Disney was the highest bid as well.
Without going into detail of such which would get me in trouble, there are 2 companies now that I believe are readying a football product. I know for absolute fact on one, and about 75% positive on the 2nd company.
Whether either of these products ever see the light of day, depends on the NFL. Right now the sales of video game football do not justify anywhere near the price tag that was placed on the exclusive agreement. Factoring in the cost of the exclusive deal and everything else, Madden was not even as remotely profitable as it was prior to the deal.
They could even offer the deal for half of what it was and it wouldn't be worth getting.
It is not worth the time to release a generic game, as it would not recover the costs to make it, no matter how good it was.
As a personal opinion, there is no way EA could justify another deal like the NFL got the first time around, so they would reduce it quite a bit. Just how far, no one knows.
Best case scenario is that they go back to a royalty agreement such that for every copy sold of all NFL games, regardless of company that makes them, makes the NFL money. In that case, you will see multiple titles come out again, but not before in my opinion.
Either way, I have a plan in place for the next round of football games that come out, that should see a monumental increase in sales if another exclusive is not signed.