Trevor Reilly still holds bragging rights from 11 years ago when he dominated a classic college football video game with outdated graphics and gameplay from 2013.
Reilly was talking trash with former Utes teammates, with controllers in their hands and NCAA 14 on the television. It was a tradition players relished at the start of each season because — even if their in-game avatars were represented by either a fake name or by number alone — it gave them the chance to be in the game they grew up playing.
“We (Utah) weren’t a very good team then,” Reilly, the former Ute linebacker, said. “We were 5-7. I still have that game. It’s fun for my kids to have. They can still play that game with me in it.”
That sense of imagination, connecting college football fans, players and even coaches alike, went on a 11-year hiatus following the release of NCAA 14. A lawsuit arose from former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon surrounding issues with name, image and likeness (NIL) rights, and EA Sports stopped making college sports video games.
“I guess what was disappointing is that they didn’t figure it out earlier, right? A lot of kids missed out on a great opportunity of being in a video game,” Reilly told The Salt Lake Tribune, while reflecting on the game’s hiatus.
For years following the game’s discontinuation, NCAA 14 fans gathered in online forums, creating up-to-date rosters and hoping for the game’s eventual return. Others opted to send off their Xbox 360s and PS3s to console hackers, so they could download NCAA 14 Revamped, a modded version with updated graphics and uniforms.
Those dark times are now over. EA Sports’ College Football 25 officially released July 19.
Unlike in the past, current college athletes will see their names in the game. As part of an NIL deal to include players’ name, image and likeness in the game, players get $600 and a free copy of the game.
College football fans rejoiced and united over the return of the gaming franchise, with over 2.8 million unique players playing the game during its early access period, even before the game was generally released.
Game brings teammates, generations together
Geoffrey Norwood still has vivid memories of cold, snowy winter nights in Salt Lake City and logging onto his Playstation to play NCAA 14 with a pair of Utah teammates.
Norwood, a wide receiver with the Utes from 2012-15, was on the last Utah roster to be included in the game, and he felt “extremely disappointed” when the series went into purgatory. He would often play the mascot mode with Utah’s “Swoop,” while crushing BYU’s “Cosmo the Cougar” in the backfield.
“It’s going to bring a team together, with them not even knowing that it’s going to bring them together,” Norwood told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Every time we got out of practice, we always hopped on.”
“They get to go through the experience of what we had before it shut down.”
To this day, Norwood still plays late at night with former teammate and Utah walk-on safety Mike Kirby. Sometimes the two don’t even talk: Kirby will just invite Norwood to a Madden or Call of Duty lobby and compete like they did on campus.
When Norwood beats Kirby handedly, the former Utah safety will angrily groan over the mic before rage quitting and sending his teammate another game invite.
It’s those memories that bring Norwood back to college, his time on the Utes and playing NCAA 14 in his apartment. Now, with College Football 25 in his hands, he’ll hope to continue the tradition of competing with Kirby and other former teammates in the new video game.
“When one person scores, we’ll hear the other one laugh,” Norwood said of his battles with Kirby. “That’ll piss the other person off. It’s like ‘OK, you want to do that?’ and then I score and start laughing. It just goes back and forth.”
Reilly feels the same joy, but in a slightly different way. Now a special teams analyst at the University of Colorado’s football program, Reilly coaches Colorado two-way superstar and projected first-round draft pick Travis Hunter. Hunter is on the cover of this year’s game, just as one of Reilly’s teammates — former Utah quarterback Brian Johnson — was on the cover of NCAA 10, 15 years ago.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The cover of the NCAA 10. Brian Johnson, the University of Utah quarterback who led the Utes to a perfect 13-0 regular-season record and threw for 27 touchdowns.
Reilly thought it was amazing that Johnson was able to be the first and, so far, only Utah football player to grace the cover of the heralded game. Now, as he watches one his own proteges garner the same glory, he can’t help but feel ecstatic watching his Colorado athletes use the game as a uniting tool. Most nights, Hunter can be seen streaming the game with his CU teammates on YouTube.
“It adds more excitement,” Reilly said. “It kind of puts some pressure on everybody, like ‘Yo man, we’re the talk of the town.’ We’re gonna have a target on our back.”
‘When mama calls, you come running’
Ben Haumiller, a principal game designer on the game, anxiously waited at his desk at EA Sports’ headquarters in Central Florida seconds before CFB 25′s early launch last Monday.
It had been 4,025 days since college football had been a mainstream video game. On X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, an account called “Is EA Sports College Football Out” posted hundreds of “Nos” before the clock struck 2 p.m. M.T. on July 15 and a seismic “Yes” landed on the social media platform.
Fans clamored over the crumbs of details released before the launch. Some even made official requests under the Freedom of Information Act to learn which uniforms and game day traditions college programs sent to EA Sports.
With time, EA Sports assembled a dream team of former NCAA 14 developers, modders who made NCAA 14 Revamped and other developers from across the industry. Their goal was to not only replicate the love found in the previous game but to modernize it for a new generation.
“When mama calls, you come running,” Haumiller said. “The passion that people have for this is what brought the game back. The number of people who just kind of walked away from gaming when the game went away and then now are flooding back and buying consoles just to play this game is great.”
EA’s vision for the game was to replicate the sights, sounds and gameplay that fans would feel on any given college game day. In Utah’s case, that meant perfecting Rice-Eccles Field, including most of Utah’s game day traditions and more.
While EA Sports couldn’t include every bit of reality in the game, it has plans to continue development into the future. If improvements were made to the real-life Rice-Eccles Stadium, the development team would work with the U.’s athletic department to update the stadium in-game.
They’re also working with teams to send renderings of their new uniforms so that they can be released immediately when they’re announced the week of a game. It’s those complexities that Haumiller and the development team are trying to master as the game ages throughout the 2024 season and beyond.
“For Utah fans it matters the most to them how they’re represented in the game, and for the school itself, it matters to them how they’re represented, and we wanted to make sure that they’re done in the best light possible,” Haumiller said. “The fans are not only going to notice, but the fans are going to call us out for it. It’s one of those things that keeps us going.”
In the game, players receive bonuses for strong home-field advantages. Utah’s is ranked No. 18 in CFB 25 at launch.
EA is already moving fast to develop CFB 26. For example, for the game’s Road To Glory mode, in which gamers direct just one player’s collegiate career, developers are looking at potentially bringing back the ability to start playing in high school.
“Conversations we’re having right now about what things are gonna look like, and what is high school in the future,” Haumiller said. “How does it manifest itself? Because in the current Road to Glory, it does feel very shallow to just say, ‘Well, I’m a five-star, or I’m a two-star. You want that progression piece, you want that feeling of being recruited.”
So far, though, fans have had a positive response to the game. At his desk in Orlando, Haumiller has rekindled the same joy and gratification that he felt when making NCAA 14 and the other games before that.
In his eyes, it’s a cultural moment. It’s in the fabric of the NCAA’s DNA.
“There’s something special and different about this game,” Haumiller said. “I think this sport lends itself to a video game in a very unique way. It’s somehow a part of the fabric of the sport. It’s never going to be a sport. It’s not the front porch of the university, like they say in athletics. But, it’s an annex to it.
“I think that’s my favorite part about it.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Utes fans cheer ahead of the game against the Colorado Buffaloes at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023.
‘Waited so long for this stupid game’
Justin Larson, a physical therapist in Utah, took a half day off of work last Monday so he could spend the entire evening playing CFB 25.
He grew up playing the former NCAA series in high school, but tossed his old consoles when he entered physical therapy school. That was a mistake he regrets, given the game’s decade-long hiatus, but he’s happy to have a controller back in his hands.
“I pre-ordered the thing and downloaded it as soon as it dropped,” Larson said. “I was ready to go, and I was playing right away. It was definitely exciting.”
Andrew Crane, a 21-year-old Utes’ fan, never played the original series, but was dying to play the new game, especially with the hype around it.
After paying for the deluxe edition, which granted him and other players early access, he was up until 3 a.m. playing dynasty mode with the Utes.
“I’ve waited for so long for this stupid game,” Crane said. “It’s just a video game, and it’s so dumb, but I was so excited about it and it was sweet when it finally came out. The game itself is a lot of fun.”
Those joys felt by former players, fans and current Utah players is something felt across the entire nation. Old buddies are firing up their consoles and talking smack on game chat — including athletic directors at Utah and BYU.
Certainly, things have changed dramatically since 2013 when the last game was released. Players are now paid NIL money at almost every institution. The NCAA allows players the right to transfer to any school with little to no limitations. Conference realignment and media revenue rule the future of the sport.
But, even with drastic changes and the death of amateurism in college football, CFB 25 serves as a reminder to everyone:
The sport brings people together.
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