Notre Dame confirms Irish involvement in EA Sports College Football 25
It’s happening. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will officially be involved in the upcoming EA SPORTS College Football 25 video game that will be released this summer, per a statement released by ND director of athletics Jack Swarbrick on Tuesday morning.
“After nearly two years of work with EA SPORTS, we’re proud to announce that our fans around the world will be able to play as the Fighting Irish in the upcoming College Football franchise,” Swarbrick said in his statement.
“The work EA SPORTS is doing to provide over 11,000 college student-athletes opportunities to benefit directly from their name, image and likeness is a first-of-its-kind undertaking and we’re proud to have been involved in the process.”
EA SPORTS is coming out with a college football video game for the first time since NCAA 14 was dropped on July 9, 2013. The landscape of collegiate athletics has drastically changed since then. One of the biggest hurdles in getting a game like this off the ground is exactly what Swarbrick alluded to — name, image and likeness (NIL).
In an era in which it’s legal for student-athletes to make money off their NIL, EA SPORTS had to find a way to please the masses. Apparently, that’s been done. The company went public with a teaser for the game last week, and most of the name-brands in the sport, including Notre Dame, were included in it.
Swarbrick was quoted in an article by Chris Vannini of The Athletic saying, “it wouldn’t be college football if [Notre Dame] wasn’t in it, and I’m glad we found a way to be in it.”
Swarbrick’s advisor, Aaron Horvath, told Vannini the Irish opened up their doors to make the most of Notre Dame’s inclusion in the game. The school provided EA SPORTS with 360-degree photos of rivalry trophies photos of the stadium and the famed tunnel that leads down to the field under the gaze of the “Word of Life” mural on the library tower, more commonly referred to as “Touchdown Jesus.” Notre Dame also gave EA SPORTS audio of the in-stadium chanting that takes place by over 77,000 Irish fans during games.
“There’s a ton of stuff for EA to choose from in this first year,” Horvath told Vannini. “We’re excited about things we’ve heard about iterations moving forward, making some really new and improved things EA can do to bring a great game to everyone.”,
EA SPORTS will have more information on the release in May.
