If you thought the wait between NCAA Football 14 and this year’s EA Sports College Football 25 was long (10-plus years), then just wait until you find out that the last NCAA Basketball title was published in 2009.
In other words, it’s been well over 14 years since NCAA Basketball 10 was released.
According to information from Insider Gaming’s Mike Straw, both EA and Take Two (2K) have had internal conversations about reviving the long dormant college basketball video game franchise. Straw added, “there are groups within both companies pushing heavily for it.”
Coming off the success that was College Football 25, it makes complete sense that either company would want to revive basketball. Either to get a share of the pie (2K and Take-Two) or extend its college dominance (EA).
One thing is clear either way: no matter who takes the leap, a college basketball game is still quite far away.
The NCAA’s Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules mean the student athletes involved would be entitled to a payday for being included in a game.
EA has some experience with that already thanks to CFB 25, but NCAA basketball is a different beast.
There are 364 Division I teams to account for—nearly double the amount they worked with in the FBS subdivision of college football. More teams means more work to be done (and more athletes to be paid).
NCAA Basketball teams roster a maximum of 15 players. That’s just a fraction of the 120 players per roster allowed in football, but adding schools means adding logos, jerseys, arenas, and more.
That’s a lot of effort no matter how you split it.
Still, this is the first good news for fans of college basketball games in years.
Oklahoma’s Blake Griffin was the last collegiate basketball cover athlete. He’s gone from rookie to superstar to retiree in the time since we last got our hands on a game. It’s far past time to make that right.
