EA Sports College Football 25: A Triumphant Return to the Gridiron

After more than a decade-long hiatus, EA Sports has revived its beloved college football franchise with EA Sports College Football 25. This highly anticipated release aims to capture the essence of college football, delivering an immersive and authentic experience for fans old and new. The game is built from the ground up, promising a fresh start for the series.

Release Date and Availability

College Football 25 was released on July 19. Players who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition were granted early access to the game on July 16th. EA Play members also received early access.

The game is available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It will not be released on PC, PlayStation 4, or Xbox One.

Pricing and Editions

Standard Edition: \$69.99
Deluxe Edition: \$99.99
MVP Bundle: \$149.99

Deluxe Edition Content

Players who purchase the Deluxe Edition receive:

4,600 College Football Points
Heisman Hopeful Ultimate Team Pack (available only to pre-orders made prior to June 27)
Up to 3 days early access to Product

MVP Bundle Content

The MVP Bundle includes the Deluxe Edition of both College Football 25 and Madden 25, which will release in mid-August. It also grants three-day early access to Madden.

Gameplay Enhancements

College Football 25 introduces several new gameplay features designed to enhance realism and strategic depth.

Wear and Tear System

This system tracks the impact of hits on players, with specific body parts turning orange or red on the play screen to indicate an increased chance of injury. A player’s Strength attribute influences their ability to withstand these impacts. Smaller players are more vulnerable to injury, and the Toughness Rating is crucial for avoiding them. If a quarterback’s arm is hit, it could lead to a reduction in power and accuracy. Recovery can happen in between series, halftime, and games but everyone recovers at different rates, plus, there’s only so much you can recover within a single game.

Revamped Passing Game

As the quarterback, the ability to layer the football is the key. When you throw the ball, a meter appears above the receiver, similar to an option in Madden 24. Obviously, tapping or holding a button creates the difference between a floater and a rocket, but holding the button as long as you can to the end of the meter can impact the throw’s accuracy. The new meter has a ball rock left and right; you click and hold to get the accuracy, and then the power meter goes up the arrow. If you hold it to the very top into the red, the accuracy can take a hit.

Playbooks and Offensive Styles

College Football 25 features 134 different playbooks, encompassing 10 offensive styles. The playbooks have always differentiated college football games from Madden, and that’s the case again. There are different menus for plays, ranging from coach suggestions to formations to concepts and more.

The RPO options include four different kinds of plays: read, peek, alert and glance. You can choose to throw a quick pass instead of hand off, but you have to do it quickly, or else you’ll be hit with an illegal man downfield penalty. One change in the option and RPO plays is that you tap a button to pull the ball as the quarterback, rather than pressing a button to hand it off like in the past. That was an adjustment. There are also two options on pitches: Similar to throwing the ball downfield, you can tap LB for a quick pitch or hold it for a stronger pitch.

Read also: The Eat. Learn. Play. Approach

Pre-Snap Options

The capabilities players enjoy before the snap have also grown. You can adjust pass protection to go in a certain direction, an improved process from Madden 24. When calling a hot route, custom stems allow you to adjust how far downfield you want an out route to go. Senior quarterbacks can see more than freshmen, like the possibility of a blitz or a certain kind of defense.

There’s also a two-minute warning, which will be new to college football this fall. Stadium Pulse is also back, and you can feel the loudest stadiums in the vibrating controller. As in the past, the play art on the field could be difficult to read, and audibles and hot routes may not work, depending on the crowd.

Defensive Gameplay

Playing defense is tougher. If you’re one of those people like me who used to just use the Hit Stick when your defender was close to a ball carrier, that won’t cut it anymore. For advanced players, the right joystick helps you switch between defensive players more quickly, which helps in the secondary and in some situations where close control of two players is necessary.

From the play-call screen, you’ll be able to disguise your secondary coverage i.e. show Cover 4 that changes into a Cover 0 blitz at the snap.

Abilities

EA has created 80 player abilities that are situational boosts in a game and not always predictable or a guarantee. A neat feature explained in the blog was how the “Pocket Shield” ability makes offensive linemen hold blocks better on pass plays but this effect doesn’t apply on distances longer than 10 yards, even on the platinum level. Examples highlighted were a Scrambling Quarterback archetype improving ball security with top confidence, plus a Field General improving his accuracy.

Homefield Advantage

The toughest environments in the sport are going to be make it more challenging to win. The screen shaking in intense moments is back from the 2006 game, you can ask the crowd to get louder, and there is a ranking of the toughest home field advantages in the country.

Hot Routes

EA has revamped hot routes and provided access to 12 unique routes from the pre-play screen for all quarterbacks, regardless of ability. There are 3 colors on the throw meter window: blue (accurate), yellow (uncertain), and red (inaccurate). Quarterbacks’ abilities will determine how large/small and present each of these colors are when throwing the ball.

Defensive Back Control

While controlling a player in the secondary, you can flick the right stick and immediately take control of the nearest defensive back in coverage.

