NEW: Mississippi State Assets for EA Sports College Football

Through public records request, the team at Maroon and White Daily has obtained files that Mississippi State University has sent in to Electronic Arts Sports regarding the development of the upcoming and highly anticipated return of the company’s flagship college football video game.

Since July 16, 2021, MSU has been in communication with EA in regards to the files in this story. At this point, it is safe to assume that most or all of these assets will be in the game upon its expected release date this summer. The files will be broken up into three categories: Uniforms, Audio and Photos.

Uniforms

With the recent rebranding that Mississippi State has took on, fans were always going to be curious about whether or not the new “Script State” logos would make the cut. For those in favor of such a choice, you’re in luck.

Mississippi State sent in its main combinations that they unveiled before the season featuring the large script logo on the helmet and the “Banner-M” on the hip of the pants. This shouldn’t come as a shock, as its the combination Mississippi State was wearing all season. Of note, though, Mississippi State did not send in any gray pants with this year’s basic scheme.

Gray pants have been a hotly debated topic, even here on our message board, but sticking with the maroon and white gives the package a much cleaner look overall. If the game works like those that came before it, fans and players will be able to choose any combination of these three uniforms in-game. MWW, WMM, Storm Trooper white or MMM – all should be playable options come the release.

Cleats may be another story. In the past, players could customize what team cleats they wanted to wear with limited individual options, but in more recent Madden games, which are also made by EA, those options have varied drastically from player to player. Oh yeah, one more thing.

They’re very much in, and they’re very much awesome. It is unclear whether or not the game will have uniform add-ons post release, but it seems like a safe bet in the era of micro-transactions (additional content available for purchase after the game’s release). That means that any additions or other throwbacks that EA wants to put in the game will probably have to be purchased through a DLC package of some sort. However, if these three options are State’s main rotation, nobody’s really losing here.

Along with these images, Mississippi State also sent in a physical uniform set for better color matching and detail, which EA has since returned to MSU.

Audio Files

This is where things heat up. The expected has been sent in – cowbells ringing along with the fight song, the maroon/white chant, the team tunnel run out and cowbell filled crowd cheers to name a few.

Some finer details of a game day in Davis Wade Stadium also made the cut, though, such as the third down bells and the postgame fight song, along with some extra goodies made the cut as well, and I want to highlight those.

Dawgs win again? In there.

The possibilities with this one truly are endless. Will it be part of a highlight package before the virtual kickoff? Will it be a special animation/soundbite when you take Mississippi State to the new-look CFP championship and come away with the win? There’s no way to tell those finer details yet, but it’s been sent in, and I think it’s become too “niche” for Mississippi State to not use.

One burning question here, too: which fourth quarter song do you prefer? Sweet Dreams or Don’t Stop Believing? Whatever your answer, it really doesn’t matter. They both got sent in.

“Sweet Dreams” may not have the best audio quality in terms of hearing the lyrics, but again, when more than 50k cowbells are ringing in a microphone, some things tend to get a bit distorted. When those bells stop, though, and everyone sings along, some really cool things can happen – like this.

These game day traditions that Mississippi State fans hold sacred, along with various crowd pops like a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown, cowbell-filled big play reactions and time-honored spectacles like the “Go State” and “M-S-U” chant should make for as much or more of an individualistic feel inside the virtual Davis Wade Stadium than in previous games.

Photos

Stadiums always were and always will be the toughest thing to get right in any of these EA games. The company always did manage to do well, though, and that was due in large part to cooperation on stadium photos as early and often as possible.

That seems to be the case here as well, but it may come at a price. All photos from the public records release are dated for July, 2021. According to Mississippi State counsel, however, updated photos have been provided of things like the new upper deck seating options, new player entrance tunnel and more.

According to Matt Brown of Extra Points, the reporter who’s led the way in new information for the game, EA has reached out to several architecture firms to acquire blueprints of future work to stadiums that could assist in renderings. Essentially, this means that EA doesn’t necessarily need photographs to make up-to-date renderings.

The staff of MWD received thousands of photos dated from 2021, and these are expected to be the base model photos that EA requested when the game began development in that same year.

Obviously, Mississippi State isn’t the only school in the country to make changes to its stadium since 2021. Therefore, it should be safe to assume that those aforementioned updates, such as light rings and other minor atmospheric changes, should make the game upon release.

As time draws closer to the summer release date, more information will follow. Despite rumors that EA would release a commercial during the College Football National Championship this season being false, the hype is still very much real and very much growing.

One thing is for certain for Bulldog fans, though, Mississippi State has done all that it has been asked of in regards to representing what a game day in Starkville is like, all while dealing with a rebrand, numerous head coaching changes and a new athletic director, and that should say a lot about what direction the brass in Starkville want to head in.

If more updates are made available regarding EA Sports College football that pertain to Mississippi State, those details will be made available in future stories.