On Feb. 2, 2021, EA Sports announced that they will be rebooting the popular college football series for next-generation consoles. Many football players took to Twitter to express their excitement after hearing the news.

“All those late nights and early mornings finally paid off. My why is fulfilled. MOMMA I AM ON THE GAME,” said Clemson Defensive Lineman KJ Henry.

 It has been seven and a half years since NCAA Football 14 was released. The video game was a huge success selling over one million copies. According to ESPN, EA Sports announced that it would stop making the popular video game series due to a lawsuit filed by former UCLA basketball player, Ed O’Bannon. The lawsuit argued that it was illegal for EA Sports to sell a game with characters that looked similar to real athletes without paying them. The court ruled in O’Bannon’s favor, and in 2016 EA sports agreed to pay former college players $40 million. 

According to theathletic.com, EA Sports is partnering up with Collegiate Licensing Company to produce the new video game. Instead of “NCAA College Football,” the game will be titled “EA Sports College Football.” The game will include the logos, stadiums, uniforms and game-day traditions of more than 100 schools. Both companies are very excited to bring back the popular video game series.

“We have heard from the millions of passionate fans requesting the return of college football video games. We love the energy, tradition and pageantry of college football and I am beyond thrilled to say we are back in development. We have a lot of really exciting work ahead of us, and a great team that is eager to bring a new game to players in the next couple of years,” said EA Sports executive vice president and GM, Cam Weber.

Although it is unclear when the game will be released, fans around the world are overwhelmed with excitement that the once-popular video game series will finally be returning. Growing up, I was a huge fan of NCAA Football and once I heard the news I started jumping up and down with excitement.