Broncos football players visit BSU's acclaimed esports team, arena to compete in College Football 25 rollout

BOISE — Boise State linebacker Andrew Simpson has a chance this fall to show he’s one of the best defenders in the Mountain West.

On Wednesday evening, however, he was the best College Football 25 player on the team.

Simpson took the crown at the team-wide tournament of the new EA Sports game held at the Boise State esports Arena, besting wide receiver Latrell Caples, who spent a lot of the night hyping up his skills, in the championship match.

Simpson’s win, which was ended prematurely with him leading 35-14 so the team wasn’t at the arena too late, was a part of the Bronco Olympics, a series of team competitions. The points for his win go to Simpson’s team ‘Chafed.’

“I feel like I’m the best player on the team,” Simpson said about his victory. “Latrell talks a lot, but we’ve played a few times and I beat him, so it was interesting to see how much he was talking at the big event. I just wanted to show with my teammates that we’re the best team and it was a convincing win. I was proud about that, they didn’t even let us finish the game.”

The event not only served as a bonding event for the football team, but also highlighted one of the new games the Boise State esports program will be offering this fall. College Football 25, which was released last month to great fanfare after EA Sports had the franchise dormant for 11 years, will join the likes of Rocket League, Overwatch, Valorant, Super Smash Bros. and Street Fighter 6 as games offered by the program.

The Broncos esports team has had past success in Madden, EA Sports’ renowned National Football League game, with Wacey Williams winning two National Titles in the game for them. But the College Football title is going to bring the unique connection where college esports and football teams alike will be able to play as their own school football program in the game.

Adding to the excitement, this College Football game includes actual college players, unlike older games in the franchise which were around before the days of NIL.

“We’ve been waiting for this one, because this one’s special,” said Boise State esports coach Dr. Chris ‘Doc’ Haskell. “This is going to be bigger than Madden, not even close. Every community is close to a team in this game, and that’s not true in the NFL. Plus, you can play as people you go to class with, people you know.”

Haskell is often referred to as “the Nick Saban of esports” — high praise considering Saban’s legendary pedigree as a National Championship college football coach at the University of Alabama for nearly two decades. Haskell started Boise State’s esports program in 2017 and has turned it into a national powerhouse, winning four national championships and 12 Mountain West titles. The program has also won program of the year honors, with Haskell being named director of the year in 2020. Players have also won national player of the year and newcomer of the year honors.

Boise State’s 7,000-square-foot esports Arena is also a site to behold, located in the heart of downtown Boise at the intersection of Front Street and Capitol Boulevard, across from the The Grove Hotel. On its website, Boise State boasts that the facility’s “sleek and modern design creates an atmosphere that is both dynamic and inviting, with rows of high-performance gaming stations and large screens for broadcasting live matches.”

Boise State can have 20-25 players on its roster depending on the year, and the coaching staff is made up of four members, Haskell said.

According to the National Association of Collegiate Esports website, over 260 schools across the United States and Canada compete for championships every year “across a variety of Esports titles.”

Haskell said that out of 365 Division I college sports universities in the U.S., 362 sponsor esports programs. He sited Kurt Melcher, a video game industry consultant who presented at the National Association of Esports Coaches and Directors Conference in Minneapolis in June. All programs are on various levels of competitiveness based on skill, facilities and recruiting, Haskell said.

“We’ve had nearly 10 million viewers of our esports program, and we’ve amassed more wins than any other NCAA esports team,” Boise State President Marlene Tromp said during her State of the University address on Wednesday. “And here’s a fact that astounds people like me, but not our students — more young people tune in to live broadcasts or match highlights on social feeds like Twitch, Facebook, YouTube than they do for professional sports. More students are watching Twitch than are watching pro sports. That means Boise State is reaching a critical demographic of students to make them aware of this university with that outstanding excellence of that program.”

Boise State will be hosting a College Football 25 Tournament on Friday, and it’s open to all students.

The Next Player Up tournament — which includes a similar competition on Thursday featuring classic combat game Street Fighter — is sponsored by the Idaho Press and Boise Weekly. Winners will earn $1,000 and be placed on scholarship by the esports program.

“This is really to bring our students out and put them together in a room for a big thing,” Haskell said. “We’ll definitely pick a winner, or rather they’ll pick a winner by their play, and give them this college experience, get them on the road to big tournaments let them play other schools. Everyone in the Mountain West will play, everybody in the PEC, which is the Power Esports Conference, will play.”

Members of the PEC are household college sports universities — Boise State, Michigan State, Syracuse, Ohio State, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and USC.

The Mountain West esports standings are made up of the Broncos and Boise State’s more traditional rivals — Air Force, Colorado State, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State and Utah State.

Boise State football players have been playing College Football 25 among themselves ever since it came out, but Wednesday, an off day from practice, offered them a chance to gather in a space large enough where all of them could play.

Every game was Boise State vs. Boise State, which sometimes led to virtual players beating themselves. In the semifinals, Caples’ ‘Goonies’ squad beat A’Marion McCoy’s ‘Chuck Miller’ squad in overtime when McCoy went for two points and the win after a touchdown. McCoy tried to find a virtual Chase Penry in the end zone, but it was picked off by a virtual McCoy ending the game.

“Playing as us is definitely weird,” linebacker Marco Notarianni said. “You’re rooting for your team, then you see yourself making a play on the other team and it’s kind of hard to pick a side. But it’s a cool experience.”

Notarianni admits that College Football 25 isn’t the game he excels at, but he still found a game he could dominate in. Midway through the evening, he was able to get a game of Mario Kart going featuring himself, defensive end Ahmed Hassanien, defensive tackle Braxton Fely and Boise State coach Spencer Danielson.

Danielson, who said he was confident going into the game, having played Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64, but he was thrown off by the Wii controller, and struggled to figure out drifting.

“I had some confidence going into this Mario Kart Race, like ‘you don’t want to bark up this tree Marco, this is where dreams come to die,’” Danielson said. “I was thrown off, I didn’t compete, I had a lot of excuses I shouldn’t have pulled out and I lost. So I got to take ownership, but you better believe I’m ready to go round two.”

Playing as Baby Peach, Notarianni was able to dominate the four-race cup circuit they played in, taking home the virtual first-place trophy.

“I kind of let the trash talk loose, especially when I’m going against Coach D,” Notarianni said. “You got to get your wins when you can. Honestly, I didn’t think he’d ever touched a video game in my head, but you learn something new every day.”