Media by Associated Press – FILE – Northern Illinois quarterback Rocky Lombardi runs into the end zone for 5-yard touchdown during the second half of of the Mid-American Conference championship NCAA college football game against Kent State on Dec. 4, 2021, in Detroit. The conference is selling the rights to its data and statistics to a company called Genius Sports, which will in turn sell it to sportsbooks. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)
Anyone who has spent nearly the past ten years waiting for the new NCAA college football game can mark some time down on their calendar.
EA Sports, which will be making the game, announced that it will be released in July of 2023. While many college football fans will be excited, producing the game this time around will have new challenges.
The schools have approved their participation in the game, but how EA will work players into the game remains to be seen. With NIL deals, it is likely players will try to negotiate how much they can make off their likeness in said games. Video games aside, here is some other news about college football.
We don’t need you around here
Over the past 13 years, college football, typically bogged down by tradition, has been evolving at a rapid pace. What the Power 5 are starting to suggest is that they no longer need the NCAA to help them make decisions on the future of the sport. PAC 12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff suggested as much this week, floating the idea of the FBS school running major college football instead.
How that would work, or how the Group of 6 schools would be impacted, remains to be seen.
Joining the part
Oklahoma and Texas decided to depart the Big 12 for the SEC, once again saw teams in the Group of 6 categories scrambling to get a bigger piece of the college football revenue pie.
Cincinnati, UCF, Houston, and BYU have all officially announced they will join the Big 12 in 2023. For BYU, currently a Division I independent school, they didn’t have too many hurdles to clear.
However, the other three had to negotiate a buy-out with the American Athletic Conference. They will need to pay the AAC an $18 million payout to leave but will be allowed to pay that off over 14 years.
Wild West starting to be colonized
Pitt receiver Jordan Addison transferring to USC so late in the offseason caused a lot of hand-wringing about how teams could assemble rosters.
The NCAA is working on trying to make the windows where players can transfer more defined. How the NCAA is doing so by planning to create windows where players can enter the transfer portal.
The NCAA first started using the transfer portal in October of 2018. Students, right now, have to enter the portal by May 1 of the academic year. Creating windows for players to transfer is supposed to be the process more efficient and help expedite the timeline for players to transfer.
Trying to beef up the AAC
When the Big 12 raided the AAC, the conference started to look around the landscape to see what it could do to best replace the three schools it is losing.
While the schools don’t necessarily have the name value of the schools they lost, what the new schools do bring is access to big markets. UAB, FAU, Charlotte, North Texas, Rice, and UTSA will all join the AAC in 2023.
UAB has gone to a bowl game over its past four seasons, while UTSA had its best season in school history last year, capturing the Conference USA and Conference USA West Division championships before losing to San Diego State in the Frisco Bowl.
Keep up with your latest NCAAF news coverage and betting pick previews at NJSportsbookReview.com.