New Details Released for EA Sports College Football 25

Last week EA Sports sent the sports world into a frenzy with a teaser trailer for the highly anticipated EA Sports College Football 25 video game, confirming its release this summer. Fans have gone without a new college football video game since NCAA Football 14 was released in the summer of 2013. After over a decade of eagerly waiting, the game is finally returning.

We've known for a few years now that EA was in the process of developing a new college football game. But with little information being made available to the public and a year-long delay (the game was originally meant to return in 2023), many were skeptical the game would ever actually be released.

Now we know that for sure, and in May, full details about the game will be announced. But today we got even more information about what to expect when the game is released this summer.

Officially, all 134 FBS schools will be featured in EA Sports College Football 25. There had been questions as to whether only the sport's major brands and select teams would be included, and many fanbases worried that their programs wouldn't be there. But luckily, every FBS program is included. And that, of course, means our Mississippi State Bulldogs will be in the game.

This is great news for Bulldog fans who cannot wait to play with their squad once the game is released. And for Mississippi State in particular, a lot has changed since the last time we had a college football video game. MSU has gone through multiple iterations of new uniforms that were not available in NCAA Football 14. Davis Wade Stadium was still undergoing renovations back then and had not yet been expanded. They still have the north endzone bleachers in the old game.

For those of us like myself that have continued playing NCAA Football 14 over all these years, it will be nice to finally see our school get a modern touch. Tanner Marler of Maroon and White Daily did a great job highlighting more specifics of what Mississippi State fans can expect to see from their school in the new game over at On3.

But what about the players? Far and away the biggest question with the return of a college football video game was whether or not real players would be included. The entire reason the NCAA Football series went away in the first place was because of issues with using the likenesses of student athletes. But in this new NIL-focused era of the sport, it's legal to use player likenesses. It was just a matter of how EA would manage licensing 134 teams-worth of players.

The answer is through the use of the COMPASS NIL app. Players can opt-in through the app to have their likeness featured in the game. In exchange, they receive $600 and a copy of the game. And the expectation is that the vast majority of players will opt-in. We've already had a few Bulldogs make it known that they'll be opting-in, and as fan-favorite Mike Wright pointed out, players' reactions to their in-game ratings will be plenty entertaining.

We also got news on which college football media personalities would be in the game. In previous installments, Brad Nessler and Kirk Herbstreit served as the in-game broadcast team. Older versions of the game featured the legendary Lee Corso.

Several current and former ESPN personalities will be featured including Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler, David Pollack, Jesse Palmer, Kevin Connors, Desmond Howard, and Rece Davis. It's not yet clear whether or not other networks will be included in the game with unique broadcast crews, but at a minimum, it seems the broadcast aspect will be more immersive.

Another interesting detail is that EA plans to have unique playbooks for each team in the game featuring formations and plays specific to those teams. This is a step ahead from previous installments where while each team had its own playbook that fit their offensive style, the plays and formations were largely generic. I'd expect Mississippi State fans to get to break out some of Jeff Lebby's outstanding play designs in the game.

It's been an exciting few days for college football fans. The NCAA Football series was an instrumental part of college football fandom for millions. We spent hours turning MAC teams into title winners in Dynasty mode, leading created players to the Heisman in Road to Glory, and dueling it out in the infamous Mascot Mashup.

We've been without the game for far too long, and at times it seemed it would never return. Now finally, we're just a few months away from playing college football on our consoles once again. Time for me to go buy a PS5.