The NCAA revealed today that they are no longer providing its football license to EA, effectively spelling the end for college football video games as we know them after the release of “NCAA 14.” While briefly touching on the issue, the real elephant in the room  that caused the decision is the use of player likenesses for which the included students receive no profit. It’s an issue that has been haunting all aspects of college sports for some time now, and the removal of this license is just an example of a larger problem that has no clear answer in sight.

EA, for their part, says they will continue to make college football games, but without the NCAA license. A move that will likely work as well for them as it did for that non NFL licensed 2K football game.

To be honest, first my reaction to this was somewhere between “Who Cares” and “Good Riddance.”

While a little pessimistic, that’s a reaction founded somewhere during the years of “Madden-Lite” NCAA entries, which turned a game that used to be on every cinder block built book shelf next to the Einstein posters and dirty laundry pile in every college dorm room in America ,into another half-hearted EA series.

Yes, if you don’t remember there was in fact a time when the “NCAA” team embraced and implemented the college spirit into their annual entries, and came up with a game that was separate, but equal in many ways to the usually more popular “Madden” franchise. Sporting its own cult fan base, it wasn’t unusual for someone to say they were a fan of “NCAA,” but never played “Madden.”

Of course, as the years went on, the only way to really distinguish the two gridiron series was by identifying the team’s logos (which, of course, are no longer available).

But the more I think on it, the more it becomes clear that this really is sad, due mostly to those years when NCAA was a classic franchise. It was once a rite of passage for every college football fan to have that “one game” that they would forever remember with their college roommate/best friend, and be able to recite play by play upon any future drinking occasion.

Now, barring some serious legal changes, that’s likely gone forever.

Ultimately, it’s true that the quality of the games would have had no bearing on the final decision. However, if the series had been able to maintain that former glory, then maybe this would be a story not entirely built around money, but memories as well.

As I fill out a bracket that will no doubt be null and void shortly after the round of 64, I kick back and smile at the upcoming joy that is the greatest playoff system in all of sports, the NCAA March Madness tournament.

It’s a tale of underdogs and goliaths. It’s one of men who aim to be heroes coming from all corners of the lands to do battle. From the heated debates regarding those involved, all the way to the moment one school, and one team, stand upon a pile of worthy, yet vanquished, foes to achieve the title of champion, there is no event in sports so epic and engrossing.

In fact, it would really make a great video game wouldn’t it?

This time every year, for the last few years, I have to remind myself there are no new college basketball games. The reasons why are nothing quite so epic as the famous tournament, but are as tragic as any great tale nonetheless.

Simply put college basketball games, unlike the NCAA Football games, didn’t sell well at all. Reports even put “NCAA Basketball 10,” the last entry in the field, selling just over 200,000 units total, which for a company like EA (the last developer to make an NCAA basketball game) was not cutting it. Combined with the always tricky NCAA licensing battles stemming from creating the likeness of college players in a game (and the historic so-so quality of the games themselves), from a business standpoint, the answer couldn’t have been more clear.

College basketball games had to go.

And you know what? It’s a damn shame.

While the games were never quite at the same level as their college football or professional basketball counterparts, EA’s series (and 2K’s before that for that matter) was improving leaps and bounds, and that strive to improve it each year washed away that “we’re the only game in town so deal with it” feel you sometimes get with their sports titles.

As for the sales, as atrocious as they were in terms of that type of game, as we near the opening rounds of the great tournament, I can’t help but feel like the biggest issue was the game’s typical release date around November, and not closer to the madness that is March for college basketball fans. Why you wouldn’t try to capitalize off of the frenzy surrounding that event remains beyond me.

Instead another NCAA tournament approaches and once again fans are left without a virtual option to forge their own tournament memories, unless they want to pay some absurd prices for one of the old entries. Even then, the online servers are long dead.

You can do a lot of things in video games and get away with it, but at the end of the day you’ve got to sell. College basketball didn’t, and now they’re gone. Unlike that plucky “Cinderella” team that comes just short of the big game though, there is no next year for college basketball video games. Instead there is just time for even the most feverishly adherent of fans to vaguely remember that once, there was a contender.

Whether you’re one of the die-hards that buys each new iteration of the NCAA football franchise or a newbie to the series looking to coach a team to greatness, NCAA 2011 will bring unprecedented levels of access to game content when you’re away from your console.

The most notable feature is Dynasty Mode, which gives players a chance to create and manage their own dynasty from a variety of mobile devices. From IGN:

What that means for you, the user, is that they’re designing custom interfaces for your PC, Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad that allow you to do things like recruit and sign college-bound prospects as well as upload photos and videos to brag to other players if you happen to be playing in an Online Dynasty (or want to gloat to the CPU). You’ll also be able set your dynasty to public or private, so players can elect to give random gamers the ability to hop in their league if they want.

NCAA 2011 will be available for Xbox 360 and PS3 July 13.