The highly anticipated EA College Football 25 game was released to the public on July 19 as the first collegiate football game in over a decade.
Electronic Arts (EA)’s College Football 25 is an interactive football game where users can choose to play as real student athletes from more than 134 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools.
Among the countless elite football programs featured in the game, thousands of real college football players were developed as digital cameos for a true degree of authenticity.
“Our groundbreaking NIL program gave us the ability to include up to 11,390 real players in a college football game for the first time,” EA said on their website. “Add in another 5,000 or so models for coaches, fans, created players, and more and that’s upwards of 16,000 character models we needed to generate.”
University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Football program received its fair share of representation in the game.
Over half of Wisconsin’s current roster will be featured in the game upon launch, according to the official UW Badgers website.
This includes junior Ricardo Hallman and senior Hunter Wohler, who both cracked EA’s ranking of the top 100 players for College Football 25.
Wisconsin joined Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon and Penn State as one of six Big Ten programs with multiple top 100 players in the game.
Key gameday elements and traditions found only at Madison will also be showcased.
In the official reveal trailer released by EA in May, Badgers fans were thrilled to see sneak peaks of Wisconsin players holding up the signature W, caught a glimpse of Bucky on the field and even witnessed the traditional axe chopping following a win against rival University of Minnesota.
However, fans may be disappointed to note that a certain iconic song will be missing from the traditional post-third quarter activities in Camp Randall.
The Athletic’s Chris Vannini reported that due to expensive licensing fees, House of Pain’s “Jump Around” will not be heard in the game.
Despite the lack of notable music, Patrick Herb, UW-Madison’s assistant athletic director of strategic communications for Wisconsin Football, said the Badgers’ football program is “extremely excited” about the release.
“The exposure our university and football program will receive from people all over the world engaging with our brand is a great win for the Badgers,” Herb told The Daily Cardinal.
“We’re thrilled that kids – and of course many adults reliving their childhood – will get to play as our student-athletes and get to feel the pageantry and excitement of Camp Randall Stadium. Our athletes are thrilled to be a part of the game as well and it’s been fun to see their excitement,” Herb added.
EA’s College Football 25 will be the first video game depicting college programs since the cancellation of the NCAA Football video game series in 2013 due to issues surrounding likeness to former players.
But with recent changes to NIL allowing athletes to profit from their name and reputation, EA capitalized off of the newfound ability to replicate real players.
“This cleared the way for EA Sports to contract with OneTeam Partners allowing student-athletes the option of opting into the video game, thus allowing EA Sports to use their likenesses in exchange for financial compensation,” Herb said.
Herb also said the university will be compensated for their participation.
Players who chose to grant EA permission to replicate them will be paid a minimum of $600, with the opportunity to earn more through promoting the game, according to AP News.
July 19 may be the first time in a long time that college football fans can find solidarity in their shared excitement over the release of EA College Football 25.
