The last version of the game was released in 2013. The franchise was involved in a legal dispute over EA and the NCAA's profits off of amateur college athletes' likeness. The NCAA doesn't allow their athletes to profit even though they are making millions of dollars for their schools and the organization. Eventually, the two parted ways, and there has not been a game made like it since.
Both the NCAA and EA have faced legal action relating to the lack of player compensation, and players began to get settlement checks via mail.
There are millions of dollars to be made if the game was to return, but the NCAA and EA need to figure out a way to share the wealth with college athletes first.
EA's former chief operating officer Pete Moore admitted that the game was a scapegoat for bigger issues regarding college athletes being paid for their performance, not only in football but in all college sports. Basically, Moore was suggesting that EA had to spend more on legal fees from the game more than they would've earned in total revenue.
My thing is, let's just simply solve the problem that is at hand.
The simplest problem to resolve will be for athletes to make money off of their likeness, and the NCAA should have a rule change. This wouldn't necessarily mean the schools themselves would have to pay them money, but just make it possible for companies such as EA to pay them a fee for using their likeness and name. It wouldn't have to be a huge payment, but I think it would benefit both the players and companies if they were able to do this. This request alone would close some of the legal issues that led to EA Sports ultimately deciding the stop making the game.
But of course, that is not the only obstacle.
Licensing issues are confusing in college football, and to some degree different schools, conferences, and bowl games have to sign permission to be included. A few non-Power Five conferences talked about opting out of a revival game because they feel like they would not get enough compensation as per say an SEC school would.
Even though that is another problem I feel like this problem could easily be solved, and it could bring back (in my opinion) the greatest video series of all-time.
