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.

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