I am by no means a gamer. As a kid liked video games when we couldn't go outside due to weather or in the evening but there was always something about the EA NCAA games that made an exception. I remember vividly a former High School Coach I played for then worked for asking guys as freshmen if they were NCAA fans or Madden fans, and he would then go into his pitch on why the NCAA games were better. I ended up playing more NCAA games than Madden especially as I got older and time for video games became limited. My X-Box360 has moved all over with me and if I had some down time I'd fire up NCAA 14 and run the option or air it out in the Air Raid and play with a 3-3-5 or 4-2-5 and mess around with concepts I thought were more fun and realistic to what I was seeing watching College and High School football.
When there was a void left after NCAA 14 came out I continued like many to play it, and missed the annual release. So this past year as the new one came out I was excited to play it and learn more about EA College Football 25. I have played it a little bit on PS5 messed around with Road to Glory and playing some friends in person not online yet. Here's some thoughts from someone who's not necessarily great at video games but loves this franchise from my perspective as well as from what I've seen from others that I thought was helpful or interesting.
First looking at the option controls and additions of RPOs into the game. I am struggling with this a little bit as someone who almost ran a lot of option in the older games. The option controls have been flipped which I know from talking with most people are probably more realistic and also probably fit into the RPO game more. I get it, I got to work on it but as someone who has over a decade of reps where I'd hold down to give I'm still struggling with the give and pull controls which are inversed from the older games. That being said the different pitch types shown in the tweet below are awesome and has just lead to me running more double options with a pitch player.
The passing controls are more involved including a bar on the bottom to control the type of pass. This isn't too big of a change but took some getting used to. I've struggled learning the RPO and Alert controls but they allow great opportunities for plays just like in real life if you have numbers or access to get a player in space.
One of the better things about this franchise over madden was their trick plays. The new version for 2025 is no exception. Below is a tweet thread of trick plays and a video of a reverse pass. These plays are fun and included in some playbooks some of the best I've seen are the HB Direct which is a direct snap, a double pass with an RB pipe which seems to be one of the more used an unrealistic plays in the game but is fun.
Now lets look at some of the non game play features of interest in this game. First are custom playbooks, this is something most coaches have played around with in this franchise as well as the older madden franchises (I remember creating a double tight double wing playbook in Madden 08 and ripping power for 3.3 yards a carry in an franchise mode). Well this series continued the tradition. Some reports say some College teams have custom playbooks with their own verbiage that can help players learn their playbooks and schemes which is a cool feature for player learning an retention. Another cool aspect that didn't exist in 2013 when NCAA 14 came out was he online Coaching community and their involvement in playbook design. If you're reading this you know Dan Casey who has literally written the book on Counter, Empty, and Mesh who designed a playbook where you can run plays you've seen him post about on social media or talk about on his podcast. Below is a link to a tweet of him going over a playbook he designed and he's posted ways to download and use his playbook on his twitter and Instagram.
Another feature that is exciting to see back is team builder! This allows players to create teams, uniforms, stadiums, and customize a lot of details to make their own team, make a team from FCS, D2, D3, NAIA, NJCAA, or HS, or a team from a movie or show with as much realism as they want. Sickos Committee is doing a great job in the thread listed below of showing links to Official Teams or schools made teams on Team Builder.
Below are some links to some reviews and looks at the game I found interesting or helpful:
As I said not necessarily great at video games but always exciting to talk some ball even if it's a video game and it's a great way to simulate or visually see concepts. Keep checking into the site to see more posts on schemes, film, and other topics.
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