WebProNews

Tag: NCAA Football

  • NCAA Suing EA Sports: End Of College Sports Games?

    The NCAA has had a long history with EA Sports, and the production of NCAA football video-games. However, recently reports have surfaced saying that the NCAA is suing EA Sports for a number of issues that have arisen during the business partnership between the two institutions.

    The lawsuit was filed on November 4th in a Georgia state court, following a settlement that happened in September.

    In September, EA Sports and the Collegiate Licensing Company agreed to pay around $40 million to settle lawsuits brought by former players whose likenesses were used without compensation.

    EA Sports is responsible for making a variety of games for each system, but has its most popular in the NCAA Football franchise. Due to the fact that college players are not paid for what they do, it has been a rule that EA Sports is not permitted to use the names of players within the game, and it seems that the rule was broken, without players being compensated.

    It was already announced that an NCAA football game would not be released in 2015, and there has not been a college basketball video game since 2010, while the result shows the business of producing college sports video games may be coming to an end. It is disappointing for the people who play these games, but luckily the Madden games will still be around.

    The NCAA hopes to block the settlement, and require to EA Sports to pay for future liability judgments, legal fees and costs, according to the reports.

    The Collegiate Licensing Company seems to be involved in the battle between EA Sports and the NCAA, which might not be theirs to fight. Andrew Giangola, the spokesman for the CLC, said “CLC is caught in the middle of a dispute between NCAA and EA which should not involve us.”

    He obviously does not feel that they are involved, and EA Sports should be held solely responsible for any incident that occurred regarding the players not being paid for their usage in the game. Two players who were very vocal in the campaign to get compensation for the players were Ed O’Bannon, a former UCLA basketball player, and former college quarterback Sam Keller.

    Unfortunately for people who enjoy playing college sports games, it seems that with the NCAA suing EA Sports, and continuing their demands, that the era of college sports video games may be coming to an end. This will certainly hurt the business of EA Sports, who has made a great deal of profits from their NCAA Football games.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc33Bc_6nh4

    Image via Facebook

  • Oregon Ducks Delivered First Loss From Stanford

    The match-up between the Oregon Ducks and the Stanford Cardinals was set to be one of the best games of the year, and a game that would decide the fate of both teams heading into the final few games of the season. While many thought Oregon would win, or at least put up a lot of points, they were shutout for much of the game and lost to Stanford 26-20.

    Oregon entered the game with an undefeated record, and while Stanford had lost one game coming in, they each have one loss as they prepare for the Pac-12 championship. The final score certainly does not show it, but the Oregon Ducks suffered a beating unlike any other in recent history, and before their late and desperate rally, they were down 26-0.

    It is unfortunate that the Oregon-Stanford game could not have been the exciting game that everyone was expecting from two of the top teams in the country, but unfortunately one team just does not come with their full potential sometimes.

    For the past three years now, the Oregon Ducks have been one of the top teams in NCAA football, but just like the past two years, they have lost a big game and will likely lose out on another opportunity to make the BCS championship game.

    The defensive coordinator and head coach are both trying to blame themselves for the loss, and coach Mark Helfrich said of the loss, “We didn’t get off to a good start offensively and on special teams, and that’s my fault, for whatever reason. Defensively, I thought we competed all day.”

    Oregon ironically lost to Stanford with the same type of play calling and strategy that they used to win last year, when they played in Eugene. Stanford controlled much of the time of possession, running for 274 yards on 66 carries. The Heisman hopeful, Marcus Mariota, was also playing on a bad knee, and tweaked it more in the second half. He was forced to stick to the passing game, and rushed for -16 yards on three sacks.

    The Oregon Ducks may have been one of the top few teams in the country going into last night’s game, but their performance agaisnt Stanford certianly did not show it. What will become of their post-season?

    Image via Youtube

  • EA Sports: No College Football Game Next Year

    EA Sports, the publisher behind games such as Madden 25 and NCAA Football 14, this week announced that it will not be releasing a college football game next year. Developers who had been working on the project have been shuffled around to other positions within EA Sports, making it unlikely that the publisher is even working on a future replacement for the NCAA-branded football series.

