The State of College Football: College Football 25

A deep dive into the College Football 25 video game. Must-have features, new ideas and the top 50 players in the game!

Texas is back and so are college football video games. I don’t think life could get better for me!  EA Sports will release College Football 25 this summer and NCAA Football fans could not be more excited. Let’s take a deep dive into the long awaited game.

Who’s in?
For starters, we know the game will be voiced by college football legends Chris Fowler and Kirk Herstreit. Fowler and Herbie have called some of the biggest games in college football together and by bringing the pair into College Football 25 the game will feel like watching the prime time Saturday night matchup. EA went to the top guys and got them for this game.

Real life college football players! From all 134 teams! EA is paying up to 85 players per team $600, plus giving them a copy of the game. Gone are the days of RB. 5 for USC (Reggie Bush). Thanks to NIL players can now be compensated by EA even though most athletes would have done it for free or for a copy of the game. I know I would do a lot for a free copy of the game and if EA wants to use my name, image, likeness they have my full permission. Just send that copy over whenever, EA.

Features
We know WHO will be in the game but What will be in the game? The first thing I wanted to know about was Dynasty mode. Am I going to be able to take Army to consecutive National Championships and turn them into a college football powerhouse? Yes. Dynasty mode will be back in the game and the transfer portal is set to make its debut as well. The last time we had an NCAA Football game players would transfer but there was no recruiting being done to grab those top transfer players. Players from across the country will be begging to be in the black and gold and running my triple option offense in no time. Go Army!

Speaking of the transfer portal, college football has changed drastically since the last game. The transfer portal and NIL Have to play a role in the game. Being able to offer players NIL deals to come to West Point might feel a little wrong at first but I’m sure I’ll grow comfortable with the idea…once I get my hands on a five-star, dual-threat QB from Texas. Recruiting will have to look different too. I doubt EA will feature NIL deals for players but there should be a transfer portal window and an early signing period for high school recruiting as well.

EA also revealed that schools have been sending stadium images, uniform details and specific crowd noise to give the true College Football experience.

Out with the new, in with the old
A few things I always loved about NCAA Football was the ability to build my own playbook - which you can still do in Madden, right? I hope this feature returns but more like it was in NCAA Football and less like it is in Madden. MY playbook should be fully customizable. If I want to run 5 receiver sets and the flexbone I should be able to. Other customizable features I enjoyed were Teambuilder and the ability to edit conferences/realignment. I spent way too much time building teams and using them in NCAA Football 14 and I hope to do more of that in College Football 25. I maxed out the number of teams I could build and had to sign up with new emails all the time. This time around I hope Teambuilder returns but please let me pick if I’m a Nike, Adidas or Under Armour school. Thanks.

Customizations, please.
Conference realignment has to be customizable. We’ve seen too much movement in recent years to not give users fully customizable conferences and playoffs! If you want to go back to the BCS era and have two teams make the playoff you should be able to. You want to expand the playoff to 16 teams? You should be able to. Do you want to bring back the PAC-12 or create the Big East (basketball conference)? You should be able to. I never played NBA2K much but one of the things I loved is that in their franchise mode you could change the rules. If you wanted to do away with defensive 3 seconds you could “vote” on it and get rid of it. I would like to see something similar in College Football 25 with the addition of “league rules” 
After all, some users might want to do away with the transfer portal and NIL…EA should let them.

Teams and Players we never got to play with
We missed too many years and too many players in the absence of college football video games. It’s time to make it right and give us historically good teams. Give Joe Burrow $600 and a copy of the game and let’s get the 2019 LSU team in the game! 2022 Georgia and that defense? Lamar Jackson at Louisville? We need something. Many moons ago NCAA Football featured All-Time teams too. A select few “blue blood” type schools had All-Time teams and that was always fun to play with. A loaded backfield with Earl Campbell, Ricky Williams, Cedric Benson and Bijan Robinson is a dream come true for me. NBA2K does this as well with historic teams and players allowing users to play with the 98 Bulls or Kobe and Shaq Lakers. At a minimum I would like to see EA give us All-American teams, and players we missed out on from 2014-2024.  Which might be the easiest way to satisfy its older audience (me).

Player rankings
85+ players from 134 schools is roughly 11,390 players! But who are the top returning players? Here is who I’m thinking:

99’s
Caleb Downs, S, Ohio State
Will Johnson, CB, Michigan
Luther Burden, WR, Missouri
Travis Hunter, CB/WR, Colorado

97-98’s
Kelvin Banks, OT, Texas
Will Campbell, OT, LSU
Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas
Harold Perkins, LB, LSU

94-96’s
Dillon Gabriel, QB, Oregon
Malaki Starks, S, Georgia
Ollie Gordon, RB, Oklahoma State
Donovan Edwards, RB, Michigan
Quinshon Judkins, RB, Ohio State
Emeka Egbuka, WR, Ohio State
Benjamin Morrison, CB, Notre Dame
Carson Beck, QB, Georgia
Jaxson Dart, QB, Ole Miss
Denzel Burke, CB, Ohio State
Shedeur Sanders, QB, Colorado
James Pearce Jr., DE, Tennessee
Xavier Watts, S, Notre Dame
J.T. Tuimoloau. De, Ohio State

92-93’s
Jalen Milroe, QB, Alabama
Nick Singleton, RB, Penn State
Malachi Moore, S, Alabama
Riley Leonard, QB, Notre Dame
TreVeyon Henderson, RB, Ohio State
Donovan Jackson, G, Ohio State
Jack Sawyer, DE, Ohio State
Ashton Jeanty, RB, Boise State
Barrett Carter, LB, Clemson
Zachariah Branch, WR, USC
Oscar Delp. TE, Georgia
Walter Nolen, DT, Ole Miss
Omarion Hampton, RB, North Carolina

90-91’s
Noah Fifita, QB, Arizona
Tetairoa McMillan, WR, Arizona
Jalon Daniels, QB, Kansas
Danny Stutsman, LB, Oklahoma
Tahj Brooks, RB, Texas Tech
Tyleik Williams, DT, Ohio State
Mason Graham, DT, Michigan
Jay Higgins, LB, Iowa
Ashton Gillotte, DE, Louisville
Tre Harris, WR, Ole Miss
Tory Horton, WR, Colorado State
Tate Ratledge, G, Georgia
Parker Brailsford, C, Alabama
R.J. Harvey, RB, UCF
Devin Neal, RB, Kansas
Tez Johnson, WR, Oregon
Trey Moore, DE, Texas

Let me know what you want to see in the game in the comments or tweet - @mello