College Football 25 mailbag: The game’s biggest questions

When I walked out of EA Sports’ Orlando studio two weeks ago, I was overwhelmed. There was so much information, so much to explain about College Football 25. I called my editor and said this couldn’t be one story on the trip. It was going to be at least three.

I poured out more than 6,000 words on everything I learned, from gameplay to Dynasty to name, image and likeness in Road to Glory and more.

But there was still more to talk about. In the comments and on Twitter, you had so many questions, from big-picture topics to tiny things I’d never thought to ask. So this is my attempt to answer as many of your questions as I can before the July launch of the game.

If there’s one thing that came through from my visit, it’s that this game is being made by college football die-hards. They truly love the sport and everything that makes it unique, and they’re trying to get as much of that unique feel as they can. The game won’t be perfect. There will be things you probably won’t like. I saw up close just how hard it is to make a video game and how much work is put into it. But you can trust the game is in good hands for this return.

Let’s get into your questions. There were so many that this will be split into two parts.

Note: Submitted questions have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Does it make sense to buy the deluxe editions if you only play Dynasty mode? — Robert D.

This is a good question to start. There are a lot of college football fans who have been out of gaming since NCAA Football 14, and they may not know what a lot of these new terms mean, like “deluxe edition,” “Ultimate Team” mode and more. Based on everything I’ve gathered, the main benefits of getting the Deluxe Edition come down to early access gameplay and more Ultimate Team bonuses.

If you pre-order the standard edition, you’ll get it July 19 and get some Ultimate Team bonus packs. If you pre-order the deluxe edition for $30 more, you’ll get the game July 16, the same Ultimate Team bonus packs and 4,600 points (currency) for Ultimate Team.

So if you’re only interested in playing Dynasty like the old days, that $30 difference comes down to whether you need the game three days early. Some people I know say it’s worth it to them. I haven’t yet decided which I’ll get because I’ll be busy in the middle of SEC media days that week.

College Football 25 will be released in July. (Screenshot courtesy of EA Sports)

Was the coin toss in the game, or was it automatically handled like in Madden? — @michael_bryan14

A good question I should’ve addressed in the gameplay story. For those who haven’t played Madden recently, there is no coin toss. You set your coin toss win/loss preference in the game’s settings (like kicking if you win the toss, taking the wind if you lose). That is the case for College Football as well. In overtime, there will be a coin toss you’ll need to make decisions on.

Is there any crossover between this game and Madden? I am wondering if I worked a player up to first-round status in Road to Glory, would I be able to use that same player in Madden for its create-a-player mode? — Justin B.

You can export your Road to Glory player to Madden’s Superstar mode, but you cannot export draft classes from Dynasty to a Madden Franchise. The lack of exportable draft classes got more blowback than anything from my original story, but the explanation for that is simple: EA has the license only for players’ college likeness, not their post-college likeness. EA legally cannot let you put players in Madden from College Football.

Yes, college players join the NFL in the spring and EA Sports has an NFLPA license to use players, but not everyone joins the NFLPA. Marvin Harrison Jr. still hasn’t signed the NFLPA’s group license, and most college players don’t make it there. By that point, players get scanned by EA at the NFL Scouting Combine for the process of adding them to Madden for the new game in the fall.

But you can work up a player in Road to Glory mode, play four years in college and then move him into Madden’s Superstar mode, where you go through the combine, get drafted and have an individual pro career. I’ve not done much Superstar mode in the past, but having a Road to Glory player might make it more enticing.

GO DEEPER

I played two hours of College Football 25. Here’s what I learned

Any details given as to why EA doesn’t have online Dynasty mode available cross-platform? — Jesse K.

My understanding is it’s just something EA couldn’t get to for this first version of the game. This matters a lot to me because I didn’t want to spend $400-plus on a PS5 if I’m getting just one game, so I got a cheaper Xbox. But I have PS5 friends. I’ll still be able to play games against them and play Road to the College Football Playoff games. The hope is that cross-platform online dynasty will be available in the future like Madden.

In Dynasty mode, will the patch on the jersey for the conference change to the new conference? So for example I put Florida State in the Big Ten, will the ACC patch be replaced by a Big Ten patch? Previously, I think the patch would just change to the NCAA logo. — Sam H.

We were told that if a team changes conferences, the conference logo will change to the new conference across everything, including the stadium field and the jersey patches.

The topic came up when lead senior game designer Christian Brandt showed us some very early stadium designs, all in gray, and we had to guess which stadium it was. When North Carolina came up, Brandt mentioned the ACC logo on the field and said all logos would change if schools change conferences.

