Ok so I gotta vent here a bit. I'm sure plenty of folks here are anticipating the release of NCAA 11. I for one, used to enjoy picking up new copy every couple of years so I could take SU to the national championship regularly, while in real life they were  losing to the likes of Akron and Miami of Ohio. But at any rate, $60 plus tax is pretty steep for a video game, and that price seems even steeper the older I get.

Let me back up for a minute. Part of my frustration is with EA's monopoly on football games - NFL and NCAA. While I don't think they are bad games, back in the day before EA bought the licensing rights from the NFL and NCAA, 2K Sports actually put together pretty awesome football games. I actually found these games to be better than EA's version - again, EA's games aren't bad, but I did find them to be inferior to some extent. For most if people, it was more a matter of preference. And the best part for me was, 2K sports didn't jack up the prices, they even sold NEW titles for around $20 at one point.

At any rate, since then, what I've been doing is waiting for the football season to play out in real life, and usually at which point EA would drop the price of their hallowed football titles, at which point I'd go to the store an pick up a copy for half the price or less. Then I could still get my football fix on even though the season was long over. Also, since you could edit rosters, future schedules and such, it also helped me resist the urge to cave and buy the newest release every year.

So now I find myself a couple months away from EA's release of NCAA 11, and the retail price for NCAA 10 still hasn't dropped a nickel. While I know I probably can buy it on Ebay for much less than retail, this is simply the last straw. F*** THOSE MOTHERF***ERS at EA. F*** them ALL is what I have to say. I actually find myself rooting for nitwit former college athletes like Ryan Hart, trying to sue the NCAA for usage of their likeness in videogames and such. While I also disagree with those lawsuits, I disagree with the deal EA has with the NCAA and NFL much more. It represents everything that is wrong with sports these days. As much as I love college and professional sports, the NCAA, NFL and other pro sports have monopolized the system to the extent where ultimately the fans pay a premium price for, well, just about everything.

At any rate, this is not a boycott or a petition, but if you've taken the time to read this, you obviously have an interest in the subject. So my question is, what do you think of this issue?

(Oh, and for the record, I still wear my 90's era SU Football jersey on gameday. Not because I'm cheap, but because it beats the crap outta everything else they've created since then)