Getting stadiums, tradition correct was a ‘core pillar’ in building EA Sports College Football

After a long 11 years, college football fans are a little more than a month away from the return of an all-time classic video game. EA Sports College Football 25 is set to be released on July 19 and everyone is curious what changes will be made.

EA Sports’ Christian McLeod and Ben Haumiller joined the Andy Staples On3 podcast recently to answer questions about the new game. One of the areas they highlighted was the work they put in to making the experience of playing in different stadiums unique and authentic to the traditions of that school.

Whether that be Ralphie’s Run at Colorado, the Sooner Schooner at Oklahoma or a number of other staples, the designers of the game worked hard to make sure each venue has its own personal touch — just like real life.

“Super important,” McLeod said. “We came back and that was our core pillar. How do we satisfy the core? It had to look right. It had to feel right. The game play had to be rooted in authenticity. There’s 134 ways to play like Scott talked about earlier today, so that was our core especially in Year 1. As we’re building this foundation and we’re bringing it back from where we were 10 years ago, we had to hit on that.”

One would expect the graphics of the game to look much more realistic with the amount of time that has passed since the release of NCAA Football 14, the last college football game in the EA Sports franchise. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4, let alone PlayStation 5, were not released then.

That should lead to plenty of improvement from the most previous iteration of the game. One of the most notable aspects for those who played NCAA Football 14 was the pregame show, which showed players running out of the tunnel and even had a mock version of ESPN’s College GameDay.

There are certainly other aspects of the game, such as dynasty mode and Road to Glory, that fans will be interested to see the new features. With the additions of NIL and the transfer portal since the last game, there is plenty that the designers can add to make this a much different playing experience.

At the end of the day, however, making the look and feel of the game was at the top of those who work at EA Sports’ list. If they can hit on that, everything else will be better because of it.