NFLPA Exploring Partnership With National College Players Association

Among the many pieces we are awaiting solutions on in order to have NCAA video games return is determining how players will be licensed. It seems that question is one step closer to a solution today:

The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) and the National College Players Association (NCPA) are pleased to announce a collaborative effort to explore how college athletes from all sports can finally receive fair compensation for use of their name, image and likeness. Under REP Worldwide, the group licensing subsidiary of NFL Players, Inc., we will look to advance and market the group licensing rights of college athletes of all sports.

To date, college athletes’ group licensing and broadcast rights have been sold by schools, conferences and the NCAA. These organizations take all revenues and profit derived off the athletes’ work without even acknowledging that athletes deserve a fair share. Under this new partnership, the NFLPA and the NCPA will explore opportunities for merchandise, gaming and other officially licensed products. We will also review how recent developments impact television broadcast revenues in pursuit of fairness.

College athlete group licensing will be possible in 2023 thanks to the California Fair Pay to Play Act, which was co-sponsored by the NCPA. The law grants college athletes the ability to secure professional and legal representation, and to receive compensation for use of their name, image, and likeness starting in 2023.

EA’s CEO said the company would jump at the chance to develop NCAA Football games again, and with California’s legislation as well as the various other legislation proposed in states across the country, this is a necessary component of making NCAA games possible in the future.

As we’ve written about a great many times on OS, the key to getting NCAA video games back on our consoles is to negate the legal risk for companies. For EA to consider that done, that means a way to license college athletes entirely from A-Z on the teams they want. Half measures won’t negate any risks (in other words, licensing some players but not others) so today’s news is another piece of the puzzle towards getting a legal landscape in place to have an NCAA game be possible.

Unfortunately, we are still a few years away from anything coming to fruition. While EA had pretty advanced plans for a college football game on this generation of consoles, the next generation will be a likely home for NCAA. This takes a lot of development resources and time, and it’s unlikely EA is going to shadow develop a college football game unless they knew the money they were spending on the project wasn’t going to be a total waste.

Despite that, the momentum is heading in the right direction and it seems the odds of NCAA games returning will only continue to rise in the coming years.

The post NFLPA Exploring Partnership With National College Players Association appeared first on Operation Sports.

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