If you can’t play high school in Road to Glory, how do you get to your school? Do you just pick one, or is there some recruiting process at the start? And how is your player’s rating determined (one-star, five-star, etc.)? — Charlie L.

It’s based on what you choose in the startup. You get to choose your star rating, which will impact your player rating, ranging from a two-star  prospect (65 overall) to a five-star prospect (79 overall). You’ll also pick your position (QB, RB, WR, MLB, CB) and an archetype for that position. Depending on your star level, you’ll have more mental abilities to give your player. You’ll choose which recruiting pitches are most important to you, like academic support, coaching prestige and playing time.

Based on your answers, you’ll get offers for your best fit. You don’t have to select the school that fits best, but that is the process.

I appreciated but never really cared for the high school detail and work that went into Road to Glory in the past. I just wanted to get to the college part. As the developers looked at areas they could pull back on while building a new game from scratch, that was one area that got cut. It could come back in the future if there is strong support for it from gamers. But this version of RTG, which EA says should last you 10-20 hours, should open up this game mode for more people.

You said you can’t edit attributes of created players. Does this apply to their stats? That sounds like a potentially really bad thing if you can’t go into the rosters and make your favorite player a 99, etc. — Laker Hater W.

You cannot edit a real player’s stats or their body appearance. As EA Sports told us, without real players, there wouldn’t be a game, and there are NIL reasons they won’t let you do that.

I gotta say, I think the No. 1 question I’ve gotten is whether you can edit the shoulder pads and equipment of real players. This is something I’ve never thought about doing and would have never thought to ask, but I’ve learned it’s a big deal to some people. I did check, and the answer is yes, you can edit the equipment of real players.

GO DEEPER

How EA Sports tackled its big NIL problem in College Football 25

Is there an expectation that the Team Builder website will launch before the game itself? — Beto G.

I do not know yet. We’ve not gotten any new information on Team Builder other than what was in the original announcement. I’m sure that is the hope.

Along the Team Builder lines, I’ve not gotten an answer on whether you can use that mode to create FCS programs, but I suspect there could be license reasons against that.

Can we expect a bunch of microtransaction features in Dynasty mode? Like using your own real money to buy virtual currency to fund your school’s NIL initiative to use to lure recruits and transfers? — John K.

There is no NIL in Dynasty Mode, as I outlined last week. No bidding on players. It is in Road to Glory mode as a player boost.

As for microtransactions, I’m not sure yet, and I know this is a big concern with modern gamers who are frustrated with how microtransactions have taken over games. It did not come up in EA Sports’ very long presentation to us. EA knows a large part of this audience just wants to play Dynasty and Road to Glory like they used to.

Ultimate Team probably will be heavy on microtransactions, as it is in Madden. But that has never been a game mode I care for. I know other people really like it. But I do believe if you want to play this game like you played the old games, you’ll be able to do that without microtransactions.

Will we ever have All-Time Teams? It would be cool to see Stetson Bennett handing off to Herschel Walker or Cam Newton giving it to Bo Jackson. — Eric W.

I played NBA 2K recently, and the option of using legendary or All-Time teams was pretty cool, for sure. But creating that for a college football game would be a massive undertaking with so many more licenses needed for those old-timers. Ultimate Team will have college football legends as players you can add, but we don’t know who those players will be yet.

GO DEEPER

What’s in College Football 25’s Dynasty mode? Everything we know

Is it not going to be released on PC? — Humberto C.

It’s not coming out on PC, and I know some people are upset about that. My brother’s a big PC gamer, and his only console is a Nintendo Switch. EA Sports has not officially commented on this, and Extra Points’ Matt Brown had a good story on this last month. My understanding based on conversations with people who handle this stuff is similar to his: Basically, it’s not worth it at this point. This game already has been several years in the making, been pushed back from last year’s original target, and it’s still being put together. And that’s just for the PS5/Xbox versions. Making a PC game is much more complicated, especially factoring in modding, anti-cheat and license workaround concerns. I know for a fact EA Sports is being extra strident in making sure only players who opted in are in this game. So the focus was on next-gen console.

It’s also true that College Football/NCAA is far more heavy with North American users compared to FIFA/FC’s global audience and even Madden. And the vast majority of sports gaming in North America happens on consoles. Could it become a PC game in the future? Possibly, especially when EA doesn’t need to build an entire game from scratch. But there just wasn’t room or time for this first version of the game, when considering where the vast majority of this title’s players are.

(Screenshot courtesy of EA Sports)