NCAA Football sort of returns in Madden 20 with new career mode
Madden 20’s new Face of the Franchise: QB1 will feature 10 Division 1 college football teams and the College Football Playoff.
NCAA Football has finally returned! Well, kind of. Electronic Arts hasn’t officially announced a new standalone college football game, but they are giving fans something to help fill the void left by NCAA Football 14. And it comes via Madden 20.
EA officially unveiled Madden 20 before last night’s NFL Draft, revealing the cover athlete and dropping the first few details. Among the key new features in this year’s game is a brand-new personalized career campaign, Face of the Franchise: QB1.
Inspired by the success of rising star quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is this year’s cover athlete, this new mode guides you on the journey of becoming an NFL superstar. In this mode, you’ll create a college quarterback and work your way towards the dream of playing quarterback at the NFL level.
Here’s where college football fans will finally get a taste of some NCAA football. You’ll begin your journey at the collegiate level. You’ll be thrown into the College Football National Championship playoff where you can play for one of ten officially licensed Division I teams:
- Florida Gators
- Oregon Ducks
- Oklahoma Sooners
- LSU Tigers
- USC Trojans
- Texas Longhorns
- Clemson Tigers
- Miami Hurricanes
- Florida State Seminoles
- Texas Tech Red Raiders
The College Football Playoff is the first step in your journey to becoming a professional quarterback, and it’s the first time we’ve seen officially licensed college football teams in a video game since NCAA Football 14.
For those who don’t know the backstory, NCAA Football games, like Madden, used to be annualized releases from EA. However, legal issues surrounding the game’s use of college player likenesses (without the athletes getting compensated) resulted in a $60 million lawsuit settlement from EA. The publisher ultimately decided it was best to move away from the college football landscape.
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Sure, what Madden 20 is offering in terms of college football isn’t what fans really want. Most want a full-fledged NCAA Football game, complete with all 130 Division I FBS teams, dynasty recruiting and all that jazz. This is but a tease, but I suppose it’s also better than nothing.
10 teams isn’t a whole lot to choose from, but perhaps, if this mode is successful, EA will expand upon the college football options in future Madden games. Adding more Division I teams or depth to the college football portion of this mode could be a nice workaround should the publisher not want to navigate the complex legal issues that come with a full-fledged NCAA Football game.
More details on Face of the Franchise: QB1 will be shared during a livestream on May 2. So the question now is which of these 10 college teams do you want to start your quarterback career with?