I never got the appeal of NCAA games anyway but I do think this is a good thing as college athletes were getting screwed with their likenesses being used in games and not receiving a dime while the NCAA and their schools made out like bandits for years.

The NCAA is getting sued over this very issue.  It is why they just ended their partnership with EA.  Why wouldn't the players come after EA with a lawsuit if they continue to do it?

Pretty much, EA might be able to get over it by having randomized character models (such as the QB for Florida or the Florida school being a different race or body build then the actually one currently) but what I suspect they will wind up doing is add a custom team colors/character creator with the ability to share, so that the fans will do the dirty work for them.

You are probably right.  They actually sort of do that now.  Fans add all the real names to the rosters, and you can download it for your game.

It would be a lot more work to adjust all the players looks and stats though.

EA already has a custom team creator for the game, there is just a limit on the amount of teams you can import. There are already a lot of official teams both new and old on there, so I doubt anything at all will change unless they can't get conference licenses. 

I just looked it up and EA Sports is already named in the lawsuit.  So they are already being sued over this.

Say goodbye to the accurate team rosters.

Sorry, didn't see your post when I quoted myself.

School licensing is not the issue.  I never said it was.  I already know about the Collegiate Licensing Company.  They are also a co-defendant in the lawsuit.  School colors, logos, staduims, fight songs, etc. should all be safe though.

What the NCAA, EA, and CLC are being sued over (there are at least 3 lawsuits now), is player likenesses.  So it looks to me, that in the near future, EA will NOT be able to use rough approximations of the players as they have been doing.  They have been making the rosters look roughly like the player, same height and weight, and same skill ratings.  Say goodbye to all of that, and hello to randomized rosters.

Agreed that we will have to wait for the lawsuit, but I don't think it is a stretch to think the ratings will be affected.

Think about how much work must go into rating all those players.  There must be coutless hours of pouring over stats and real game footage of the players.  It would be easy enough to just subpoena those records, and bam, you have a ton of proof.

Playbooks are from the coaches, so I think that will be safe.  So Oregon will play the same, but with unrecognizable players.  Not sure how the running backs will turn out though.  There will likely have to be some level of randomization.  Like say they decide that Oregon needs to be rated 95, so they do a normal distribution on the starters that equals out to 95.  They could probably do both offense and defense like that.  Going position specific though might be tricky.

Time for Nintendo to buy in. Piss in EA's eye.

Umm...

There is nothing to buy into.  The NCAA is just done with licensing video games now.  They are too worried about exposing themselves to a lawsuit from the players.