NCAA ends college football partnership with EA

The NCAA has chosen not to renew its college football franchise contract with EA Sports, the organization has announced.

The agreement comes to an end in June of 2014, meaning the recently launched NCAA Football 14 marks the final release of the partnership.

"The NCAA has never licensed the use of current student-athlete names, images or likenesses to EA," the group stated.

"The NCAA has no involvement in licenses between EA and former student-athletes. Member colleges and universities license their own trademarks and other intellectual property for the video game. They will have to independently decide whether to continue those business arrangements in the future."

EA, for its part, will continue to develop and release college football games sans the NCAA license.

"[EA Sports will] continue to develop and publish college football games, but we will no longer include the NCAA names and marks," EA Sports EVP Andrew Wilson stated on EA’s official site.

"Our relationship with the Collegiate Licensing Company is strong and we are already working on a new game for next generation consoles which will launch next year and feature the college teams, leagues and all the innovation fans expect from EA Sports."

An ESPN source also confirms that next year’s game will be called College Football 15.