There was a lot of hype surrounding college football this past month as the championship game came to a close, with the Crimson Tide taking the win as our simulation predicted. We’ve already established that people really want to see NCAA Football return to consoles, but the championship this year really brought the question back into the spotlight; Will it ever happen? Should it?
The world is sorely missing NCAA Football, as was evidenced by the massive response to our article on the subject. That big PR blunder from EA served to stir up the discussion too. Was the gaming going to make a return? Fans sure hoped so. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. The post was just EA trying to show their enthusiasm for whatever reason. Maybe it was to prove that there’s still interest in the series, who knows.
With interest in the sport and a resurrection of the franchise so high, it makes sense that some important figures associated with the game would want to weigh in. Enter Kirk Herbstreit, who served as commentator for the NCAA Football video games. In an interview with SEC Country that was conducted back in November and published earlier this month, Kirk Herbstreit discussed his thoughts on the subject and whether or not he’d like to see the game return. The obvious answer was yes, though his plan for bringing series back to life was a bit questionable.
Firstly, he puts the blame squarely on Ed O’Bannon for taking the game away. “I can’t believe Ed O’Bannon took that game away from us,” Herbstreit says in the interview. He’s not wrong. As I discussed in the article written last month, the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit over likeness resulted in the termination of EA’s partnership with the NCAA. But, as the court has determined, the lawsuit did have merit. Obviously, Kirk Herbstreit doesn’t feel that way.
According to Herbstreit, plenty of athletes would be happy to sacrifice pay in order for the game to return. “Every single college football player,” he said. “You know what they’d love for their compensation to be? Just give ‘em a free game. That’s the compensation that they would take.”
Perhaps everyone that Herbstreit talked to felt that way, but the comments that I’ve read on the subject seem to suggest otherwise. Many people — both athletes and fans alike — seem to agree that the players deserve some form of compensation. According to Herbstreit, however, the students are more than happy to appear in the game. “I’ve never met one player in college football that’s like: ‘They can’t use my name and likeness! I need to be paid!’ They’re just thrilled to be on the game. They love being on the game. It’s like the biggest highlight of their life, is to be on the game.”
It’s a hot topic with a lot of differing opinions, but I’m not sure Herbstreit is right on this one. Personally, I think that athletes deserve to be compensated. After all, this is a video game franchise built entirely upon the names and likenesses of college athletes. How much compensation they deserve is up for debate, but I find it hard to believe that a small salary is out of the question.
Either way, I don’t think we’ll be seeing another NCAA Football game until the matter of compensation is settled, and that’s unfortunate. But, I’m sure that athletes are fine with that. After all, the exposure can only benefit them so much.
Kirk Herbstreit is Wrong About Compensation for NCAA Football
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