Editorials
EA College Football 25 Release Date & Features: 10 Things to Know
Here’s everything we know about EA College Football 25 based on official information, traditions, rumors, and what we expect to see down the road.
College football fans have been waiting since 2013 for a new college football game for Xbox and PlayStation. Fortunately, the wait is almost over.
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Here’s a closer look at when you can expect the EA College Football 25 release date, what features to expect, which consoles it will be on, and more.
EA College Football 25 Launch Date
The initial EA College Football 25 announcement was light on details, but you can expect a much bigger launch announcement later this month.
EA says it’s planning to reveal the game on Thursday, May 16th.
You can expect the announcement to include pre-order bonuses, EA College Football 25 editions, cover athletes, and more.
We should note that some GameStop locations appear to be taking early reservations for the game. Those that want to do this should call to inquire.
EA College Football 25 Release Date
EA Sports typically releases sports games just before their corresponding real-world seasons begin. For example, EA Sports released Madden 24 on August 18th, just a few weeks before the start of the 2023-2024 NFL season.
That means we’ll likely see the EA College Football 25 release date land in July or August. And that timeline makes a ton of sense given what we’ve heard about the game’s release window.
EA’s confirmed plans to release EA College Football in the summer of 2024. Daryl Holt, EA Sports’ vice president and general manager, told ESPN that this is the “best date for us to bring the game that we think is going to meet or exceed our player expectations.”
David Waters, the creator and host of the Florida Gators podcast GatorsBreakdown, claims EA plans to release the game on July 12th, 2024. This is the first time we’ve heard this date, but it lines up with everything we expect.
The last college football game from EA Sports, NCAA Football 14, was released on July 9th back in 2013.
Teams in EA College Football 25
According to Holt, EA Sports has partnered with collegiate licensing company CLC to make sure the company has the ability to bring FBS schools, traditions, uniforms, and playbooks to EA College Football 25.
In an ESPN report from 2021, Notre Dame said it wouldn’t “provide its name, logos and other branding property to EA Sports.” The school said it wouldn’t “until new rules that determine whether athletes will be able to receive a cut of the game’s profits are finalized.”
Fortunately, things have changed. A 2023 report from ESPN claimed that Notre Dame had “been in touch with EA Sports to help with NIL integration for the video game.”
More recently, Notre Dame confirmed it will be in the game. Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick says that after “nearly two years of work with EA Sports, we’re proud to announce that our fans around the world will be able to play as the Fighting Irish in the upcoming College Football franchise.”
Notre Dame was one of the final question marks. And now that it has opted in, EA says all 134 FBS schools will be included in the game.
They’re in the game.
College Football 25 will feature all 134 FBS schools #CFB25 pic.twitter.com/WLH3DEXdv0
— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) February 22, 2024
While things look good on the FBS side of things, it’s not looking good for FCS schools and fans of those schools hoping their favorite team is in the game.
Daryl Holt, EA Sports’ senior vice president, told ESPN there won’t be any FCS schools in the game at launch.
This doesn’t rule them out completely, but it means we won’t see them in the game at the start as EA focuses on FBS schools.
Real Players in EA College Football 25
EA College Football 25 will also include real players.
In 2020, EA told ESPN it was “planning to move forward without rosters that include the names, images or likenesses of real college players.” That was because NCAA rules prohibited athletes from selling their NIL rights while in college.
EA said it was monitoring the NIL legislation progress and that if the situation changed, the game would evolve with it. Well, things have certainly changed.
The United States Supreme Court made a ruling barring the NCAA from limiting academic benefits to college athletes. In turn, the NCAA doesn’t block players from profiting off their name, image, and likeness.
EA Sports told ESPN that it has a contract with OneTeam Partners to “facilitate collegiate athletes’ names and likenesses” into the game.
The company says the partnership will allow for all eligible FBS players to opt in to have their likenesses included in EA College Football 25.
College players are opting into the game right now and EA says up to 85 players per school will initially appear on the game’s rosters.
10k and counting… pretty pretttyyy good #CFB25 pic.twitter.com/RrO88VWjWM
— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) March 4, 2024
The company says over 10,000 football players have opted in thus far and will be included in the game.
Athletes who agree to have their name, image and likeness appear in the game will receive $600 plus a copy of the game.
As of right now, head coaches will not be in the game.
EA College Football 25 Cover
Thanks to a leak, we know who will grace one of the game’s covers.
Sony’s PlayStation Store inadvertently revealed the Deluxe Edition and in doing so, it revealed the players on that version of the game.
