''NCAA Basketball'' (formerly ''NCAA March Madness'') is a series of

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

video games that was published by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they imitated real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" (EASN) ...

from 1998 until 2009. After EA Sports' rival publisher

2K Sports 2K is an American video game publisher based in Novato, California. The company was founded as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive in January 2005 through the 2K Games and 2K Sports sub-labels. The nascent label incorporated several developmen ...

cancelled its own college basketball game, College Hoops, in 2008, EA changed the name of the series from ''NCAA March Madness'' to ''NCAA Basketball''. The series was discontinued on February 10, 2010. It was released on

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

and

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

. Like other games based on

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

sports, it could not feature the players' names (as that is against NCAA policy/rules), so only the players' numbers were used in the rosters. Users were able to edit the rosters, putting in the correct names for each team if they wished to do so. Many player last names were built into the in-game commentary, like in the ''NBA Live'' series.

Verne Lundquist Merton Laverne Lundquist Jr. (born July 17, 1940) is an American former sportscaster known for his long career with CBS Sports. Early life Lundquist was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He graduated from Austin High School in Austin, Texas, before ...

Brad Nessler Bradley Ray Nessler (born June 3, 1956) is an American sportscaster, who currently calls college football and college basketball games for CBS Sports. Career Early assignments Nessler began his professional broadcasting career sharing play– ...

, and Gus Johnson lent their voices for play-by-play in the games at various times. Lundquist was the original announcer, with Nessler taking over in the mid-2000s and Johnson joining him for the most recent game in the series.

Bill Raftery William Joseph Raftery (born April 19, 1943) is an American basketball analyst and former college basketball coach. Early life and playing years Born William Joseph Raftery in Orange, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Kearny, Raftery grew up i ...

and

Dick Vitale Richard "Dick" John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadc ...

were analysts. Raftery originally worked with Lundquist on their games and returned to work alongside Johnson for CBS-branded games in ''NCAA Basketball 10'', while Vitale and Nessler joined the series at the same time.

Games

''NCAA March Madness 98''

''NCAA March Madness 98'' is the 1997 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on February 28, 1998, for the

. Former Wake Forest player and retired

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

player

Tim Duncan Timothy Theodore Duncan (born April 25, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He List of NBA players who have spent their entire career with one franchise, spent his entire 19-year career with the San Antonio Sp ...

is featured on the cover.

''NCAA March Madness 99''

''NCAA March Madness 99'' is the 1998 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on December 18, 1998, for the PlayStation. Former

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

player

Antawn Jamison Antawn Cortez Jamison ( ; born June 12, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player who played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He serves as director of pro personnel for the Washington Wizards. Jamison play ...

is featured on the cover.

''NCAA March Madness 2000''

''NCAA March Madness 2000'' is the 1999 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released in December 1999 for the PlayStation. Former

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

player

Steve Francis Steven D'Shawn Francis (born February 21, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player. He was selected with the second overall pick of the 1999 NBA draft and was named co-NBA Rookie of the Year (along with Elton Brand) in his fi ...

is featured on the cover.

''NCAA March Madness 2001''

''NCAA March Madness 2001'' is the 2000 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on December 7, 2000, for PlayStation. Former

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

and NBA player

Kenyon Martin Kenyon Lee Martin Sr. (born December 30, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a power forward, he played for the New Jersey Nets, Denver Nuggets, Los An ...

is featured on the cover.

''NCAA March Madness 2002''

''NCAA March Madness 2002'' is the 2001 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on January 9, 2002, for

. Former

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of Royal family, royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobi ...

player and former

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern C ...

player

Shane Battier Shane Courtney Battier ( ; born September 9, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. He also worked for ESPN and recently joined the board of Yext. Battier is best known for his four years playing basketball at Duke, his 13 ...

is featured on the cover.

''NCAA March Madness 2003''

''NCAA March Madness 2003'' is the 2002 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on November 21, 2002, for PlayStation 2. Former

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

Jayhawks player

Drew Gooden Andrew Melvin Gooden III (born September 24, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player who is currently a broadcaster for Monumental Sports Network. The power forward (basketball), power forward played 14 seasons in the Nationa ...

is featured on the cover. The game's cover shows deformities within the artwork.

