June 21, 2024 | Read Online

Here's what I've learned about EA Sports College Football 25 licensing, music, Madden and more:

I've been hitting the phones to try and learn more after my trip to Orlando

Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra Points.

Over the last two-ish weeks, I’ve very much enjoyed the chance to write about stuff like private equity investments in college athletes, the NACDA conference, supporting international athletes, and more. Judging from my email metrics, many of you have read and appreciated those stories too.

But I have a Twitter account. I check my email. I know that far and away, the biggest question I get from my readers (and people who aren’t my readers) is when are we going to get more information about EA Sports College Football 25? Forget this stuff about college bowling championships or labor law. When are we going to learn more about online dynasty?!?

I’ve asked around EA, and while nobody would confirm to a specific date, everyone I’ve spoken to so far said that EA does plan on releasing multiple additional “deep dives” that touch on game features, with the next deep dive currently scheduled to be about “game presentation.” The company wanted to give space for the Madden team to give updates this week, but I’m told the official CFB updates will start up again “soon.” Since the official release date is less than a month away, “soon” can’t be that far away.

But just because EA isn’t going to drop another 20,000-word blog post in the next 48 hours doesn’t mean I can’t share a few things. I want to set expectations clearly up front…I am not going to break any massive gameplay news here. But I do have a few nuggets that I’ve learned over the last few weeks, plus a few other tidbits from Orlando that I can share now that the Madden embargoes are over, that I think many of you may find interesting.

What I’ve learned about music:

Beyond hyper specific questions about customization that I would have never thought to ask, music is one of the things readers ask me about the most.

I’m not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but in the version of the game that I played back in May, the music playing in the background of all the menu selections came from marching bands and percussion sections, not say, a college rock playlist like NCAA 06, or a selection of popular music like in Madden or FIFA. If this matters, I remember that music being more “assorted drum cadences” than “every fight song on a loop”, but since I wasn’t playing a completely finished product, I can’t personally guarantee that what I heard will be the same thing you will in a few weeks. It probably will be, though.

As I’ve written before, the development team asked every school for a long list of audio assets, from fight songs to in-game chants, to 3rd down sound effects to pregame music.

One interesting wrinkle is that while most schools own the licenses to their fight song (or at least, their MMR company does), there are a few exceptions. The rights to Auburn’s “War Eagle”, for example, are technically held by the estate of one of the song’s composers, not the school itself. However, sources at EA told me this week that “War Eagle” IS included in the game (along with “First Down Cheer”, which I assume is this riff?).

I haven’t been able to confirm anything about South Carolina or the handful of other schools that may have ownership hurdles to clear for some songs. By and large, I’m told that it would be a safe assumption that most non-fight songs that have deep and close attachments to only one institution are not going to be in this year’s game. An example would be Country Roads, most closely associated with WVU. I am told that, sadly, this song is not included in this year’s game.