The image features Quinn Ewers, Donovan Edwards, and Travis Hunter. Other players on the cover include Jalen Milroe, Carson Beck and Quinshon Judkins.
EA College Football 25 Price
EA hasn’t confirmed the EA College Football 25 price, but here are a few things you can expect based on EA’s approach with other games like Madden and EA FC.
EA will release multiple EA College Football editions and we’ll likely see tiered pricing starting at $69.99. That’s how much the base version of Madden 24 for PS5, PS4 Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One costs.
The EA College Football 25 Deluxe Edition will include extras and thus will cost more than the standard version of the game.
If EA decides to release EA College Football 25 for last-generation consoles, we could see it use a similar price structure. Those details, of course, won’t come until the company is ready to announce the game.
EA College Football 25 Features
Again, EA hasn’t outlined the game in detail yet, but reporter Matt Brown has revealed some potential features.
According to Brown, EA is planning an Ultimate Team Mode for the game. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise given that it’s a cash cow for games like Madden and EA FC.
Brown also says the popular Dynasty mode from previous games “will be a part of the game in some capacity” and that has been confirmed by EA.
EA’s CEO says game “is really coming together, and really capturing all the action of pageantry, and the difference in college football versus the NFL.”
Brown has released lists of assets schools submitted to EA for inclusion in the game. They include school fight songs and crowd chants.
It’s also important to note that EA’s secured the rights to all 10 FBS conferences, as well as the College Football Playoff. However, it wasn’t able to secure a deal with the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA).
This means many of the annual awards given to college football players will not be in the game. The list includes the Bednarik, Biletnikoff, Davey O’Brien, Doak Walker, Grozo, Jim Thorpe, Maxwell, Outland and Ray Guy trophies.
We do expect the Heisman trophy to be in the game, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
All the FBS bowl games, and the College Football Playoff, will be included in the game and announcements have started to emerge.
ESPN’s Kevin Conners, Jesse Palmer, Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, and Chris Fowler have all confirmed they’re in the game.
We also know that Rich DeMarco, the longtime play-by-play broadcaster for Army football and basketball, will be the PA announcer.
Billy Jones, a journalism student at the University of Missouri, has also published a first look at the school’s Faurot Field.
The renderings appear to be from a pre-Alpha build which means the final product may look different.
EA College Football 25 Consoles
If you want EA College Football 25, you may need to buy Sony’s PS5 or Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S.
EA’s sports games have a history of supporting older consoles, but we’ve started to see developers, including EA, shift away from the Xbox One and PS4
The company’s latest MMA simulation, UFC 5, is exclusive to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Will EA College Football 25 follow suit? Time will tell.
Holt tells ESPN that conversations about bringing the game back started a few years ago and that the “technology they’ve seen on Next Gen platforms like the Sony PS5 and Xbox Series X” helped spur them along.
EA isn’t talking about the game’s features yet, but you can expect the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions to include at least some of the advancements we’ve seen on board Madden and EA FC for theses consoles.
EA College Football 25 iPhone & Android
It’s unclear if EA will provide a college football experience to iPhone and Android users, but a job posting seems to hints at a mobile release.
Madden NFL Mobile and EA FC Soccer are extremely popular apps on the App Store and Google Play Store so there’s a good chance EA brings an experience to iPhone, iPad and Android.
This is especially true if EA College Football 25 features an Ultimate Team (MUT, FUT) experience that lives and breathes on micro-transactions.
How to Play College Football Right Now
If you want to play college football on a console right now you’ll need a PS3 or Xbox 360.
NCAA Football 14, the last game in the series, isn’t backwards compatible with newer consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X and never will be.
If you still own one of these consoles and you’re interested in playing, you can still find NCAA Football 14 through retailers like Amazon.
You’ll be happy to know there’s still a thriving community that supports the game with new roster updates to help keep it fresh.
Rylan
03/11/2022 at 8:34 am
please put college football revamped on PS4 it isn’t fair
Jay
04/07/2023 at 10:37 am
Oh it’s fair,just buy a next gen console like the Xbox Series X|S or PS5..
Roy
04/11/2023 at 5:00 am
Even though I’m still owned a Playstation 4,but I hope and fingers crossed that EA will still be released on both Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Although those 2 consoles have never see a college football game released, but it would be awesome if they announced that EA Sports College Football will be released not only on both Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, but it will still be released for both PS4 and Xbox One. Even though it’s not yet confirmed at this time but only time will tell when they’ll make that announcement hopefully in coming months. As I said, only time will tell and I will continue to keep my eyes on the latest whenever it comes available.
Jay Reynolds
05/10/2024 at 10:34 am
not gonna happen lol