EA Sports College Football announces logo, reveal date
EA Sports College Football is officially coming back.
The video game company updated its X – formerly known as Twitter – account on Thursday with a logo. In the biography, the brand announced a full reveal of the game would be coming in May 2024. The moment comes after almost two years of fans waiting for the announcement. Now fans have a month to circle when to expect a full announcement.
The upcoming 2025 EA Sports College Football game will be the first that allows FBS athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness. Roughly 1.5 million copies of the game were sold in 2013. That number is expected to grow exponentially next summer, with college football fans waiting more than a decade for the franchise to return.
“We’re incredibly excited to bring back an authentic college football experience for fans and athletes that have shown such passion for the franchise, and we’re looking forward to delivering it in Summer 2024,” an EA spokesperson told On3 this past August.
EA followed up the announcement with a teaser trailer on Thursday, showing off a few early images of the game including the gates at Beaver Stadium and the Gator head that Florida players touch when running onto the field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
The video game has moved away from the NCAA title, too. An official cover athletes has not been released either. Similar to its past releases, an official release is expected to come in July, the same month previous games have been released.
What will EA Sports College Football include?
There had previously been anticipation that EA would return to the college football market this past summer. The brand decided to push back the release until summer 2024.
The college football video game franchise ran from 1998 until 2013. Moving from the “Bill Walsh College Football” moniker to “NCAA Football,” the annual game was eventually discontinued. Lawsuits emerged, most notably former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon and 19 others’ decision to sue the NCAA, arguing the organization violated United States antitrust laws by not allowing athletes to make a share of the revenues generated from the use of their in broadcasts and video games.
A judge later ordered the NCAA to pay $44.4 million in attorney fees along with another $1.5 million in costs to lawyers for the plaintiffs in O’Bannon’s class-action lawsuit.
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Representatives from more than 120 FBS schools have committed to being in the game. All 10 FBS conferences, including the College Football Playoff, have also signed off. Matt Brown of Extra Points has documented the thousands of image and audio assets schools have sent to EA ahead of the video game, such as pictures of mascots, cheerleaders, uniforms and historic school items. The company has spent time recently on-site on campuses taking 3D scans of stadiums.
The transfer portal, which has dominated the sport with its one-time transfer rule recently, will also be included per The Athletic. With conference realignment and an expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, the game will surely have a different feel than NCAA 14, the last time the game was released.
How will EA execute NIL deals with athletes?
EA contracted OneTeam Partners to facilitate college athletes’ likeness back in May 2023. At the time, a source told On3 that the cash pool for athletes was in the $5 million neighborhood, which would pay out to $500 per player.
Throughout this past summer, EA was entrenched in a legal battle with The BrandR Group, which facilitates group licensing opportunities on behalf of athletes and represents more than 54 Division I institutions. The company originally argued EA Sports’ relationship with OneTeam Partners was “causing irreparable harm” to TBG. In November, a settlement was announced between the two parties.
A source indicated to On3 earlier this week that Opendorse, an NIL software platform, will play a role in distributing payments to athletes. EA has not begun the process of negotiating agreements with athletes. That’s expected to come this summer, after the spring portal window and spring practices when rosters are nearly set.