    The announcement comes just months after the NCAA announced that it would not be renewing its contract with EA Sports for the use of its name and logo in NCAA Football titles. The organization cited “the current business climate and costs of litigation” as a factor in its decision. The NCAA is currently dealing with legal disputes surrounding the use of student athlete names and likenesses in NCAA-branded products. Though the names of players were not used in the NCAA Football titles, their jersey numbers, physical stats, and even hair colors have been used in the games.

    EA Sports GM of American Football Cam Weber cited similar reasons for today’s announcement, calling the publisher’s decision “profoundly disappointing” for both developers and fans. From Weber’s statement:

    We have been stuck in the middle of a dispute between the NCAA and student-athletes who seek compensation for playing college football. Just like companies that broadcast college games and those that provide equipment and apparel, we follow rules that are set by the NCAA – but those rules are being challenged by some student-athletes. For our part, we are working to settle the lawsuits with the student-athletes. Meanwhile, the NCAA and a number of conferences have withdrawn their support of our game. The ongoing legal issues combined with increased questions surrounding schools and conferences have left us in a difficult position – one that challenges our ability to deliver an authentic sports experience, which is the very foundation of EA Sports games.

    Though there will be no college football games from EA in the foreseeable future, the publisher has promised to continue supporting NCAA Football 14.

  • Week 5 NCAA Football AP Top 25 Rankings

    Week 5 NCAA Football AP Top 25 Rankings

    In an incredibly lackluster week four game day, we witnessed several unnecessary mismatches (with winning teams scoring over 70 points in some instances), virtually no upsets, and a few key victories here and there. The schedule of games for week four were such a disappointment that the online sports journal publication entitled it’s primary headline, “College football, Week 4: At least it was a Saturday” The AP Top 25 was posted last night and to no surprise, the defending National Champions – the Alabama Crimson Tide once again clung to the number one spot.

    The polls also went on to reveal that the top 14 spots on the poll remained completely unchanged from last week with teams like #4 Ohio State, #7 Louisville, #10 Texas A&M, all the way to #14 Oklahoma (the full AP [Associated Press] Top 25 list is provided at the end of this article). Saturday (9/21) held almost no surprises as far as the odds and predictions went, there were no upsets and the highlights of the day for many fans came in the form of mismatches and final scores that could only be described in words like slaughter, massacre, and devastation. Throughout the day sports fans sporadically saw scores like #7 Louisville’s 72 to nothing shut-out against Florida International or the near identical performance of the Ohio State Buckeyes, who won against Florida A&M (76-0). These two games were only a few among several that could have been stopped at the end of the first half. After the game Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer was quick to commend his second-string QB Kenny Guiton, who set a new school record for touchdown passes in a single game (6):


    The Hurricanes of Miami (FL) advanced to #15 after their offensive tutorial against Savannah State (77-7). Washington moved up a spot to #16 after their 56-0 meeting with Idaho State. The primary changes this week were mainly teams moving up a single position in the rankings. These fluctuations correlated with wins from Northwestern (who moved up to #17), Baylor (who moved up to #19), Wisconsin (who moved up to #23), and Texas Tech (who moved up to #24). #23 Arizona State lost their place in the ‘top 25’ after losing to #5 Stanford in a heated Pac-12 conference game, which made way for Fresno State to move in as #25.

    A few teams managed to lock in some key wins on this rather uneventful Saturday: #19 Florida Gators defeated the Volunteers of Tennessee 31 to 17; #22 Notre Dame took down one of their historically traditional rivals Michigan State in a close game (17-13); and #6 LSU beat Auburn in one of their first conference meetings 35 to 21. Wolverine fans were disappointed in the performance they had against an 0-2 UConn team of the terribly sub-par Big East conference. Michigan, who was ranked 15th at the time, only managed to beat Connecticut by a field goal in the last quarter (24-21). That substandard performance would cause them to drop three spots to #18 (the worst changed in rank of the week).

