Several 2024 Fighting Irish football players have indicated they will be in the soon-to-be-released video game.
Drew Mentock
EA Sports first announced in February 2021 that its "NCAA Football" video game would return.
Several months later, the company delayedits2023 release by a year, which EA Sports V.P. and G.M. Daryl Holt said at the time was to create an immersive experience that would "meet or exceed our player expectations and cover the breadth and scale of what we want in the game."
That's too late for a class of college football players to appear in the game.
Despite exhausting two extra years of collegiate eligibility, Sam Hartman and his signature hair flip missed the chance to be rendered digitally in its three-dimensional glory.
"I just am pissed because I spent six years in college, and I didn't get a piece of that. Like, come on," Hartman said at the NFL Combine with a hint of sarcasm. "That was the only reason I went back to Notre Dame was just to get into EA and put on the gold helmet.
"But I hope they make some type of legacy something or like a washed-up college quarterback deal. That'd be dope. You know, an old-timer league. Or instead of mascots, they put (in) old quarterbacks?"
It remains to be determined if such a game mode exists, but theEA College Football 25 should beout before the start of the season.
A recent unconfirmed report claims it will be available on July 19.
Whether or not that date holds, Notre Dame's participation is already confirmed, even if it's unclear if the entire Fighting Irish roster will be available.
Opting-Out
College football players who want to appear in the game must opt-in for EA Sports to use their name, image and likeness. Those who do will reportedly earn $600 and receive a copy of EA College Football 25, which experts expect to retail for around $70.
On Tuesday, OneTeam Partners—the company that created EA Sports' opt-in program—announced that more than 12,300 athletes opted into the game two weeks before the deadline.
Anotable player to opt out is Texas Longhorn quarterback Arch Manning, the nephew of Super Bowl-winning signal-callers Eli and Peyton Manning.
Manning is protected as the team's second-team quarterback behind incumbent starter Quinn Ewers and reportedly wanted to wait until "he was the guy" before participating in the game.
Who's Opted-In at Notre Dame?
On Feb. 23, two of Notre Dame's star players announced, "I'm in the game!" via Instagram posts, declaring they'd opted into EA College Football 25: quarterback Riley Leonard and cornerback Ben Morrison.
View this post on Instagram
Around the same time, prominent college football players from other programs shared a similar post, including Ewers, Georgia quarterback Carson Beck and Ohio State edge rusher Jack Sawyer.
Perhaps the postsallowed EA Sports to compensate top players more since $600 seems insignificant compared to six- and seven-figure NIL deals.
More recently, EA Sportsspread the word for the upcoming release of College Football 25 by plastering advertisem*nts around Michiana. That includes the ads Irish Illustrated's Tom Zwiller found beneath the pedestrian overpass on 933 just south of Angela Blvd.
— Irish Illustrated (@irishillustratd) April 10, 2024Spotted these @EA Sports College Football 25 posters on North Michigan Street.
Some of the @NDFootball players included in the game:
Mitchell Evans
Jaden Mickey
Jordan Faison
Jack Kiser
Jaden Greathouse
Christian Gray
Jadarian Price
Rylie Mills pic.twitter.com/aP6alK5XYB
The posters indicate eight Fighting Irish players whose rendering will also be in the game:
- TE Mitchell Evans
- CB Jaden Mickey
- WR Jordan Faison
- LB Jack Kiser
- WR Jaden Greathouse
- CB Christian Gray
- RB Jadarian Price
- DT Rylie Mills
Irish Illustrated also spoke to six additional players who all said that they'd opted into the game or intended to do so:
- OT Charles Jagusah
- OT Tosh Baker
- OT Aamil Wagner
- DT Jason Onye
- DE Josh Burnham
- WR Jayden Thomas
EA Sports Nostalgia
NCAA Football 14, the last edition of an EA Sports college football game, came out 11 years ago in the summer of 2013, when most current Notre Dame players were in elementary school.
"I've actually never played it," Burnham said. "I probably was pretty young. … I'm excited to see what it's all about."
That's not the case for several others.
"I have been playing NCAA 14 with my godbrother back home because that's his favorite," Gray said. "He misses it every time. He was like, 'I can't wait until you come out in the game.' I'm like, 'I appreciate you.' That's brotherly love."
Previously, Gray played the game using his favorite childhood team, Ohio State.
Now, he's using Notre Dame and even created his own character — a version of himself.
"I put my name in there as the starting corner," Gray said, "and I'm catching like six picks a game."
Jagusah did the same on an old version of the game via his PS2, but rather than being Notre Dame's first-string left tackle, he lines up on the defensive side of the ball.
"I always made like a strong safety and would just like run around and absolutely murder everybody," Jagusah said.
Other Fighting Irish players purchased the game due to family connections.
"I do have experience playing the last edition," Wagner said. "I have an older brother (Ahmad Wagner) who played college football (at Kentucky), and we were all big football fanatics growing up.
"So, we actually ended up buying an Xbox 360, buying a copy of the game maybe around my sophom*ore year or freshman year of high school, and whenever he was home, we played together."
His brother always played with the Wildcats and was better at the game than the younger Wagner, who always did his best to neutralize his disadvantage.
"Whatever team had the highest rating: Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame," Wagner said, "whatever it was, I'd always try to pick the best."
College Football 25 will be built from the same engine as EA Sports' Madden franchise, so the gameplay should be relatively similar.
"I've been playing Madden, getting ready for the game to come out and being able to play with my teammates," Onye said. "Excited for that."
Other College Football 25 Features
The full game reveal won't come until next month, but plenty of details have already been reported.
On Feb. 22, EA Sports announced that all 134 FBS teams will be in College Football 25, available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X and PC.
Longtime ESPN commentators Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler will return to the game, along with college football analysts Kevin Connors, Jesse Palmer and David Pollack.
In March, The Athletic's Chris Vannini reported that the game will include every FBS bowl.
According to USA Today and ESPN, College Football 25 will also feature:
- Conference realignment
- A customizable 12-team College Football Playoff
- The return of Dynasty and Road to Glory modes
- NIL components
- New ways to recruit
- The transfer portal
Currently, each team's actual head coach will not appear in the game, so it's unlikely Marcus Freeman will berendered roaming the sidelines in Notre Dame Stadium. However,Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin has said he'd participate for free, so perhaps that could change between now and when the game is released.