No Huddle and Spiking

EA built in a traditional No Huddle where players will hurry to the line of scrimmage and audibles are available for the user. Spiking the ball is now available from any alignment. Also, both offense and defense players will glance to the sidelines during audibles, which could catch the defense flat-footed if they audible too late before the snap.

AI Adjustments

The AI defense will employ adjustments such as shade techniques, showing blitz, run commits, QB contains, and Spy to try and slow you down. You’ll also see AI recognizing your best players and offering double teams, in addition to disguising coverages. There are 6 new pass protection schemes that will allow users to see which players are blocking which defenders and show the unblocked defenders.

Kicking Mechanic

There is a new kicking mechanic with an accuracy meter followed up by a power meter.

Celebrations

EA has added 20 new touchdown celebrations, 4 interception celebrations, and 4 first down celebrations. There are three different scenarios in which you can unleash College Football 25 celebrations: after touchdowns, following first downs, and when you’ve just claimed a key interception.

Authentic Presentation

EA Sports has prioritized authenticity in College Football 25, focusing on replicating the unique atmosphere and traditions of college football.

Stadiums and Environments

EA Sports said it went through more than 1,000 photos per school to create 150 different stadiums. The average team has four helmets, three jerseys and three pants. Some have 20-plus options (hello, Oregon). You can see all the individual stitching in the jerseys because EA Sports employs a Creaform 3D handheld scanner that’s normally used for aerospace parts. Here, it’s used to scan cleats, gloves, helmets, jerseys and more, down to the tiniest detail. While NFL players have mostly the same equipment, college football has different apparel companies with unique designs. Those differences are noticeable in this game.

Penn State has the White Out. Tennessee has the checkerboard. Boise State has the Stripe Out. Even the Texas A&M red, white and blue crowd after 9/11 is in the game - I’m not sure how that one activates, but special crowd colors will happen for the biggest games in Dynasty mode. We were told some teams have called EA Sports to let them know of crowd blackout plans later this season to be included in the game.

We saw the turnover chainsaw at Oregon State and the waterfalls at Arkansas State.

Sound Design

What makes this game feel as real as anything is the sound. You really notice it when music kicks in after the opening kickoff. While “Enter Sandman” is not in the game, “Zombie Nation,” “Sandstorm,” “Tsunami” and “Mo Bamba” are. We see the Army Corps of Cadets jump up and down for “Tsunami” before kickoff, something the TV broadcast rarely shows. Beaver Stadium plays “Zombie Nation” after Penn State touchdowns. Every school has unique fan chants, as EA acquired thousands of assets from schools and in many cases had staff members replicate the cheers for recording. The studio also recorded 41 real game crowds over the last two years, from big to small programs.

Commentary

Chris Fowler was on hand in Orlando to talk about his commentating for the game, and it was clear he’s still quite upset that ESPN blocked him from being in the game in the past. ESPN itself is not in this game as a brand, but its commentators are. There is no ESPN logo on the score bug, which has been relocated to the bottom of the screen. There is no “College GameDay”. Because I was focused on so many other parts of the game, the lack of ESPN was not something I even noticed; it still sounds like college football with Fowler/Kirk Herbstreit and Rece Davis/Jesse Palmer/David Pollack on the call.

Mascot and Other Details

Mascot mode is not in the game. Players do not have X-Factors like in past Madden games. Online Dynasty mode cannot be played across consoles, but that and Mascot mode could come in future games.

You will not be able to edit the attributes of real-life players in the rosters. You can edit created players, but there supposedly will be blocks to keep you from making a player like Arch Manning, who did not opt into the game. In recent days, a handful of starting players have tweeted that they’d like to be in the game and don’t know how to opt in. I don’t know if or when they will get updated.

Dynasty Mode

Once you’ve unearthed a raw talent in Dynasty, it’s worth considered keeping them benched for a year - particularly if you’re already well-stocked at their position of choice.

Teams

All 135 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams are available to use in College Football 25.

Toughest Places to Play

EA Sports' list of the top 25 toughest places to play for the upcoming game:

Texas A&M: Kyle Field
Alabama: Bryant-Denny Stadium
LSU: Tiger Stadium
Ohio State: Ohio Stadium
Georgia: Sanford Stadium
Penn State: Beaver Stadium
Wisconsin: Camp Randall Stadium
Oklahoma: Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
Florida State: Doak Campbell Stadium
Florida: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium
Oregon: Autzen Stadium
Clemson: Memorial Stadium
Tennessee: Neyland Stadium
Auburn: Jordan-Hare Stadium
South Carolina: Williams-Brice Stadium
Michigan: Michigan Stadium
Virginia Tech: Lane Stadium
Utah: Rice-Eccles Stadium
Texas: Darrell K. Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium
Iowa: Kinnick Stadium
Notre Dame: Notre Dame Stadium
Michigan State: Spartan Stadium
Arkansas: Donald W.

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