Good AI in Football Games Is Way Too Rare

I’ve continued to play a ton of College Football 25 and Madden 25 this past week, and it’s in part to make sure I don’t sound like a total fool before writing this article. Now, if you disagree with this forthcoming take then I’ll still sound like a bozo, but I at least feel like I’ve done the work to be a bozo with a take I can feel good about.

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AI has been on my brain a lot since I started playing College Football 25, and even more now that I’ve been playing Madden 25 — a game from the same exact development studio. And I have to admit, I’m kind of baffled how these games ended up being so different when playing the CPU.

As I said in last week’s newsletter, I’ve had a good time with Madden’s slower style and when playing online, but I can’t believe how big a difference there is between the AI in these two games. Folks super in the know might say “well, that’s the new Real Time Coaching system put in place by the College Football devs” and maybe it’s just that simple, but the gap between these two games when it comes to the CPU is still wild.

We drop plenty of Seinfeld references on the forums (because we’re old and have great taste, obviously), so this whole situation is kind of like The Opposite episode of Seinfeld where George just starts doing the opposite of what he would usually do in every situation. Jerry has a banger of a quote to help George see the light. He tells George that “if every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.”

Old George is Madden 25. New George is College Football 25.

Right now, I’m bouncing around with dynasty teams. Ever since the recent patch dropped, I have settled on using San Jose St. My story was I brought in Chip Kelly as the head coach to try and bring back that Oregon-style offense he ran to perfection.

(As an aside, no disrespect to any SJSU fans out there since I know Ken Niumatalolo was a pretty big hire for them this past year. I also have no idea if Buckeyes fans are stoked about Chip Kelly becoming the OC or not, but I’m not apologizing to you guys for stealing your coach in my dynasty mode — you win plenty enough as it is.)

Basically the offense I’m trying to run is to spread teams out and run the ball north-south, then mix in those east-west constraint concepts to keep teams off-balance while looking for explosive plays. It’s a heavy dose of RPOs, spread runs, and deep shots. I am astounded by how well the CPU begins to handle certain RPO looks over the course of games, and for the most part I can’t just rely on a couple concepts to succeed. On defense, the same applies. If I use certain shell coverages too much or don’t commit enough players to the box, I will get punished.

Even for something like offensive line play, it’s a whole new world this year in College Football 25. Not only do I need to count the steps on my dropbacks — an extreme rarity in any EA football game — and let the dropback play out rather than just mashing down on the stick to go deeper in the pocket, I also need to make adjustments pre-snap to the line and really be aware if one of my lineman is outclassed by a DT or DE on the other team. This can result in not calling as many pass plays that take a long time to develop, keeping a back in to help out on pass plays, or even double teaming certain rushers. It’s also the closest thing we’ve probably had since NFL 2K5/All-Pro Football to an actual pocket forming, thus you’re rewarded more often for stepping up into the pocket or moving just slightly around in the pocket to avoid the heat.

It’s tactical, it’s interesting, it’s football. Every week feels like a fresh experience that I need to approach in a serious manner in order to have a shot to win. I’m using canes21’s sliders as a base on Heisman, and then I’ve made my own slight adjustments here and there, but I don’t think the sliders alone have really created this environment I’m loving.

And I’m also not out here saying it’s perfect. I won’t tell you the “exploits” I’ve found or a couple tells the CPU has for when they run certain coverages because I don’t even want to put it out there, but besides putting a couple rules in place for myself about what plays/concepts I use, this is the most fun I’ve had playing the AI in any sports game in years.

Which is why Madden 25’s CPU play is so shocking to me. It’s easy to point to the pass/run ratios as a major culprit, and they are for sure. Most of the teams in the game just do not run the ball enough. But it’s more than that. The passing attacks themselves don’t even feel that diverse. There is no “style” that really radiates off these teams even though the playbooks are way better this year.

Now, the devil’s advocate position would be to say it’s much more obvious how a team like Air Force plays and thus it’s relatively easy to mimic. I’m going to have to deal with the triple option. It will have various permutations and misdirections built in, with just enough passing to keep you honest, but it’s an extreme enough offensive style that it’s probably not that hard to make the CPU play that way. And, yeah, in comparison it’s a little harder to separate every offense that comes from the Kyle Shanahan tree of coaches at this point. But there are major differences, and some of them are already in the playbooks themselves. It just doesn’t seem to matter right now.

So even if these pass-run ratios get worked out in a patch or something for Madden, I don’t think that alone will solve things. Even if the busted zone coverages get patched, or robo QBs get tweaked either via patch/sliders, or the clock management by the AI improves, or running the ball becomes harder for users with the right sliders, that’s not going to fundamentally help the game unless teams feel unique.

The Niners have to play like the Niners. The Dolphins have to play like the Dolphins. The Chargers have to play like the Chargers. And this goes for both sides of the ball. If a team runs mostly single-high safety looks, make sure that defense is actually about that life in the game.

I’m sure it’s not an easy task, but after playing College Football 25, I really do think the bare minimum for the AI in a football game now needs to be:

1. Teams have to feel unique. Whether it’s through the coaches themselves, the playbook, the players — whatever it is, you have to nail that in some way. Madden 25 has actually done a bang-up job adding lots of unique pre-play animations and signature animations for players, so they’re at least on the right path with some of those visuals.
2. Adjust to what I’m doing, please. I don’t expect perfection or for there to be zero gameplay exploits, but don’t just let me run the ball down the throat the whole game or never adjust to an RPO I’m running. Have half a brain CPU.

And that’s it. I don’t think that’s asking for too much when you consider that EA has apparently already mostly solved this issue with College Football 25. And this isn’t just EA I’m calling out here either. I’m super stoked to play a modded version of NBA 2K25 on PC this year, but if I’m being honest, I’ve watched more MyNBA than played it the last couple years because of similar issues with that game. Part of the reason I’m so thankful things like marshdaddy’s Golden State Warriors playthrough exists is because I can watch that and get a fix I’m not really getting myself when I play the AI in 2K.