Social media wants the NCAA football video game to return, especially after the NCAA’s announcement Tuesday on likeness.
The NCAA took its first steps toward allowing compensation for athletes on Tuesday when the Board of Governors said the NCAA will look into permitting athletes to be compensated for their names, images and likenesses, according to The Associated Press.
“We must embrace change to provide the best possible experience for college athletes,: said Michael V. Drake, the board’s chair and president of the Ohio State University, according to Axios. ”This modernization for the future is a natural extension of the numerous steps NCAA members have taken in recent years to improve support for student-athletes, including full cost of attendance and guaranteed scholarships.”
The NCAA’s rules have long kept players from earning money from their school for their name, image or likeness.
Social media, NCAA experts and sports figures weighed in with skepticism about the NCAA’s announcement, with many saying it wasn’t really a big step in helping college athletes get paid, as reported by the Deseret News.
But video gamers and sports fans alike cheered for the move as they saw it as the first sign that the NCAA’s old football video game franchise — “NCAA Football” — could return to video game systems everywhere, according to the Deseret News.
“NCAA Football 14” was the last installment of the franchise before the NCAA ended its agreement with EA sports, and after large universities stepped away from the game.
EA Sports is reportedly open to bringing back the game, too, according to Bleacher Report.
“Our position is we would love to build a game. If there’s a world where the folks who govern these things are able to solve for how to pay players for the use of their name and likeness and stats and data, we would jump at the opportunity to build a game in a heartbeat,” Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson told Jason Gay of the Wall Street Journal last week.
To celebrate the game’s potential return, a number of fake cover mockups have surfaced on social media. We’ve pulled some of them for you to check out below, some of which include Utah athletes.