Return of EA Sports ‘College Football 25’ comes with wave of nostalgia

In EA Sports’ “College Football 25,” we’ve got back the closest thing to playing, and living, our on-the-field dream.

I play video games. I play a lot of video games, and I’m not very good at a lot of them. But EA Sports’ NCAA Football video game is not like other games. For those of us who could never compete at the highest level of college football, this was as close as we got to reenacting or creating the experience of the game-winning drive or winning a national title.

For those blessed with enough talent to play college football, the thrill of seeing your name and being a playable character must be one of the greatest feelings one could have. After all, we became fans of this game because we love the game of college football. We love Saturdays in the fall. We love tailgates and pregame shows. We love coaches yelling on the sidelines and the voices we know calling games for our favorite teams. 

I grew up listening to Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson, Keith Jackson and Brent Musburger, among others, tell me all about the Sooners, Bobby Bowden’s Noles and Tom Osborne’s Huskers. And I have never forgiven EA Sports for putting Joey Harrington on the cover of “NCAA Football 2003.” But I didn’t realize how important this game was to me until 2020, when playing football at all was in doubt. My instinct was to go find “NCAA Football 14” and remember just what life was like before I turned 23. Nobody likes you when you’re 23.

In the midst of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, when every comfortable distraction felt like a warm hug, I drove one hour in one direction to get an ancient copy of “NCAA Football 14” and a PS3 to play. And play. And play.

As I played, I remembered why I loved this game so much. It was as close as I could get to being at the Cotton Bowl for OU-Texas in the Red River Rivalry, or Ohio Stadium for “The Game” between Ohio State-Michigan, or Birmingham, Alabama, for Alabama-Auburn in the Iron Bowl.

Like most, I didn’t grow up with parents who could afford tickets — let alone the money to travel — for such games. A TV was as close as I’d get for a long time. The first Oklahoma football game I ever attended was as a columnist for “The OU Daily.” I was 23. I turn 37 at the end of the month, and I’ve yet to attend 23 college football games over the course of my life.

But from 1997 to 2012, I probably didn’t see 23 days without playing EA Sports’ NCAA Football or watching the sport I love. I learned to write, in large part, to gain the skills necessary to earn a credential, to offer an informed opinion, to talk ball all day, every day.

My high school football team ran a spread offense and watching film was a once-a-week affair where coaches would dictate what we should expect from opponents and correct mistakes. But access such a tool after those sessions? No chance. So we played NCAA.

I learned more about the intricacies of schemes, coverages, protections, alerts and hot routes from that game than I did as a player. And I used it. … I still use it. Watch the safeties like spinning wheels on the snap. Recognize a light box. Red routes are your first read. Read high-low.

I stopped playing football video games when lawsuits, lawyers and likeness put an end to the gaming franchise I loved. This is to say I stopped playing Madden and FIFA too. The idea of an “Ultimate Team” is new to me — and spending money on packets is against my religion — but the online PvP aspect of football spoke to me as soon as I booted up “College Football 25” last Monday.

I enjoy measuring myself against peers, especially those who have clearly built a team through free agency and the transfer portal — or what I call buying packets. To look up at another person’s gamer tag and see Ray Lewis and Marshall Faulk on their roster fills me with a thrill. When the game “gifted” me the same, I wondered just how they’d mesh with other legends of the game like Brayden Schager, Quinton Cooley and Greg Rubin. But mostly, it brings me back to that one word: “Nostalgia.”

You’re gonna lose. I did. You’re gonna get juked out of your position. I did. You’re gonna dive when you mean to tackle. I did. You’re gonna “exit to the main menu” when your opponent is celebrating or run backwards with the clock showing 37 seconds left to play in the game. I did.

This is not the place to feign greatness. It’s not the place to show hollow humility — “I don’t really play games a lot, so I’m not that good.” It’s a place to say “get good, son,” and embrace “have fun.”

EA Sports’ “College Football 25” can feel like a mess in online play. It can also feel like a playground with all kinds of equipment to create the experience you want — from staples like Road to Glory, Dynasty Mode and Play Now to creating your own playbook (I did), and playing in your favorite teams’ colors in their stadium. (Boomer, baby!)

Friends and colleagues who haven’t picked up the sticks in some time are back on them again. That’s how powerful this game has become. It might be the only game many folks play, and the only one that could bring a room together. Learning that people in their 30s are back on EA Sports’ latest foray in college football gaming shows just how much we missed it.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube. 

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