Inside The Panthers

EA Sports College Football 25 Release Date Revealed

The highly anticipated EA Sports College Football 25 Video Game has a true release date, with the Pitt Panthers set to feature in the game.

Dominic Campbell

PITTSBURGH -- EA Sports College Football 25, the highly anticipated college football video game, finally has a release date this summer set for July 19, which the Pitt Panthers will feature in.

Electronic Arts (EA) not only announced the date for the game, but the prices for different versions of the game too.

The standard edition features Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, Michigan running back Donovan Edwards and Colorado cornerback/wide receiver Travis Hunter on the front for $69.99.

The deluxe edition, which costs $99.99, has Ewers, Edwards and Hunter facing away towards a stadium, with other prominent names as well, like Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, Georgia quarterback Carson Beck and Ohio State running back Quinshon Jenkins. This edition also gives players three days early access and a number of Ultimate Team benefits.

The MVP Bundle, which retails for $149.99, gives you all the benefits of the deluxe version, but also, Madden NFL 25 Deluxe Edition too, which entails early access to the game.

The full reveal of the game, which likely includes the first trailer, will come out on Friday, a little more than two months before the game comes out.

Pitt will join 133 other FBS teams in the game and even teased their involvement in it, with a small glimpse of what will come for Pitt fans when they purchase it.

The EA Sports College Football video game will likely serve as one of the biggest games of the year. It is the first college football video game to come out since 2013, ending an 11 year hiatus. 

Bill Walsh College Football was the first college football video game and it came out in 1993. The legendary head coach of Stanford and the San Francisco 49ers served as the cover for the first two editions and then College Football USA 96/97 would feature as the next two.

The NCAA started to brand the video game in 1997 with NCAA College Football 98 and would continue to do so through 2013 with NCAA College Football 14. All FBS teams then came into the video game, but with the NCAA branding, so too did official bowl games and awards like the Heisman, Biletnikoff and others. 

The game had different modes that people could play, like dynasty mode, ultimate team in later editions and Road to Glory, which allowed players to play as themselves and become a star.

NCAA College Football came out on a number of consoles, including Wii, PlayStation, XBOX, GameCube, Windows and more. 

Pitt even had a player grace the cover, as Biletnikoff winner Larry Fitzgerald was the cover on NCAA College Football 2005.

The reason for the hiatus of a college football video game came when the NCAA, Electronic Arts and the use of college athletes' likenesses all came together at a head. 

Disputes included some conferences backing out of the game, the NCAA continuing to argue the amateur status of student-athletes and a lack of understanding of how to pay college athletes, which forced EA to shelve the game for the forseeable future.

NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) allows student-athletes to profit off of themselves, which made it easier for EA to figure out how to make a new college football game.

Student-athletes also have the ability to truly play as themselves. In previous editions, didn't have names of the players or any descriptions. They will now have their own pictures, names and more for the game.

NIL will pay student-athletes around $600 for participating and the game for free, which costs around $70.

Electronic Arts has worked with One Team Partners, who work with NIL rights and CLC, the country’s top college trademark licensing company, allowing more 15,000 current student-athletes to make merchandise deals, and now, a video game deal too. 

With the last game selling around 1.5 million copies, expect a much higher number than that this summer, with the game coming out on July 19. 

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Dominic Campbell
DOMINIC CAMPBELL

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