After 11 long years, EA Sports’ College Football game is finally making a return. With over 11,000 players expected to be featured in College Football 25, it will be one of EA’s most ambitious projects to date.
In this post, we’ll go over everything that will be included in the game, and more importantly, what won’t be included in the game.
College Football 25 Will Drop in July
On February 15, EA Sports dropped a trailer on their official X account teasing a release date in the summer. We can expect a full reveal of the game sometime in May.
The Game Will Feature All 134 FBS Teams, But No FCS
College football fans will be happy to know that all 134 FBS schools in the country will be in the game. On Thursday, EA Sports launched a massive NIL campaign that would provide players access to opt into College Football 25. Each team can have over 85 players opt-in, meaning over 11,000 players could be added to the game. That’s a lot of player models.
Players who opt-in are given $600 for the use of their name, image, and likeness as well as a free copy of the game upon release. EA provided a loose deadline of April 30 for players to join in, but they are aware of roster turnover, and in-season updates are expected.
Now for some disappointing news. Unfortunately, FCS schools will not be available at launch. Taking an FCS team and turning them into the next Bama was one of the most fun parts of the older games. Hopefully, EA Sports will add FCS schools in the future, just like head coaches.
Coaches Won’t Be In The Game… Yet
When you finally get your hands on College Football 25, you won’t be seeing Kirby Smart or Nick Saban marching down the sidelines. It seems like the developers’ sole focus is on the players and the schools themselves, which makes sense. This isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it does hurt your immersion in the game.
Fortunately, EA Sports vice president of business development, Sean O’Brien, told ESPN the company is considering ways to “offer coaches the opportunity to opt in beyond Year 1.”
The Modes We Know and Love Will Return
Road To Glory (career mode), Dynasty mode, and Ultimate Team are the popular modes you can expect to see in the next game. Yes, Ultimate Team is coming, which means you’ll be able to create your own unique teams that include legendary players from the past. Which also means microtransactions will be coming. If that’s your cup of tea, have fun.
Thankfully, microtransactions are expected to be kept at a minimum as EA wants to make the game as welcoming as possible for casual gamers.
NIL Will Be in College Football 25
NIL was what made the game possible in the first place, but will it be in the game itself? The answer to that is a big yes. In your dynasty and RTG modes, we should expect to see some implementation of both the transfer portal and NIL. However, EA has not provided specific details on how NIL will be implemented.
Manual Player Additions Will Be Prohibited
Now for more bad news. According to Ryan Kryska at AP News, gamers will be unable to manually add players who have decided to opt out of the game. In previous games, there were ways to create custom rosters that you could share with the game’s file-share feature. This meant if someone put in the time and effort, they could add players from real life into the game with accurate names, physicals, etc.
However, EA Sports never explained how they would prevent this.
“But gamers will still be able to create their own players, a staple of past college sports video games that allowed people to depict themselves alongside their favorite athletes,” Kryska explains.
So if we can still create custom players and rosters, how will they prevent this from happening? Will they remove the file share feature that was always there in previous games? Who knows.
Each Team Will Have A Unique Style
“You almost could say there’s 134 different ways to play,” said Daryl Holt, EA Sports’ senior vice president.
EA wants to make sure the teams feel authentic and play similarly to how they would in real life. That means you can expect unique play styles, different sets and formations, and realistic stadium environments for each team.
College Football 25 Will Feel Different From Madden
One of the biggest worries from fans was that the game would feel like a Madden clone. Although the game will be running on the same engine as Madden, Holt believes it will look and feel different from its counterpart.
In NCAA 14, gameplay not only felt different, it felt more natural than Madden. As someone who plays Madden 24, the gameplay is very arcadey and too animation-heavy. I hope we see that authentic style of gameplay return in the new game.
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