EA Sports College Football 25 Release Date, Game Modes, and More

Chase Becotte

Published: Jul 11, 2024 07:34 pm

Most of what’s written here will be subject to change for now since EA Sports College Football 25 is not out yet, but anything you need to know about EA Sports College Football 25 will be found here as we learn more and more.

EA Sports College Football 25 Release Date And FAQ

EA will be releasing EA Sports College Football 25 on July 19. Early access begins on July 16 (maybe 15 based on some reports but we’ll stick with 16 for now for everyone). You can pre-order the Deluxe Edition or MVP Bundle to get early access. The Deluxe version is the one that comes with Madden 25 as well. Full details on all versions of the game can be found here. GameStop also has a unique bundle.

FAQ

Because this is an all-new game, it’s best to probably try to answer or at least “ballpark” various questions that are asked a lot on the site and forums.

When does early access start?

It’s clear but unclear. Everyone who pre-ordered specific versions of the game will be able to play it in early access for sure on July 16. The Microsoft Store does list July 15 at 4 p.m. EST as the time you can play it right now. Many have pre-installed the game, and that’s the time showing on that console. If that’s the case, then this likely would be true for PS5 as well. However, EA still has the 10-hour trial period for EA Play subscribers beginning on July 16. There’s nothing to say they could not move up that date, but for now it seems like those who pre-ordered specific editions of the game have the best shot at playing earliest.

Will we be able to edit and share rosters?

It’s still a little complicated. It does not appear a basic “roster share” will exist, whatever roster sharing does exist will likely come via Team Builder — but we don’t have all the Team Builder info yet. Editing the “real” players seems like it will be restricted, while prospects have more leeway. As of now, the major things you can’t edit on prospects are the numbers and faces. We’re not sure about attributes as of now. With the “real” players we don’t have a formal answer but, again, just know it will be more restrictive than the created prospects.

Which players are not in EA Sports College Football 25?

This is TBD as well. We know Arch Manning and TreVeyon Henderson are in the game though, and those were two rumored to not be in the game weeks/months ago. In general, it seems like late transfers will be the ones who maybe miss the cut at launch. As of now, EA is promising they have all the “major” players in the game. In addition, EA does have planned roster updates so it is possible some players could still be added after launch — assuming their legal paperwork is good to go.

Who will be doing commentary? Will ESPN College GameDay integration return?

Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler, David Pollack, Jesse Palmer, Kevin Connors, Rece Davis, and Desmond Howard have all officially announced they will be voices in the game. There is no ESPN College GameDay, and there will be two commentary teams. Herbstreit and Fowler are the “A team” as expected.

We have a full breakdown of everything related to presentation right here.

What’s going on with licensing beyond the players?

All 134 FBS schools will be in the game, and we’re going to get a lot of music, chants, and other goodies you would expect from a college football game. This seems like the area where EA has done the most to try and get as much stuff licensed as possible in terms of jerseys, stadiums, and all that good stuff. It’s likely the “easiest” licensing to do in this new world everyone is trying to figure out with college sports games.

In terms of awards, we know the Heisman Trophy will be in the game but most of the other awards will not be in the game. I’m not sure if EA will do generic awards in place of things like the Bednarik Award, but that’s all we know for now.

Will we be able to import draft classes from EA Sports College Football 25 into Madden?

No. You can import your Road to Glory player to Madden.

Game Modes

Dynasty mode is the biggest focus by EA as expected, and it will also include Road to Glory, Ultimate Team, various online modes, and Team Builder. It does not appear to have a Mascot mode.

Dynasty Mode

With Dynasty mode, you can see folks like Not The Expert playing through one year of dynasty mode in a pre-release build. We also did our own deep dive into the EA dynasty mode blog.

At a high level, you will be able to play through 30 seasons. In online dynasty, you can play through 30 seasons as well with up to 32 users, but it is not cross-platform. As an aside, Team Builder content can be used in offline Play Now and private Dynasty modes.

There will be a transfer portal, a coaching carousel, hirings/firings, conference realignment, custom scheduling, the College Football Playoff, and much more that you remember from the old mode.

If you’re wondering who to be for dynasty mode, we have various primers up for now. There will be more once the game comes out, but here’s some helpful lists from some OSers:

If you want to see a general ranking of every team for dynasty mode, there is a fun ranking system put together here. We also have a thread where you can ask for advice on what team to pick for dynasty mode.

We also have a community-driven Google Sheet that will be detailing various aspects about every team in the game. This will include stuff like whether their mascot is in the game, what school-specific chants made it into the game, and so on.

As for mascots and such, we have a rough list of the confirmed mascots/animals in the game so far:

Costumes
1. Alabama and Auburn
2. Arizona State
3. California
4. Clemson
5. Colorado
6. Florida
7. Georgia Tech
8. LSU
9. Maryland
10. Michigan State
11. Minnesota
12. North Carolina and South Carolina
13. Ohio State
14. Oregon
15. Penn State
16. Purdue
17. Stanford
18. Syracuse
19. Tennessee
20. Texas
21. Texas Christian University
22. UCF
23. USC
24. Virginia Tech
25. Wake Forest
26. West Virginia
27. Western Kentucky University
28. Wisconsin and Nebraska

Real Animals
1. Auburn
2. Colorado
3. Georgia
4. Florida State (+ Osceola) and Miami
5. Oklahoma
6. Tennessee
7. Texas
8. Texas A&M
9. Washington and USC

We also know the top 25 rankings now for the launch of the game, and we know the top 100 players in the game. We also have the top 25 hardest places to play in the game.

Road To Glory

EA released details about Road to Glory this week. There will be no high school games, and sorry, your girlfriend’s picture will not change. Beyond that, you will still go through a recruiting process and find a school. At school, you will have training mini-games, and your phone seems to be the hub for various other activities. You can become academically ineligible, and it seems like you can even do some silly things like create a burner social media account to hype yourself.

Creator QJB also has a full year of the Road to Glory mode up on YouTube.

Ultimate Team

College Ultimate Team (CUT) seems like it will mostly be a copy and paste from Madden Ultimate Team. There will be single-player Seasons mode and a Gauntlet mode, which is an ultra-competitive online mode you can enter once a week (if you qualify via Champs or pay the entry fee). Otherwise if you’ve played MUT in the past, you should feel comfortable here.

Gameplay

We know Madden and EA Sports College Football will share an engine. Back in the day, this was also the case, but both games still felt different, and so it’s likely they’ll still feel different now. We have individual playbooks for every team in the game.

Overall, it seems EA Sports College Football 25 will play fast. Wear and Tear, Campus IQ, and shell coverages are some of the headline items. You can read the full gameplay blog from EA detailing these features. We also have written some deep dives discussing the gameplay from that blog, plus we talked about the 20-minute gameplay video EA released as well.

In short, this does not appear to be just some Madden clone.