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Earlier this week, EA Sports announced the return of a college football video game.

CHARLOTTE SPORTS LIVE:

Biggest news of the day.

KEYSHAWN, JWILL & ZUBIN SHOW:

How pumped are you? What are you willing to do to get this game in your hand?

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EA Sports’ Madden, the main football video game, has gotten stale. Hey, their words not mine. (Although, I agree.) So fans are beyond excited for a college football video game.

But why did it vanish in the first place?

SECRET BASE/SB NATION:

Ed O’Bannon, the former UCLA basketball star, and a series of plaintiffs are suing the NCAA, mostly to gain control over their likeness.

THE PAT MCAFEE SHOW:

Ed O’Bannon was a basketball player at UCLA. He is the one that kind of led the charge of being like, “Hey, you can’t just have these video games that are making massive amounts of profit for a lot of people — except for the players — while using the actual players.

CBS THIS MORNING:

Athletes want to be paid for the use of their names, images and likenesses in broadcast video games and other media.

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In 2014, the suit was settled. A judge ruled for the player saying, “the NCAA rules and bylaws operate as an unreasonable restraint of trade in violation of antitrust law” … essentially meaning that moving forward, the NCAA and EA Sports needed to compensate athletes for their likeness. The aftermath of all of this? No college football video games.

KJZ/ESPN:

I think this is a huge opportunity for the NCAA to change the POV of how they think.

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That’s why the news this week was shocking.

EA Sports said it’s bringing back the video game in 2023 but won’t be using any players’ names. Part of that reasoning is due to a California law signed in 2019.

GOOD MORNING AMERICA/ABC:

Rule change for college sports. California’s Governor has signed a bill that would allow student athletes to make money off endorsement deals and hire agents.

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The California law goes into effect in 2023. But there is talk of a federal bill to address compensation for college athletes’ name, image and likeness. There’s still lots of time to debate this issue before the game is released.

As for fans here in Chicago, maybe Northwestern and Northern Illinois will be fun to watch — play — in a video game?