Pitt Features in EA CFB 25 Dynasty Trailer

The Pitt Panthers came up in the new EA Sports College Football 25 Dynasty Trailer, with the video game coming out in mid-July.

Dominic Campbell | Jul 3, 2024

EA Sports College Football 25 Pitt Football /

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers featured once again in a new trailer for EA College Football 25, the new college football game that comes out in less than three weeks on July 19.

The new trailer went into "Dynasty" mode, where a player can either start as an offensive/defensive coordinator or take over as head coach of a program and build it into the greatest in the country.

Some of the new features include the transfer portal, 12-team College Football Playoff, plus improvements to recruiting, coaching skill trees, coaching hires, coaches carousel and more.

Pitt didn't feature too much in the trailer, but there were a few instances they came up. During the transfer portal segment, a player named A. Graves, who plays right guard, ranked No. 113 overall and was open in his recruitment, came from Pitt.

This player is not a real Pitt player, as there is no one on the Pitt roster with that name, but that is just one instance of them featuring in the new trailer.

Pitt fans who chose their favorite team in the game also have the opportunity to make custom conferences. This could feature their own desired opponents, the previous edition of the ACC or different variations of the former Big East as well.

Players also have the opporuntity to change rules in the conference, bring back divisions and place up to 20 teams or as little as four teams in their conference.

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. This new edition will come out for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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. This new edition will come out for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

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.

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 foreseeable 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. 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.

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Published Jul 3, 2024

DOMINIC CAMPBELL

Follow Dominic Campbell on Twitter.