

University of Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick has said his school will not provide its name, logos and other branding property to EA Sports for the game until new rules determining whether athletes will be able to receive a cut of the game's profits are finalized.

This is a problem for EA as Notre Dame is one of the biggest names in College Football.

What are the new NIL rules?

The NCAA has indicated that it intends to change its rules to allow college athletes to make money from some types of endorsement deals, including their likeness in video games.

Federal and state lawmakers have also pushed legislation that would open up similar opportunities, some of which are scheduled to go into effect as early as this summer. This is likely to bring other states to the table.

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Currently, EA has been dealing with each of the schools to try and agree on deals, but it's likely for the players to agree there needs to be some kind of collective group formed.

Will the game have real players and teams?

EA has been very clear they are prepared to move forward without using the names or images of players in the game. Clearly they will track the progress of law changes and try to include them if they can.

We still don't have a release date to go off to understand what the impact might be, but we know it won't be in 2021.

This could give plenty of time for deals to be done.

Will Notre Dame be in EA Sports College Football?

Notre Dame is the first team to put their line in the sand and publicly state they will not be in the game under the current circumstances.

With no release date, it's more likely this is some kind of negotiation tactic and the goalposts will move before a game launches.

It's very likely that a deal for all parties gets done with a launch not expected for around 18 months.

We would expect Notre Dame to feature at launch.

Stay up to date on progress by checking in with us regularly.

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