    AP Top 25 Rankings:
    1 Alabama
    2 Oregon
    3 Clemson
    4 Ohio State
    5 Stanford
    6 LSU
    7 Louisville
    8 Florida State
    9 Georgia
    10 Texas A&M
    11 Oklahoma State
    12 South Carolina
    13 UCLA
    14 Oklahoma
    15 Miami (FL)
    16 Washington
    17 Northwestern
    18 Michigan
    19 Baylor
    20 Florida
    21 Ole Miss
    22 Notre Dame
    23 Wisconsin
    24 Texas Tech
    25 Fresno State

    Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: Kick-Off at the Shoe

  • BCS Playoff Proposal To Be Decided By University Presidents

    Fans who have always wanted to see the college football champion decided by a tournament rather than the BCS may soon get their wish. AP is reporting that the BCS Commissioners reached a consensus yesterday on a tournament model that decides the national champion using a four team seeded playoff. Now all that needs to happen is for the university presidents to sign off for approval and the 2014 national champions will be decided in this manner.

    “I am delighted,” said Southeastern Conference Commissioner Mike Slive to the Associate Press. “I am pleased with the progress we have made. There are some differences, but we will work them out. We’re trying to do what is in the best interest of the game.”

    The BCS Presidential Oversight Committee will meet in Washington next Tuesday to decide the fate of the new plan, or introduce one of their own. The proposition is ultimately their decision, so there is still a chance that it could be shot down.

    The Big Ten and Pac-12 presidents have shown support for this model, which would replace the method of creating a pair of national semifinalists based on ranking. The new method would take place after the bowls have been played, which leads me to believe the Presidential Oversight Committee should have no problem adopting this method. Making the season longer by adding a tournament on top of the bowl games should create some huge advertising dollars. Their only concern might be that it could disrupt the ratings for bowl games, but that is seriously doubtful. Football has become an American obsession — even downplaying the importance of bowl games could not harm the following.

    The Commissioners may have reached a consensus for the tournament style but may details are yet to be worked out. For instance, there has been no consensus on whether or not the semifinal sites would rotate between major bowls, ar if they will play at the site of one of the team’s. The method for discerning the final four teams is also a subject of hot debate. Right now they are talking about the use of a selection committee that gives preference to teams that win their conference, similar to NCAA basketball.

  • RG3 Is Announced As Newest EA Cover Athlete

    Robert Griffin III, the young man who just ran a 4.41 40 yard dash at the NFL scouting Combine has been announced as the cover athlete for EA’s NCAA Football 13. RG3 was one of the most dynamic players in all of college football last year. He was the winner of the Heisman trophy beating Andrew Luck for the award. He also won the Davey O’Brien Award and was named the AP College Football Player of the Year in 2011. Past cover athletes include Desmond Howard, Darren McFadden, and DeSean Jackson. So as you can see he is in esteemed company. Also, as far as we know, there is no “Madden Curse” when it comes to cover athletes for the NCAA Football games. The game is due to be released in the US on Tuesday, July 10.

    In addition to RG3, fans will be able to vote for a fellow Heisman trophy winner to join him on the cover. The candidates include former University of Southern California running back Marcus Allen, former Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie, former The Ohio State University running back Eddie George, former The University of Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard, former Oklahoma State University running back Barry Sanders, former University of Georgia running back Herschel Walker, former Florida State University quarterback Charlie Ward and former University of Houston quarterback Andre Ware.

    @BaylorAth_RSS
    Baylor Athletics    Football. RG3 Featured on EA’s NCAA Football 13: Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ: EA) today announced Robert Griffin… http://t.co/EiDCZRju 31 minutes ago via twitterfeed ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @BUFootball
    Baylor Football    #RG3 is officially the cover boy for @EASPORTS NCAA Football 13 http://t.co/gAF67uuV #SicEm 49 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto