But the initial change in Name, Image and Likeness rules in college sports allowed the return of the EA Sports College Football video game franchise. College Football 25 was the first iteration of this new version, which hadn’t been released since NCAA Football 14. EA’s second re-run (CFB 26) just dropped Monday.

The Minnesota Gophers were a middle-of-the-pack school in the Big Ten in CFB 25, with transfer QB Max Brosmer under center. This season, P.J. Fleck is turning over his offense to redshirt freshman, Drake Lindsey.

Drake Lindsey gets poor ratings for Minnesota Gophers

The Gophers have something of a favorable schedule, but there is uncertainty when breaking in a new quarterback. And due to his lack of experience, those behind the player ratings in EA Sports College Football 26 lack faith in Minnesota’s new QB1, rating him a 72 overall… which is the worst rating of any Big Ten quarterback in the game’s initial release.

Projected Big Ten starting QBs ranked by EA CFB 26 ratings (OVR)

1. Drew Allar, PSU (92)
2. Luke Altmeyer, Illinois (89)
3. Nico Iamaleava, UCLA (88)
4. Fernando Mendoza, Indiana (87)
5. Dylan Raiola, Nebraska (87)
6. Jayden Maiava, USC (86)
7. Julian Sayin, OSU (85)
8. Dante… pic.twitter.com/K9i1b21YTV

— Tony Liebert (@TonyLiebert) July 7, 2025

While it’s not a shock that Lindsey isn’t rated ahead of well known names like PSU’s Drew Allar (92 OVR), UCLA’s Nico Lamaleava (88 OVR), or Oregon’s Dante Moore (84 OVR). But dead last? Even behind Athan Kaliakmanis, who has a career 53% completion rate?

Sure, Kaliakmanis and his Rutgers teammates knocked off Fleck and the Gophers last season. But Athan threw for 2,696 yards and 18 touchdowns with seven picks, during his first season with the Scarlett Knights.

Athan’s 53.9 completion rate in Piscataway was still just as poor as it was during his time with the Gophers (53.3%). There is little reason to believe Lindsey can’t be a better or more productive passer than Kaliakmanis.

Put your pitchforks away for now…

Of course, it’s just a video game, and EA Sports has no insight as to how well the Minnesota Gophers Drake Lindsey will play once he steps on the field. Still, we know what guys like Athan Kaliakmanis are not. Just the hope of what Drake could be should give him a better rating than the former Gopher QB.

Related: Gophers Secure P.J. Fleck for the Long Run

Fleck brought Brosmer in for Minnesota and the grad transfer turned in one of the best quarterback seasons in Gophers history. He threw for 2,828 yards with 18 touchdowns and did so at a 66.5% clip. Lindsey doesn’t have to uphold that same bar, but he got an up close look at what a good level of success looks like.

As a freshman last season Lindsey competed in three games throwing five passes. He completed four of them for 50 yards including his first collegiate touchdown pass. There will be many more of those this year, and seeing Lindsey ascend the list in year one would not be a shock in the slightest.

Now rebranded, EA Sports College Football 25, multiple different enhancements have been added to this new edition of one of the most popular sports video games ever. It has been a decade since EA Sports had a college football game, but the ability to pay players for their name, image, and likeness made its return possible.

Minnesota Gophers overall Madden 25 rating revealed

In a gameplay trailer that was released Friday, we got a look at the Minnesota Gophers’ overall rating, prior to the much-anticipated release (this summer), which is an 85. Iowa had the same rating but got there differently.

Little #Gophers tease in the latest @EASPORTSCollege video.

Cc: @GopherHole pic.twitter.com/Om2MY1cIN7

— Ted (@tlschwerz) May 31, 2024

The Minnesota Golden Gophers made a cameo while Kirk Herbstreit discussed changes, and the overall scores for a few teams were revealed. Given an 85 overall rating, with a slightly better offense (82) than defense (80), P.J. Fleck’s squad had a baseline for fans to discuss prior to the release of the game in mid-June.

Related: Gophers Legend Gable Steveson Officially Swaps Sports, Signs with Buffalo Bills

Paired up against the Iowa Hawkeyes (85 overall), it was a dead even matchup despite the Kinnick Stadium group having just a 71 overall on offense. The 94 overall rated defense makes the difference, and you can bet they have a strong punting game as well.

Highlighted in the gameplay reveal were a few things that could be interesting to Golden Gophers fans. While home field advantage is certainly a thing in the NFL, few sports embody that notion more than college football and their stadiums.

College Football 25 Brings All the Golden Gophers Feels

A pulse meter that impacts the opposition to varying degrees has been brought back. Seeing how Huntington Bank Stadium compares to Camp Randall will be interesting. Beyond just the outside factors, this year has actual players now involved, thanks to NIL payments for all players who agreed to let EA use their name, image and likeness.

One step closer to making game day every day#CFB25 Coming July 19
Pre-Order Now 🔗: https://t.co/h079QzWxaP pic.twitter.com/t2t5r6olzA

— EASPORTSCollege (@EASPORTSCollege) May 31, 2024

Those names will include new Golden Gophers quarterback Max Brosmer, who was one of the top transfer QBs in the country. He only has one year of eligibility remaining so it’ll be interesting to how good EA sports evaluators view him. Not only that, but how could his attributes change as updates come through, especially after real games are played.

The Madden franchise will update their online player ratings to help reflect how good a player is in real life. You can only imagine the College Football version will do the same. Fleck is certainly hoping that his new quarterback can do more than just be a handoff factory, but loosening the reins is something the Gophers head coach will need to buy into, himself too.

