Let me tell you how damn good EA Sports College Football 25's attention to detail is. Every college football team has no less than thirty insane gimmicks, stunts, and traditions that they'll whip out over the course of a game. Let's take, for instance, Pitt, where I went to school. Well, we manage to rip off both the Red Sox ("Sweet Caroline" blares after the third quarter, which is inadvertently the Go Home tune, because we suck) and the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders (the team sadly trots out to "Thunderstruck").
But the worst Pitt quirk is The Meow. Every time the team enjoys one brief, shining moment of competence—which, again, is not often!—the stadium blares this ungodly mechanical noise that vaguely resembles a panther's roar. But it really sounds like meow-wow-wow!, as if Mr. Whiskers, your cat, loudly asked for treats from the inside of a tin can.
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That's all to say: College Football 25 has The Meow. To a tee. It sounds precisely as awful as it does in real life. But they got it right.
It's a ridiculous thing to focus on, sure, but it's also a microcosm of what EA Sports managed to pull off with its first entry in the series—previously branded NCAA Football—in 11 years. EA stopped producing the game in 2013, settling with former college football players who rightfully took issue with the use of their names, images, and likenesses without compensation or their permission. Now that universities are finally cutting checks for their athletes' efforts, EA revived the beloved (and sorely missed by yours truly) series.
And the promises were big. Three years ago, EA Sports bigwig Daryl Holt, initially promising a 2024 release date, told ESPN, "That's the best date for us to bring the game that we think is going to meet or exceed our player expectations. And cover the breadth and scale of what we want in the game. We're trying to build a very immersive college football experience." I'll forgive you for reading this as PR-speak, considering fans accuse College Football's older brother—the iconic Madden franchise—of shipping out a relatively unchanged product, year after year.
EA SportsI mean, c’mon.
I won't get into that here, because I really need to wrap up this piece and start year two of my "Dynasty" mode, which is exactly as stellar—if not better—than you remember. And if EA Sports' hilariously long "Dynasty" deep-dive blog didn't tip you off, there's a lot to do in this experience, where you can control a college football program for a maximum of thirty years. The recruiting process includes, but certainly isn't limited to: DMing players, contacting their friends and family, tooling around in the transfer portal, and scheduling campus visits. As someone who's sick enough to have loved the boardroom immersion of NFL Head Coach, College Football 25's reimagining of the mode is exceptional. After just 10 hours in "Dynasty," I'm now somewhat confident I could've succeeded Nick Saban at Alabama. Give me that booster money!
As for the gameplay? If you're a Madden player with a reaction time half as embarrassing as mine, I'm willing to bet that you call one of two plays on offense: 1) Inside Run, or 2) Slants. College Football 25 breaks open the playbook for casuals, making a run-and-gun-type or Air Raid college offense relatively accessible. Running the ball is fun again. Whereas Madden is often a few-yards-at-a-time grind (or the alternative, chucking the rock with Mahomes), there's much more opportunity to juke, spin, and flash some creativity after the handoff.
Electronic Arts College Football 25: Standard - Xbox Series X|S [Digital Code]
![College Football 25: Standard - Xbox Series X|S [Digital Code]](https://cdn.statically.io/img/hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1721406453-71WD3jhxG9L.jpg "College Football 25: Standard - Xbox Series X|S [Digital Code]")
Passing is more dynamic; the game will prompt you to press an extra button if you want to make another move after the catch. Not to mention, College Football 25 even introduces a two-step kicking meter, which, uh, actually has led to a few doinks from me.Wouldn't you know it, playing College Football 25 actually feels like playing...college football. High scores, big plays, batshit playbooks—you name it.
Now, I have an intimidating amount of experiences left to explore, including "Road to Glory," where you can create a player and win a whole lot of Heisman trophies. "Ultimate Team" has all of the legends we never (virtually) met over the past 11 years. Freaking Tim Tebow is in this game! In a time where industry layoffs are threatening to cheapen what we play, it's downright heartening to see the level of care EA Sports gave to College Football 25. Heck, when you fire up a Pitt home game, Rece Davis name-checks all of the school's greats: Dorsett, Marino, Ditka. Now imagine that amount of love for 131 teams. I'll happily give a big ol' meow-wow-wow! to that.
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