How the new ‘Madden’ can use college teams without getting sued

The new story mode in Madden NFL 18 traces a wayward player’s career from high school to college to the pros, similar to other story modes in sports video games.

So how are they gonna put college teams in a video game when they can’t make college video games any more, huh?

Well, here are Oregon and Texas, replaying their recent Alamo Bowl while both wearing home uniforms for some reason ...

... and it’s reasonable to assume the game will include a few others, though probably not more than a half dozen or so.

What’s happening here: Individual schools can sell rights to their likenesses, just like they always could. The reason EA Sports doesn’t make college games anymore is because it doesn’t want to get sued over player likenesses, not team logos. The game company tapped out of a lawsuit as it became clear it’d been basing the characters in its commercial product on uncompensated amateur athletes (not that there was any doubt about that), at one point accidentally using Tim Tebow’s name.

2K Sports has been using select college teams in its NBA series for a few years now, thanks to individual school licenses.

Does this mean NCAA Football is any closer to ending its three-years-and-counting hiatus? Not necessarily, though it certainly warms the spirit to know EA and college teams are still in touch with each other. If EA could get every FBS team on board, make clear it’s using entirely fake players, and figure out a way to rope in the College Football Playoff and other related brands, the game could return.

Or the NCAA could just let EA write players checks, thus removing the legal threat. Either/or.