What will the debut of NCAA Football 25 look like?
Did you ever spend your Fall Saturday mornings in front of your Playstation 3, doing a test run of that day’s college football games on NCAA Football?
How about coming home from school or work, popping the game in your system and building your own Heisman Trophy campaign?
We missed out on so many years of this storied franchise, but that wait for the next installation of NCAA Football is finally over.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, EA Sports released a trailer for NCAA Football 25.
In other words, this means we’ll finally be able to lead the UNC football squad to its first National Championship.
If you recall, this popular video-game series stopped after NCAA Football 14. Ed O’Bannon, a former NCAA Championship-winning basketball player at UCLA, fought and won a lawsuit against the NCAA for failing to compensate student-athletes for their in-game appearances.
Enough with the legal background – let’s dive into a few specifics of this game, according to this article ESPN’s Michael Rothstein published earlier today.
What first stands out, to me, is that each student-athlete who opts into the game will receive $600 and a game copy. This is a far cry from past versions, where past players wouldn’t gain a single buck.
Dynasty Mode will return – can Omarion Hampton run the Tar Heels to a National Title? Road to Glory – a mode where you can create your own player, start them in high school and choose to play your college ball from a variety of schools that recruit you – is also back.
New and unique to NCAA Football’s relaunch, NIL will be present in both Dynasty Mode and Road to Glory. We’re not quite sure on how this will look exactly, but something to keep an eye on ahead of its projected summer release date.
“If you think about representing what’s happening in the sport, when we talk about things like Dynasty and Road to Glory, there’s new ways to recruit, there’s transfer portals, there’s NIL, there’s a lot of things to think about,” said Daryl Holt, EA Sports’ senior vice president and group general manager of EA Tiburon. “That has really added to the complexity and the intrigue of the sport that we want to make sure is there for our players.”
Conference realignment will be present. For UNC, that means trips to Cal-Berkeley, Stanford and Southern Methodist. There will not be real-life coaches in this edition, meaning that guys like Michigan’s Sherrone Moore won’t be seen marching up and down the sidelines, but they could re-appear in future editions.
After spending most of my high school and college years playing NCAA Football, it’s thrilling to know that its return is just moments away.
Now presenting, your 2025 College Football Playoff National Champion…North Carolina Tar Heels!
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