Related: Former Gophers Star Tyler Nubin Fitted for New York Giants Helmet

Expect more information on College Football 25 to filter out over the next handful of weeks with the full game releasing on July 19.

With things shifting through the NIL landscape and video game publishers now allowed to compensate collegiate athletes, the EA Sports revamped ‘College Football’ franchise is coming back. This summer, ‘College Football 25’ drops and it’s expected to be one of the most popular video game releases (or re-releases) of all time.

When EA Sports had the NCAA Football franchise running regularly, it was released every year, just like we still see with the Madden franchise. In those games, no player names were used, but the players always had the same numbers as that year’s starters and usually resembled players on roster from that year.

EA Sports College Football 25 Cover Released

On Friday, EA Sports added a countdown timer to their website that is due to expire on May 16 at 10 a.m. CDT, teasing an impending announcement when the countdown hits zeroes. That announcement is expected to reveal the standard cover and, possibly, a gameplay trailer.

Also today, Playstation seems to have unexpectedly leaked the deluxe edition cover, which features Texas QB, Quinn Ewers; Michigan RB, Donovan Edwards and Colorado WR/CB, Travis Hunter; along with a few other big names and teams. No Minnesota Gophers appearance, but it’s still possible they make the standard edition cover, so we’ll see.

They cooked 👨‍🍳 pic.twitter.com/yZ0M2L9rYs

— EA College Football 25 Countdown (@DaysTillNCAA) May 10, 2024

Related: Gophers Stack Running Back Room with Michigan State Transfer

This time around NCAA Football couldn’t be more different. Players will be compensated for their inclusion in the video game, and names will be immediately available when the product releases. Rather than number generated callouts, each individual player will be accessible on the depth chart. The Gophers have a new quarterback, and an exciting season should be expected to commence.

While the Madden game has reigned supreme for nearly a decade, thanks to NFL licensing rights and the unavailability of the collegiate version, it was always the latter game that was always praised year-after-year for a better and more enjoyable gameplay experience.

Not Everyone on Board With NCAA Football

Feeling like they may be able to earn larger NIL compensation elsewhere, compensation from EA Sports for NCAA Football 25 is not mandatory. Players were invited to opt into the game and given a set parameters for what the payout would look like. The hope from EA Sports is that a complete video game with exposure for each player would be enough, but obviously that wasn’t going to be sufficient for everyone involved.

Related: Former Gophers Star Tyler Nubin Fitted for New York Giants Helmet

Going forward there could be more significant players that hold out from game inclusion, but that would be reflective of schools with large NIL funds willing to compensate the best players well above what should be expected. From a video game perspective, creating a simple avatar shouldn’t command a massive expense, and the ability to market oneself on a virtual scale could provide future opportunities as well.

NCAA Football 25 is due out later this summer, and the return to the gridiron for a collegiate sport is expected to draw massive sales. Minnesota has brought in a handful of transfer recruits, and P.J. Fleck is looking to make waves in the Big Ten. Hopefully EA Sports is able to meet consumer expectations as they get back into the space.

After seven years of pure depression, the impossible has become possible. Happiness has returned to the world. Hope is filling hearts everywhere. EA Sports is officially bringing College Football back to their lineup of yearly video game drops.

For those who never stopped believing…#EASPORTSCollegeFootball pic.twitter.com/2vDUYnbXEJ

— EA SPORTS (@EASPORTS) February 2, 2021

The last time we saw EA put out a college football game, it was 2014 and Denard Robinson of Michigan graced the cover. Back then, it was “NCAA Football”. It looks like we’ll see a change to “EA Sports College Football”.

“It all starts really with where we see college football as going. There’s a lot of things happening, and there’s a lot of things happening in sports,” Holt said. “EA Sports College Football gives us a name and a brand to kind of work around for some things that might evolve as well as what we’re focusing on really out of the gate, which is really the FBS Division I schools and the road to the College Football Playoff and college football championship.”

via ESPN

When do we see it on shelves?

We don’t know. According to this article released by ESPN, there won’t be a game released in 2021. EA is still in the process of putting together the team that will work to develop the game. By the sounds of it, Summer 2022 would be the earliest, but that’s only my best guess.

“Madden 22” will release late this summer, like it always does. If “College Football” isn’t releasing a game this year, then we won’t see a “2022” version. That means we can only hope for “College Football ’23”.

That doesn’t mean they aren’t ready to fire things up and get rolling. They’ve already setup a plan with “Tiburon”, who developed the original EA NCAA Football games and they have the licensing rights and playbooks for over 100 D1 schools.

Player Names and Likeness

As of now, the game will not have real names or player likeness included. There are still NCAA restrictions in place that do not allow that to happen. That could change before the first release, however, depending on when it comes and how different the “student athlete” label is at that point.

Times are certainly changing in that aspect, which is noted in the ESPN piece.

For now, EA Sports is planning to move forward without rosters that include the names, images or likenesses of real college players. Current NCAA rules prohibit athletes from selling their NIL rights while in college.

However, those rules are likely to be changed at some point in the coming year — by the NCAA, state legislatures or Congress. It’s not yet clear whether the evolving rules will allow for the kind of group licensing arrangements that would be needed for EA Sports to negotiate with athletes to use their names in the game.

Holt said that EA Sports will monitor the NIL discussion if and when things change but that it’s too early for that to happen. He also said what happens in NIL legislation will not change whether the game happens or when it will end up on shelves.

ESPN

To this day, sports games have struggled to meet the standard set by NCAA Football, including their own father franchics, “Madden NFL Football”. This is mood changing for millennials and life changing for their kids who have no idea what they are about to get their hands on…

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan