Michigan, Michigan State in EA Sports College Football 25: 5 Takeaways
EA Sports previews College Football 25
EA Sports is less than a month away from a big release. College Football 25 is coming out in July and the developers have given us a sneak peek. The ten-year wait makes EA Sports College Football 25 one of the most anticipated video game releases of the year.
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After 11 years, the wait is over and college football has returned to the world of video games.
As has now been well documented, the game was an annual tradition for many people, but then suddenly disappeared due to legal problems.
Thanks largely to college sports’ name, image, and likeness rules, the game has made a bold comeback, albeit without “NCAA” in the name – it’s now called “EA Sports College Football 25.”
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The game developers at EA set out to include as many details as possible to make it feel like a real college football Saturday, and for the most part, they succeeded. From the sights to the sounds, this game makes you feel like it’s a Saturday on your favorite campus as you prepare to live and die with every play. It feels cliche at best, nerdy at worst. But it’s still important, and people of a certain generation live for this stuff. Since this game was pretty much my entire life up until my senior year of high school, I’m very much part of that generation, and so I was happy to pay a little extra to get the game early.
Here are five observations I made about Michigan and Michigan State football in EA Sports College Football 25.
The sounds of the stadium bring you into the game
A long time ago, I went to an MSU football game with my mom and I remember her saying, “Wow, they play the fight song so often. Do you know another song?”
That was a fair question at the time, and it comes up a bit in this game, too. But what makes it cool is that the game knows exactly when and how the Spartans use it in real life, a marked improvement over previous games.
EA has also paid attention to what the Wolverines are doing.
At the start of a game at the Big House, Wolverines players enter the field by raising the famous “GO BLUE” sign while “The Victors” plays and the crowd sings along. When the Wolverines are on defense, the popular college football anthem “Mo Bamba” blares from the speakers while the screen shakes. Chants of “Let’s go, Blue!” are consistent and the drum melodies are unmistakable and convey an unmistakable college football feeling.
When you play at Spartan Stadium and MSU’s defense first comes on the field, an instrumental version of Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” will play over the speakers, just like in real life. When you force a third down, you’ll hear MSU’s familiar “Third down” Melody used in the biggest plays in East Lansing.
It’s the little things like that that matter. And EA has definitely paid attention to those little things.
Michigan is still loaded
Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan team had an NFL Combine record 18 players selected to test their mettle before the NFL Draft in Indianapolis. The Wolverines didn’t set the record for the number of players drafted, but they did have 13 players, a program record.
If you didn’t know better and took a look at the Wolverines’ roster in the game, you would have no idea what a drain on talent the team just experienced.
Looking at the roster, you’ll see that Michigan clearly has one of the most talented teams in the game, especially up top. In addition to cornerback Will Johnson, who is the highest-rated player in the game with a 96 overall rating, the Wolverines have four other players with an overall rating of 90 or higher: Mason Graham (95), Colton Loveland (92), Kenneth Grant (91) and Donovan Edwards (91).
For context, Michigan State’s highest-rated players are tight end Jack Velling and center Tanner Miller, both of whom have an overall rating of 87. Before the game’s release, it was reported that Michigan had five of the top 55 players in the game, but when you see it “on paper,” it’s even more jarring. Hopefully, the team you pick in Dynasty mode doesn’t have to play the Wolverines.
The Spartans are a perfect team for a rebuild
Unlike the Wolverines, Michigan State’s roster is not loaded with elite talent.
The Spartans finished 4-8 last year and had a disastrous season on and off the field, while the Wolverines had their best season ever, going 15-0 and winning the national title.
But that is precisely why the Spartans are ideally suited to be chosen as the team to start a dynasty.
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MSU has a history of success and plays in the Big Ten, both factors that will help when recruiting for this year’s game. Additionally, Michigan State has enough good players at key positions in the game, like quarterback (Aidan Chiles, 81 overall) and running back (Nathan Carter, 85 overall), that will help you be competitive right away, but won’t dominate like you would if you took on Michigan, Georgia, Ohio State or another top team.
If you like a challenge but don’t want to struggle in a Group of Six conference, the Spartans are a solid choice.
MSU’s helmet selection is unmatched
If you’re a helmet fan, get ready to be amazed at Michigan State’s options.
While MSU only has three options for jerseys and pants (green, white and black), you can choose from 14 – FOURTEEN – different helmet options, from the team’s standard green Spartans logo helmet to several “Gruff Sparty” options.
Neither the lime green alternatives nor the gold Nike Pro Combat uniforms – both controversial at the time – are in the game, so it’s nice that the Spartans have so many options to mix things up with the headgear. It’s a video game, after all, so you might as well have a little fun with it.
(For anyone who’s interested, the Wolverines only have one helmet option. I think you can probably guess what it is.)
Good luck in the Big House
It’s hard to win on the road at Michigan — in real life and in the game. The Wolverines haven’t lost at Michigan Stadium since the COVID-shortened 2020 season, and when you bring a team to the Big House in EA Sports College Football 25, you can feel it.
The developers at EA have put a lot of effort into making playing on the go feel like you are, well, on the way. When you’re on offense, Michigan fans go crazy. When the Wolverines have a lot of momentum, you can’t hear an audible on certain plays. When the crowd at the Big House is at full blast, sometimes routes get muddled and you can’t see where a receiver is.
According to the Stadium Pulse meter in the upper right corner, Michigan Stadium is the 16th hardest place to play in the country. When the screen is shaking and none of your plays are working, it feels that much harder.
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