In a few short days, EA Sports will release College Football 25, the first college football game since they released NCAA Football 14 eleven years ago. It’s hotly anticipated, as evidenced by the flood of YouTube personalities and celebrities on social media who were lucky enough to play the game early.
In other words, if your co-worker doesn’t make his shift next week, you know why.
But it feels like the game isn’t for everyone.
Minnesota Vikings fans may live in their own bubble. They wear purple on Sundays and shrug their shoulders at the draft picks in April. However, College Football 25 may have a larger reach than just SEC diehards. It could change the way that Vikings fans cheer for their team.
To explain, you have to go back to the NCAA Football franchise. Growing up in the 2000s, NCAA was like the appetizer for Madden, which was the main course. Some people would just get the game, sim ten years, and import the class into Madden a few months later, but many dove head-first into the game’s dynasty mode.
There are many reasons why people love this game, and dynasty mode is at the top of the list. Players create a coach, take over a lower-level program, and work their way toward being a virtual version of Kalen DeBoer. While gamers can do the same thing on Madden, this hits different.
First, players recruit a team that is 100% their own. Do you want to throw things back with fullbacks and tight ends? Knock yourself out. Do you want to have burners everywhere like Mike McDaniel? Go for it. Do you want to run a 3-2-6 defense that Brian Flores probably has in his back pocket? All yours.
There are also the players you recruit along the way. In my final NCAA Football 14 dynasty, I noticed a five-star quarterback named Matt Swanson from Brookings, S.D. Living in Brookings for the past two years, I heavily recruited him and used his 92-speed rating to lead the North Carolina Tar Heels to the national championship and the Heisman Trophy.
A few years earlier, I found Jamal Hurd while trying to resurrect the Minnesota Golden Gophers. A four-star quarterback, Hurd went through the ups and downs of the Big Ten but progressed all four years to lead Minnesota to its first national championship since the 1960s.
This game is addicting, and that’s why many gamers have been clamoring for it since a lawsuit for using players’ likenesses shut down the NCAA Football franchise in 2014. It’s also why people who may not typically follow college football could pick up the game out of curiosity, which is how this game could connect back to the Vikings.
In the early 2000s, NCAA Football created another layer of excitement when it came to players joining the Vikings. When the Vikings drafted Adrian Peterson in 2007, people probably saw the highlight reels in the early days of YouTube. However, they could also remember running Peterson 30 times to humiliate their friend during a sleepover.
When the Vikings drafted Percy Harvin in 2009, gamers likely vividly remembered him running back a game-winning kick return in the swamp or torching a generic FCS team with his speed and playmaking ability.
Even a late-round player in the draft created excitement because of this game. You may have never heard of the Vikings’ Day 3 pick, but you will remember the time he shredded your defense for 300 yards while trying to lead Kennesaw State to the promised land.
Back then, it was implied which players were in the game. EA Sports could not use real names at the time because of the legal ramifications. However, things got ugly when their players got too close to their real-life counterparts on the field. Over a decade of legal battles and the advent of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules fixed this problem, and a payment of $600 and a free copy of the game paved the way for actual players to be used.
Think about if this applied to the Vikings’ current rookie class. Would the hype around J.J. McCarthy be greater if fans knew he had a 94 overall and a 97 throw power rating on College Football 25? Or would draft analysts stop freaking about over trade value if Dallas Turner had a 98 overall rating at edge rusher in the game?
That could even lead more Vikings fans to become college football fans. Following your new favorite players creates a layer of excitement that could carry over if you’re lucky enough to see them on your team in a few years.
To some, College Football 25 is just a game. But to many, it’s already a religious experience. It’s not a game that’s directly tied to the NFL. However, by using player names instead of “QB No. 9,” it could create a new gateway for football fans and give Vikings fans another thing to follow as they head into a new season.
