History YMMV / NCAAFootball

** In 2021, EA announced that they were reviving the series around the time it became clear the NCAA was going to fold on its restrictions on players making Name, Image and Likeness deals. They have the rights to use around 120 of the 130 FBS schools (notably missing Notre Dame) and may feature students' if the NIL deals can be sorted out. The game is on track for 2024 release.

** The game was suspended between 2014 and 2023. The UsefulNotes/{{NCAA}} strictly forbids athletes from receiving any financial compensation for their participation in college sports, including endorsements and licensing. This means that all the players in the games could not be referred to by name (but stats, age, and team was okay). In response to legal disputes from former players over demands for royalties for their apparent portrayal, the NCAA ended its licensing agreement with EA. This only meant that they couldn't brand it as an NCAA game (in fact, the first two were called ''Bill Walsh College Football'' instead), as EA still had license agreements for team names and other elements from unrelated parties (such as individual conferences and the Collegiate Licensing Company, while Creator/{{ESPN}} had tie-ins for integration of its talent and television presentation in the games). However, the conferences followed suit and pulled their license as well, essentially shutting down the series during that span.
** In 2021, EA announced that they were reviving the series around the time it became clear the NCAA was going to fold on its restrictions on players making Name, Image and Likeness deals. They have the rights to use around 120 of the 130 FBS schools (notably missing Notre Dame) and may feature students' if the NIL deals can be sorted out. An announcement was made in June 2022 that the game is on track for a summer 2023 release.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: A common complaint toward the series is that each new installment is "just a roster update" from the previous year.

** The game was suspended between 2014 and 2021. The UsefulNotes/{{NCAA}} strictly forbids athletes from receiving any financial compensation for their participation in college sports, including endorsements and licensing. This means that all the players in the games could not be referred to by name (but stats, age, and team was okay). In response to legal disputes from former players over demands for royalties for their apparent portrayal, the NCAA ended its licensing agreement with EA. This only meant that they couldn't brand it as an NCAA game (in fact, the first two were called ''Bill Walsh College Football'' instead), as EA still had license agreements for team names and other elements from unrelated parties (such as individual conferences and the Collegiate Licensing Company, while Creator/{{ESPN}} had tie-ins for integration of its talent and television presentation in the games). However, the conferences followed suit and pulled their license as well, essentially shutting down the series during that span.
** In 2021, EA announced that they were reviving the series around the time it became clear the NCAA was going to fold on its restrictions on players making Name, Image and Likeness deals. They have the rights to use around 120 of the 130 FBS schools (notably missing Notre Dame) and may feature students' if the NIL deals can be sorted out.

* BrokenBase: EA's announcement that the series will contain an "Ultimate Team" mode (just like ''[[VideoGame/MaddenNFL Madden]]'' and ''VideoGame/FIFASoccer'') when it resumes following its hiatus has devastated long-time fans of the series. The microtransaction laden, online-only mode essentially turns it into a collectable card game with an arcade sports game tacked onto it and you can get better "cards" by paying real money. If it is anything like its EA Sports sister series, it will shift the emphasis away from the classic, single-player Franchise mode which seems to be more stripped down in terms of features and struggles with more bugs/poor AI decision making/odd simulation results which get worse each year.

* BrokenBase: EA's announcement that the series will contain an "Ultimate Team" mode (just like ''Madden'' and ''FIFA'') when it resumes following its hiatus has devastated long-time fans of the series. The microtransaction laden, online-only mode essentially turns it into a collectable card game with an arcade sports game tacked onto it and you can get better "cards" by paying real money. If it is anything like its EA Sports sister series, it will shift the emphasis away from the classic, single-player Franchise mode which seems to be more stripped down in terms of features and struggles with more bugs/poor AI decision making/odd simulation results which get worse each year.

** In 2021, EA announced that they were reviving the series around the time it became clear the NCAA was going to fold on its restrictions on players making Name, Image and Likeness deals. They have the rights to use around 120 of the 130 FBS schools (notably missing Notre Dame) and may feature students' if the NIL deals can be sorted out.

** In 2021, EA announced that they were reviving the series. They have the rights to use around 120 of the 130 FBS schools (notably missing Notre Dame), but will not feature real players or their likenesses, instead using computer generated players similar to the in-game recruiting classes. EA has stated that they are open to using real players if/when NCAA rules change to allow it.

** In 2021, EA announced that they were reviving the series. They have the rights to use all 100+ FBS schools (except Notre Dame)...but will not feature real players or their likenesses, instead using computer generated players similar to the in-game recruiting classes. EA has stated that they are open to using real players if/when NCAA rules change to allow it.

** In 2021, EA announced that they were reviving the series. They have the rights to use all 100+ FBS schools...but will not feature real players or their likenesses, instead using computer generated players similar to the in-game recruiting classes. EA has stated that they are open to using real players if/when NCAA rules change to allow it.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The game has been suspended indefinitely since 2014. The UsefulNotes/{{NCAA}} strictly forbids athletes from receiving any financial compensation for their participation in college sports, including endorsements and licensing. This means that all the players in the games could not be referred to by name (but stats, age, and team was okay). In response to legal disputes from former players over demands for royalties for their apparent portrayal, the NCAA ended its licensing agreement with EA. This only meant that they couldn't brand it as an NCAA game (in fact, the first two were called ''Bill Walsh College Football'' instead), as EA still had license agreements for team names and other elements from unrelated parties (such as individual conferences and the Collegiate Licensing Company, while Creator/{{ESPN}} had tie-ins for integration of its talent and television presentation in the games). However, the conferences followed suit and pulled their license as well, essentially shutting down the series.

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* ScrappyMechanic: The despised system for making phone calls to recruits which basically spins a roulette wheel of topics, allowing you the option of pitching your school's merits on that topic or discrediting your rivals on that topic. It's obnoxious enough that you, the head coach, can't choose to pitch whatever you want. This can lead to the bizarre result that the coach of Stanford might never get to sell his school's academics or the coach of Miami can never sell the school's gorgeous campus. However the roulette wheel sometimes stops on topics that you know the player doesn't care about leaving you forced to try and pitch him anyway. This was removed for ''13''.
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The game has been suspended indefinitely since 2014. The UsefulNotes/{{NCAA}} strictly forbids athletes from receiving any financial compensation for their participation in college sports, including endorsements and licensing. This means that all the players in the games could not be referred to by name (but stats, age, and team was okay). In response to legal disputes from former players over demands for royalties for their apparent portrayal, the NCAA ended its licensing agreement with EA. This only meant that they couldn't brand it as an NCAA game (in fact, the first two were called ''Bill Walsh College Football'' instead), as EA still had license agreements for team names and other elements from unrelated parties (such as individual conferences and the Collegiate Licensing Company, while Creator/{{ESPN}} had tie-ins for integration of its talent and television presentation in the games). However, the conferences followed suit and pulled their license as well, essentially shutting down the series.


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