‘EA Sports College Football 25’ Is Everything Fans Have Been Missing

It’s hard to not have the memories come back while you wait. The progress bar that shows up while EA Sports College Football 25 starts downloading on your console might as well be a countdown for you to think of all the times that this game was an important part of your life during its initial run. There’s your one friend who added the Maine Black Bears into NCAA 08 and built them into a contender, or your freshman year college roommate who loved using Jacory Harris and the Miami Hurricanes, or the game you rage-quit against a friend’s older brother when you were 13, or whatever else was part of your experience when this was known as EA Sports NCAA Football.

I think that’s what I find so incredible about all the hype around CFB 25, which hits consoles on Monday for those who pre-ordered the game . It’s unclear what the priorities will be as EA Sports makes changes over the years — as my colleague Robby Kalland reported months ago , when they presented the game to reporters, they stressed that “Dynasty is what we’re about.” Who knows if EA shifts focus in the future to other areas like Ultimate Team to drive microtransactions that fans of games hate, but for right now, after a college football game hit consoles for the first time in 11 years, EA Sports College Football 25 is a game about the past. It’s for folks like me that had this as part of our formative experiences as college football fans, the ones who have been debating whether to get an Xbox or a PS5 because they have not gotten a new console for years, but knew now was the time to get one.

“Finally, it is here,” Chris Fowler bellows in the trailer that plays at the beginning of the game. It’s the one that was released back in May , and this is just a line of dialogue as part of an introductory video. But the first time you fire the game up, it feels different, like EA Sports is welcoming you back to a world they were forced to exit years ago due to courts and the NCAA’s general refusal to recognize its entire operation is built on the backs of free labor. You’re seeing an old friend, one who moved away but you always hoped you’d see again.

A lot has changed in the world of college football since July 9, 2013, the day that EA Sports released NCAA Football 14 . You can argue that fans are more rabid than ever, and not necessarily in a good way. College football is no longer just an institution at a university, it is a moneymaking machine, with billions of dollars pumped into it year over year by television contracts, or increasing ticket prices, or a messed up NIL system that is supposed to paper over that free labor thing and put the onus on the fans to make sure athletes are compensated, or corporate sponsors who put together dynamic activations at bowl games in exchange for their brand’s logo to appear somewhere in the building.

This isn’t anything more than a pet theory of mine, but I’ve wondered if the lack of a college football game took an outlet away from fans to blow off some steam as the sport becomes more of a pressure cooker. I, obviously, have no way of knowing this, but I’ve believed the over-the-top reaction to every little bit of information about the game, the freakout over any and all details no matter how small (Matt Brown, if you are reading this, god bless you), the fact that this always seemed like much more than just a video game release had something to do with the fact that it felt like a cornerstone of college football culture was taken away more than a decade ago. For years, college football has become less and less fun — the feeling it’s NFL lite exists, and winning 8-9 games can get a coach on the hot seat if his school has aspirations of doing more. I’m not saying that goes away completely if we have a video game to play or anything like that, but the lack of one is yet another a little reminder about how things always seem like they’re getting worse and worse.

College football is meant to be fun. It’s a sport built around the idea of a unique communal experience, that you can sit in class with the guy who caught three touchdowns a few days ago on your left, while a student who doesn’t have a voice from cheering for him is on your right. It’s about parents bringing kids to their alma mater to watch a game, and getting their kids excited about one day sitting in the student section, which is the coolest thing they’ve ever seen. It’s about the game that you, to this day, still cannot believe happened — for me, there’s a little reminder of that on the home screen for CFB 25, as there’s a ticket that reminds you of Penn State’s 24-21 win over Ohio State in 2016 that remains one of the best days of my life.

Getting a college football video game back is a fun thing, one worth celebrating specifically because of how much it means to so many people. It fits perfectly within the ethos of the sport, that you should experience pride and joy and all these sorts of things. It gives you a way to kick your rival’s teeth in (the first game I played was a 147-0 beatdown of Pitt), or turn a MAC team into a contender in Dynasty Mode, or lift the Heisman Trophy in Road to Glory. This was lost for a decade. It’s back. That rocks. It all rocks. I’m typing this and smiling, because it just makes me happy. If you’re a fan of the game, it probably makes you happy, too.

The fact that a real, tangible college football game is on my console still doesn’t seem real to me. I was entering my senior year of college when the last game came out, and my only cares in the world were finishing up an internship and consuming as much Miller Lite as possible. I’m now a 32-year-old who does adult things, like have a preferred tax filing software and undergo a colonoscopy and try to limit how much Miller Lite I drink because I’m not 21 anymore. A lot — a LOT — has changed over the last 11 years, in my story and surely in yours. One constant over the last 11 years was a void due to my favorite video game franchise disappearing, and while Madden could scratch the itch to a degree, it just never felt quite the same as the sense of anticipation I felt every year around May as I was growing up, because I knew a new college football game was right around the corner.

That void is filled now. Those memories that rush back just keep coming at you as you play the game, not just from the times when you played NCAA, but from the games you watched in real life. You get caught up in all the bells and whistles that make this game so radically different from the ones released a decade-plus ago — they say the names of the players in this one! — but at the heart of it is the same thing: You’re getting to experience the world of college football in a low-stakes way that encourages you to have as much fun as possible. Unless you’re doing an online Dynasty with your friends, which might as well be an all-out war.

I understand anecdotes are not everything, but anecdotally, the number of people I know in various friend groups that have never interacted with one another who have the exact same reaction about this game coming out really is something. One, who will remain nameless, flat out helped me move this past weekend because he knew that I had an advanced copy of the game, and all he wanted in exchange for lugging my stuff from one place to another for seven hours was to throw one pass with Ohio State. Others breathlessly waited for any and all updates on my personal experience playing the game — you are surely in a similar boat, and make sure you keep your eyes on Uproxx Sports all week, as we’re going to have more stuff coming out about the game.

My answer every time is simple: The game is great. The presentation is spectacular. It feels different enough from Madden that you can take solace in it not being a copy-and-paste with different uniforms in it. And most importantly, I’m playing a college football video game. I, truly, cannot believe it.