Seems like EA isn't just rubbing gamers the wrong way. Despite that their deal with Electronic Arts isn't set to expire until June of next year, the NCAA announced today that they won't be entering into a new contract with the company.
The organization detailed their decision via a press release, citing "the current business climate and costs of litigation" as the primary reason not to enter into a new contract.
It wasn't specifically stated outright, but the litigation costs the release is referring to is likely related to a case in which the NCAA and EA are co-defendants over the use of names and likenesses of college athletes. The bit about "The NCAA has never licensed the use of current student-athlete names, images or likenesses to EA. The NCAA has no involvement in licenses between EA and former student-athletes" basically cemented the relation in.
To play catch up, in 2009, a former Nebraska football player and student filed a lawsuit objecting to the use of the likenesses of both former and current student-athletes in video games. The suit made claims against the NCAA, EA Sports, and Collegiate Licensing Company under antitrust and right of publicity. If current events aren't your strong suit, you might be more familiar with the simplistic way "South Park" summed it up in that episode about crack baby basketball. A jury trial is currently scheduled for February 2014.
EA is also on the business end of another suit over Madden Football, for which they've been ordered to pay one of the game's original designers millions of dollars in compensatory damages.
In related news, I'm willing to bet my life that 2K games is in the midst of sending a whole lotta fruit baskets over to Mark Emmert's house.
NCAA Football 14 is the last title from EA, out now for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
