Notre Dame Won't Participate in EA Sports Video Game Until NIL Rules Finalized

Notre Dame said that it won't provide its branding to EA Sports until name, image and likeness "rules have been finalized governing the participation of our student-athletes."

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said Monday that the school won't provide its name, logos, and additional branding to EA Sports for its future college football video game until "rules have been finalized governing the participation of our student-athletes."

"As those rules are developed, it is our strong desire that student-athletes be allowed to benefit directly from allowing their name, image and performance history to be used in the game," Swarbrick said in a statement.

The NCAA has indicated that it intends to change its rules to allow college athletes the ability to make money from some type of endorsement deals. 

On Feb. 2, EA Sports announced the return of a college football video game. 

Daryl Holt, EA Sports' vice president and general manager, told ESPN's Michael Rothstein that there is no set date on when the game will return or when a specific return edition will be announced. The game will not return this year.

Holt said the game is planning to move forward without rosters that include the names, images or likenesses of real college players. However, possible changes to the NIL rights for college athletes could impact those plans, and in turn, include a school like Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish are the first school to publicly declare that they want to wait for new rules to be put in place before making a decision on whether they will participate in the new EA Sports game.

EA Sports hasn't created a college football game since 2013 when it released NCAA Football 14 and featured Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson on the cover.