It's been more than three years since EA Sports announced that its highly raved about college football video games series would return -- EA Sports College Football '25 is set to hit the shelves in July.
It will be the first college football video game released in more than a decade (NCAA Football '14 was released in the summer of 2013). EA Sports released an official teaser trailer for the game in February and it plans a full reveal later this month with the official cover to be released on Thursday, May 16.
EA Sports has sent contracts to every player in FBS and over 12,300 players from 134 FBS teams have opted into the game, OneTeam Partners, the company that facilitates the licensing program for the video game, announced in April. That means real names and faces of collegiate athletes will be used in the game. For participating, the players who opt in will receive $600 and a copy of the video game. Some players will receive additional financial compensation in exchange for further promotion of the game.
Several Michigan State players have already announced on social media that they are in the game, including quarterback Aidan Chiles and safety Dillon Tatum.
Keep reading (subscribe if you don't already) to see the images and other documents that Michigan State sent to EA Sports to be used in the upcoming college football video game release.
For now, here is some info on the game.
What do we know about the game?
The game is set to be released this July. There will be plenty of details about the game to be shared by EA Sports before the game is released, however, there are also some details about the game that are publicly known.
Matt Brown, founder of the Extra Points newsletter, recently sat down with Jon Johnston of Corn Nation to discuss the upcoming video game. Brown has broken news about the game and has covered it extensively since it was announced back in 2021.
Here are some key details from that conversation:
Who is on the cover?
There will be multiple covers of the video game for each of the different versions. Each version will have its own cover athlete. All cover athletes are current players in a major conference who all play different positions.
There was an online leak that revealed the cover of one of the versions -- the deluxe edition. It featured Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, Michigan running back Donovan Edwards, Georgia quarterback Carson Beck, Colorado cornerback and wide receiver Travis Hunter, and Ohio State running back Quinshon Judkins on the cover.
EA Sports will do an official cover reveal on Thursday, May 16.
What consoles will the game be released on?
The game will be able to be played on the Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5. It will not be available on the Nintendo Switch. EA Sports has not announced if it will be available on PC yet.
Will the transfer portal and NIL be in the game? What does recruiting look like?
The short answer is yes, transfer portal and NIL will be in the game.
Recruiting has changed significantly since the previous game of this series was released back in 2013. During that time period, there was no transfer portal or NIL, players didn't transfer or decommit as much as they do now, there was only one signing day, and there was a 25-player limit per signing class.
EA Sports wants to create a sense of realism by including the transfer portal, NIL, and other aspects of modern day recruiting -- but they also want to find ways to lessen the grind of the real-life recruiting process and make people feel attached to players that they do end up signing to their team. There is a fine line that EA Sports is trying to find between making roster management realistic but also fun and manageable.
Also, transfer portal movement in real life will reflect on the in-game rosters. For example, if an Ohio State player were to enter the transfer portal and commit to Michigan State, that would be reflected in the video game and that transfer would be on the Spartans roster.
Will there be a 12-team College Football Playoff?
The College Football Playoff, bowl games, all FBS conferences and their conference championship games are licensed and part of the video game. The current postseason format in college football, which includes the 12-team College Football Playoff, will be depicted in the video game.
Can I play with past players?
Ultimate team mode, which is also featured in other EA Sports games like Madden NFL and EA Sports FC, will feature legend players. This is allowed because of a group license through the NFL Players' Association to allow EA Sports to bulk license players that used to play in the NFL. Specific names of legends that will be in the game have not been announced but Michigan State did include some former players in their information that they sent to EA Sports.
Will I be able to change teams in certain conferences?
In dynasty mode, you will be able to tweak conference configurations. For example, if you want to move Michigan State to the SEC, you will be able to do so. It is still unknown if creating new conferences will be in the game.
What will the stadium environments be like?
EA Sports has spent a lot of time attempting to depict the differing stadium environments from school to school. They want to make games at Spartan Stadium feel different than games at Kinnick Stadium, for example. According to Brown, there is granular detail regarding school specific traditions, crowd chants, band music, and more.
There are two hang-ups with this though. The first being that nothing can be rated R. There will be no cursing from the crowd in the game. Secondly, licensing needs to allow the individual sounds heard at each stadium to be included in the game.
Sources at Michigan State have confirmed to Spartans Illustrated that EA Sports has been on campus multiple times over the last couple years to build out the MSU campus in the game.
Is there anything notable that's not in the game?
While all bowl games will be in the video game, certain stadiums in which bowl games are played in will not be in the game, likely due to the amount of time and effort needed to make renderings of stadiums. Bowl games that are played at college or NFL stadiums will be played at those corresponding stadiums in the game. EA Sports has all the NFL stadiums rendered for their Madden NFL video game series.
However, bowl games that are at baseball stadiums -- for example, the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl -- will not be played at those corresponding baseball stadiums because EA Sports does not currently make a baseball video game and doesn't have those stadiums rendered.
Not all the individual awards will be in the game either. The Heisman Trophy will be in the game, but other individual awards, like the Doak Walker Award or the Biletnikoff Award, will likely not all be in the game due to licensing.
Also, the video game will include all 134 FBS teams, but no FCS teams.
Recently, Spartans Illustrated obtained a document with over 500 pages of pictures and other material that Michigan State University submitted to EA Sports for the new video game.
Notably, all images and documents Michigan State submitted to EA Sports were from prior to the 2023 football season. Obviously, much has changed since then around East Lansing.
EA Sports requested -- and Michigan State sent -- the game assets in the summer of 2023, before Mel Tucker was fired and Jonathan Smith was hired. Sources tell Spartans Illustrated that EA Sports has not requested updated information since the original submission. However, EA Sports has sent people to East Lansing over the last few years to gather footage of Spartan Stadium and the surrounding campus.
Also of note, the players included in the 500+ pages of images and other assets that were sent to EA Sports are not necessarily indicative that they have opted into the video game.
