After a decade-long hiatus, EA Sports’ College Football is coming back. Not only is it reviving a beloved series for football fans, but it’s also bringing all 134 FBS (formerly Division I-A) schools along for the ride.
It’s no Mutant Football League, but it’ll do
First released as Bill Walsh College Football in 1993, the series was renamed College Football USA in 1996, and NCAA Football in 1998. Then, the NCAA opted not to renew its licensing contract with EA in 2013 due to a legal dispute regarding player likenesses. Despite plans to continue under the College Football name, EA put a pause on the series after several conferences revoked their licenses with the publisher.
On February 2, 2021, the official EASPORTSCollege X account made a post stating “College Football is coming back.” Fast forward to this morning with the announcement that all 134 FBS schools would be in the next entry in the series, College Football 25.
Additionally, per The Athletic, players on any of the teams within the included 134 FBS schools can opt-in for inclusion in the title. In return, they’ll receive $600 and a copy of the game. Initial rosters will include up to 85 players and those who don’t opt-in will have a generic avatar as their stand-in. The Athletic anticipates at least 11,000 players to be represented, so EA would be shelling out $6.6M at minimum if they all opt in. With that kind of payout, EA needs to ship a massive number of copies to recoup costs.
Fortunately for the publisher, college football in the States is a huge business, with individual teams in the Big Ten generating upwards of $134M a year. After a 10-year absence, EA could be well-poised to strike, like an oilman in the Texas oil boom.