''NCAA March Madness 2004''

''NCAA March Madness 2004'' is the 2003 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on November 17, 2003, for PlayStation 2 and

. Former

Syracuse Syracuse most commonly refers to: * Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; in the province of Syracuse * Syracuse, New York, USA; in the Syracuse metropolitan area Syracuse may also refer to: Places * Syracuse railway station (disambiguation) Italy * Provi ...

player

Carmelo Anthony Carmelo Kyam Anthony ( ; born May 29, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. Anthony played 19 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and is a ten-time NBA All-Star Game, NBA All-Star and six-time All-NBA T ...

is featured on the cover. Commentary is done by

and "Mr. College Basketball"

as he is introduced in the game. This is the first time the player can pick their favorite school and the menus are stylized in the school's colors and a cheerleader or mascot can appear on the main menu while playing the school's fight song. The game plays similar to ''

NBA Live 2004 ''NBA Live 2004'' is the 2004 installment of the ''NBA Live'' sports video game series. The game was developed by EA Canada and released in 2003. It is graphically similar to '' NCAA March Madness 2004'' and has the same create-a-player models. ...

''.

''NCAA March Madness 2005''

''NCAA March Madness 2005'' is the 2004 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on November 16, 2004, for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Former

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

and NBA player

Emeka Okafor Chukwuemeka Ndubuisi Okafor (born September 28, 1982) is an American former professional basketball player. Okafor attended Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas and the University of Connecticut, where in 2004 he won a national championship. ...

is featured on the cover.

''NCAA March Madness 06''

''NCAA March Madness 06'' is the 2005 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on October 12, 2005, for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Former

player

Raymond Felton Raymond Bernard Felton Jr. (born June 26, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Felton played college basketball for the North Carolina Tar Heels under head ...

is featured on the cover.

''NCAA March Madness 07''

''NCAA March Madness 07'' is the 2006 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on January 17, 2007, for PlayStation 2 and

. Former

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places *Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy *Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily Surname *House of Gonza ...

player

Adam Morrison Adam John Morrison (born July 19, 1984) is an American former professional basketball player. Morrison played for three years at Gonzaga University and was considered to be one of the top college basketball players in 2005–06. He was a finalist ...

is featured on the cover.

''NCAA March Madness 08''

''NCAA March Madness 08'' is the 2007 installment in the ''NCAA March Madness'' series. It was released on December 11, 2007, for

, PlayStation 2, and Xbox 360. Former

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

and current

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

forward

Kevin Durant Kevin Wayne Durant (born September 29, 1988), also known by his initials KD, is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Durant has won two List of NBA champions, NBA champ ...

is featured on the cover. It was the only ''March Madness'' game to debut for the PlayStation 3 until the name change.

''NCAA Basketball 09''

''NCAA Basketball 09'' is the 2008 installment in the NCAA College Basketball series. It was released on November 17, 2008, for the

, and

. The cover featured former

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

and current

forward

Kevin Love Kevin Wesley Love (born September 7, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is a five-time All-Star and a two-time member of the All-NBA Second Team, winning an N ...

''NCAA Basketball 10''

''NCAA Basketball 10'' is a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

developed by

EA Canada EA Vancouver (formerly known as EA Burnaby, then EA Canada) is a Canadian video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983, and is also Electronic Arts's largest a ...

and published by

. It was released November 17, 2009 on

and

. Former

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

forward

Blake Griffin Blake Austin Griffin (born March 16, 1989) is an American former professional basketball player. Griffin primarily played with the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and played college basketball for the Oklahoma ...

was featured on the cover. The ''NCAA Basketball'' series was discontinued after ''NCAA Basketball 10''.

Cover Athletes

Discontinuation

The series had used likenesses of college athletes, threatening their amateur statuses. The amateur rules of collegiate sports overruled any claim that the athletes had towards compensation based on the ''Likeness Licensing Litigation;'' there is a contractual agreement made when scholarships are given out to do this.

Games

''NCAA March Madness 98''

''NCAA March Madness 99''

''NCAA March Madness 2000''

''NCAA March Madness 2001''

''NCAA March Madness 2002''

''NCAA March Madness 2003''

''NCAA March Madness 2004''

''NCAA March Madness 2005''

''NCAA March Madness 06''

''NCAA March Madness 07''

''NCAA March Madness 08''

''NCAA Basketball 09''

''NCAA Basketball 10''

Cover Athletes

Discontinuation

References

External links