I guess it all depends on the whole competition analysis. It doesn't take much digging to see that when EA have a monopoly on a sports franchise they have no competition, prices go up and the games don't innovate (in fact, EA are the targets of a
lawsuit about that very subject).
Which ultimately means it boils down to how they view the significance of a sports game monopoly, especially when any developer can theoretically make a sports game without using official names.