Headlines

Extra Points with Matt Brown's latest newsletter has some of the first information regarding the cover athletes - yes, athletes - for EA SPORTS College Football 25. The key aspects:

• There will be multiple cover athletes.
• Each cover athlete is a current college football player who plays in a different power conference.
• The athletes all play different positions.

The aspect of 'multiple cover athletes' infers either different covers for each platform and/or versions of the game (EX: PS5, Xbox, physical/digital editions, plus special editions) OR regional covers.

Brown later tweeted that "one of the cover athletes was a legitimate surprise to *[him]*." Who do you think the cover athletes could be? Who would you consider a 'legitimate surprise?' ...

Courtesy astute members of the Reddit community, EA SPORTS College Football 25 posters have begun appearing on college campuses around the country including Florida, Michigan, and Notre Dame. [UPDATE: Posters have also appeared at Alabama, Boise State, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, and Tulane.]

The posters follow a similar theme: Some highlight/note the real-life players signed onto the game, others include the team logos or iconic school images such as their helmet or team flag, for example. It is worth noting that the position posters list the 'Edge' position, so the game may be utilizing new depth chart terminology. The posters list the game as still being 'Rating Pending' and no release date or console format listed.

It is currently unknown what other schools have posters or who EA may have hired to place these posters on campus.

If you have pictures of these posters on any nearby campuses, please post them here or share with us on X (formerly Twitter): @gamingtailgate.

Continue on to see the posters on the campus of Florida, Michigan, and Notre Dame. ...

Courtesy Missouri student broadcaster Billy Jones and the state of Missouri's Sunshine Law, we have our first look at an in-game venue in EA SPORTS College Football 25, Missouri's Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium. These screens may have been sent to Missouri for approval in-game. ...

March Madness is upon us and that means it is time for the 2024 TGT Tournament Challenge on ESPN.com. It is free to join the group and the winner of the Tournament Challenge group will receive their choice of either a $20 PSN, XBL, or Nintendo card.

Feel free to invite friends and family to join the group. The more, the merrier! Click here for a direct link to the Tournament Challenge group.

In addition to the Men's Tournament Challenge group, there is also a TGT group for the Women's Tournament Challenge. There is no prize for that group, simply pride. ...

Wednesday afternoon, Matt Brown tweeted that he had heard that unless a bowl stadium is also the home stadium for an NFL team, it would not be included in EA SPORTS College Football 25. Brown cites one such example as Fenway Park's Fenway Bowl and that these bowls would be played in a generic stadium created by EA.

From Brown: Quick update on this btw. Hearing that bowl stadiums that are NOT NFL stadiums or campus sites will not be included in *this year's game*. So no Fenway Park, etc. EA will use a generic stadium for those games, I'm told. ... I don't think it's so much about licensing costs (although I'm sure that's at least A factor) as it is the fact that rendering an accurate stadium is REALLY time and resource intensive. It was one of the harder things to do for every FBS team, I'm told

EA has confirmed that all bowl games will be in EA SPORTS College Football 25, meaning the names, logos, field art, et al. are likely to be in the title. Provided the specifics of Brown's report are accurate, there would be nine bowl games played in generic stadiums. ...

During an appearance on Syracuse Sports with Brent Axe, ESPN's Kevin Connors confirmed his role in EA SPORTS College Football 25 as providing in-game and halftime updates, matching his real-life specialty and primary duty at the network: "I do in-game updates and halftime." The long-time fan of the franchise says he played NCAA Football more than any other game and says he is thrilled and unbelievably proud to have a role in the returning franchise.

In addition, Connors provided a few comments regarding the game, including a new uniform detail: Players can be equipped with hoods that stick out from the back of their jersey.

Continue on to see Connors' entire appearance on Syracuse Sports with Brent Axe and some additional comments. ...

A March 5, 2024 video from Well Off Media on YouTube teases that Deion Sanders (Coach Prime) has a deal proposed to him from EA SPORTS.

In the clip, Colorado Assistant AD for Sports Equipment Services Michael Smith is visiting with Coach Prime and showing him a sheet of paper while saying the following: "They put together a deal with you and we can do an in-season release with the new uniforms and if you want, we can send them all your stuff that you wear and they can like....you know what I'm saying?"

Deion responds with "EA SPORTS, we do business."

Continue on to see the aforementioned clip. ...

First reported by Pete Nakos of On3, the National College Football Awards Association (NCFAA) has decided to decline the offer from EA SPORTS and opt out of EA SPORTS College Football 25 citing what they perceive as an unfair contract offer.

From On3: “[The offer] was not something that was representative of any either major awards, assigning image rights and usage rights to a game which we all believe is going to be very popular and going to sell a lot of copies based on past history,” [said NCFAA president Mark] Wolpert, who is also the executive director of the Maxwell Football Club, said. “There’s an appetite for that game. And if brands are going to be represented there, we want to be compensated properly."

Some of the awards that will not be included in the game are the "Bednarik, Biletnikoff, Davey O’Brien, Doak Walker, Groza, Jim Thorpe, Maxwell, Outland, and Ray Guy" per On3. EA SPORTS has publicly stated The Heisman Trophy WILL be in EA SPORTS College Football 25, so it appears The Heisman Trust still maintains the image and usage rights for the award, not the NCFAA. It is currently unknown if any other awards possess those same rights.

Many NCFAA-member awards were in the NCAA Football franchise, but appear destined to be represented as generic 'Top [Position]' awards in EA CFB 25. Will this detract from your experience? Share your thoughts with the community below and continue on to see the list of awards that appear to be excluded. ...

Tuesday afternoon, Kirk Herbstreit joined YouTube show 'Streit Talk' hosted by his sons Tye and Jake. While he is under an NDA and also unaware of full game aspects and features, the elder Herbstreit did drop some game news and nuggets.

Following the reveal of seven ESPN personalities joining the title, the community began to wonder if multiple broadcast announce teams were a possibility. Just minutes into the show Kirk stated "I think there's gonna be as you're doing different games, there will be different broadcast teams doing the game. Yeah, yeah...That'll be a major, major difference between what it's been in the past and what they're gonna do now."

Continue on to see the show as well as additional notes from the program. ...