We finally know when we’re going back to school: EA Sports College Football 25 is scheduled to launch July 19, publisher Electronic Arts announced Thursday.
EA also officially released the game’s cover artwork, which had leaked online last week, confirming that College Football 25 will feature three current players on the box: Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers, Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver/defensive back Travis Hunter, and Michigan Wolverines running back Donovan Edwards.
This is the first time that active college athletes will grace the cover of an EA Sports game, EA said in a news release. And thanks to the new post-2021 landscape in college sports, where athletes can be compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness, the game publisher is paying each of this year’s cover stars for the appearance. (Edwards, Ewers, and Hunter have each published sponsored Instagram posts in partnership with the official EA Sports College Football account.)
Developed, as before, by Madden NFL studio EA Tiburon, the game will be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The lack of a Windows PC version is notable, since EA has been releasing Madden on PC since 2018. But it’s unlikely to dampen the anticipation and enthusiasm around College Football 25 all that much, considering how long fans have been waiting for this beloved video game franchise to return.
It’s been more than a decade since EA shelved the series, then known as NCAA Football, amid a flurry of class-action lawsuits alleging that EA, the NCAA, and the Collegiate Licensing Company (an organization representing the schools that appeared in the game) profited from their use of collegiate athletes’ likenesses without paying them. This arrangement existed due to long-standing NCAA bylaws that characterized the players as “student-athletes” — as opposed to professionals — and forbade them from receiving any compensation for the use of their names, images, or likenesses (NIL). In separate litigation, former college athletes alleged that this practice violated antitrust law.
EA, the NCAA, and the CLC agreed in 2014 to settlements totaling $60 million for the use of athlete likenesses in video games, which resulted in payouts to thousands of former players who had “appeared” in EA’s college football and college basketball games. The antitrust litigation eventually ended up at the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in 2021 in NCAA v. Alston that the NCAA’s limits on compensation for athletes were illegal, while leaving in place policies that prevent them from being paid salaries. Shortly afterward, the NCAA announced an interim NIL policy, opening the floodgates for collegiate athletes to be able to sign endorsement deals with companies such as EA.
While EA’s video game franchise no longer carries the NCAA name — the publisher rebranded it to EA Sports College Football when it announced the series’ return in 2021 — it appears that College Football 25 will include all the pomp and pageantry from college football, and the authenticity that people were accustomed to. EA said in its news release that the game will feature 134 colleges and universities from the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision, meaning that players will be able to enjoy their favorite school’s uniforms, mascots, and stadiums as they did in EA’s previous games. And now that NIL deals are possible, College Football 25’s cover stars are among more than 10,000 collegiate athletes who have agreed to appear in the game. EA is giving each one a minimum fee of $600, plus a copy of the game.
More details on College Football 25 will be unveiled Friday, alongside a full trailer.
