[The Athletic] EA Sports College Football Planned to return in July 2023

[YaBish]

Didn't see it posted, delete if old. Content is paywalled so be aware.

Key points:

• Next-gen only launch in July 2023 is planned
• Built off the Madden Engine
• Planned to include all FBS teams including future FBS teams Sam Houston State and Jacksonville State
• Road to Glory and Dynasty are expected to return
• Transfer portal is in and possibly the college football playoff expansion
• Expanded level of detail on a per-school basis (specific songs at specific points of the game, traditions, etc...)
• No details on microtransactions and monetization

The Athletic has confirmed many details first reported by Extra Points and 247Sports. Most notably, the plan is for a July 2023 launch, and the game likely will only be available on next-gen consoles such as Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, according to sources and documents. This will be the most detailed college football game ever, but many aspects, like the inclusion of real players, have yet to be finalized.

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Along with a July 2023 launch and exclusivity to the newest consoles, the game again will be built off of the Madden engine. An immense amount of detail will be included, from new stadium angles to music to the transfer portal. The hope is to include the actual players through group licensing, though that is not yet secured.

An expanded 12-team College Football Playoff in the game is possible too, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, in light of its approval by the CFP Board of Managers this month.

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As for gameplay, the new game will not simply be a reskin of Madden. Dynasty mode and Road to Glory mode are expected to return. Other possibilities, like mascot gameplay, have yet to be determined.

While the transfer portal is relatively new to college sports, old versions of the game featured player movement like transfers and early entries to the NFL Draft. Realignment has been a constant in the sport. The ability to manually create superconferences is on the table, but final decisions have not been made.

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More details and history of the series at the link:

EA Sports College Football: The rise, fall — and return — of a beloved video game

If all goes according to plan, the 2022 college football season will be the last without a new video game in circulation.

theathletic.com

 

[Deleted member 93062]

Pretty stoked for this. Can The Athletic scoop around 2K and figure out where NFL Arcade 2K is?

 

[YaBish]

Pretty stoked for this. Can The Athletic scoop around 2K and figure out where NFL Arcade 2K is?

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God I would kill for anything pro-football that isn't Madden.

 

[Walnut]

I really hope it has Create-a-Team back. EA broke the feature on 2014, and I used it to create FCS and D2 teams (it's a lot of fun taking a Grand Valley State and beating Alabama lol)

 

[YaBish]

I really hope it has Create-a-Team back. EA broke the feature on 2014, and I used it to create FCS and D2 teams (it's a lot of fun taking a Grand Valley State and beating Alabama lol)

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No mention of that in the article. I have to imagine that would be a feature that EA would introduce in a future release that they could sell as a "new" feature.

 

[Falchion]

Very cool! The NCAA games were always way better than Madden.

 

[Anddo]

EA has one job... Release the next generation version on PC with full mod support. We'll take it from there. Thanks 🙏

 

[cgpartlow]

I just bought a PS2 copy of NCAA for a couple of bucks to play on my Xbox since I was in a college football mood. It would be great to have College football back if the game is good. Current day Madden has been is pretty bad state lately.

 

[NinjaScooter]

So how will they handle players? Real players via NIL seems like it would get costly.

 

[AustinJ]

Stoked for this. Crossing my fingers for a Steam release

 

[HououinKyouma]

Safe to assume there's still not going be player names, right? That sounds like it would be next to impossible since they'd have to make a deal with every single player lol? Edit - Oh and duh, we don't even know next year's rosters. Yeah, no, this is a stupid comment.

Either way, super excited for this to be back.

 

[NinjaScooter]

Safe to assume there's still not going be player names, right? That sounds like it would be next to impossible since they'd have to make a deal with every single player lol? Edit - Oh and duh, we don't even know next year's rosters. Yeah, no, this is a stupid comment.

Either way, super excited for this to be back.

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They definitely know where the recruits are signing ahead of time, but they'd have to work out individual deals with players like you said. the NCAA got into trouble last time around by "approximating" player likeness (Hey this guy looks like Reggie Bush, plays like Reggie Bush, has stats like Reggie Bush, but we'll call him RB #5) so I doubt EA wants to go down that road, so it'll be interesting to see how this is handled.

 

[YaBish]

So how will they handle players? Real players via NIL seems like it would get costly.

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From the article, I just trimmed it for brevity:

The lack of a players union makes securing the rights of a mass of players more difficult than pro sports, even with NIL rules. Group licensing could be a way to get most players in the game. CLC has worked to get involved in the player space. The Brandr Group has already partnered with more than 60 schools, including Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Michigan State and others, to handle group player licenses. OneTeam has previously secured group licenses for EA Sports with pro sports unions as well and also works with many schools on items like player jerseys.

"In many cases, it's a passive use of group rights, meaning you don't have to acquire their time or personal services," said Wesley Haynes, founder and CEO of The Brandr Group. "We set about the task of creating a voluntary opt-in program."

Essentially, players could simply opt in to be in the game and they'd be compensated for their participation. All of these licensing groups are jockeying to get the player contract with EA. A source with knowledge of the situation said EA Sports could pick multiple partners to get the job done.

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[Digital0Reality]

Article implies no PC version?

 

[RetroRunner]

Put in the Rice Bowl and the Kwansei Gakuin Fighters so it counts as a JRPG!

 

[Beamerball]

Got a Xbox Series S specifically for this game (well, and Forza and FIFA). Cannot wait to return to this series. As someone who started this way back during the Bill Walsh College Football days on the Genesis, I'm so glad to see this game return.

 

[Jerm411]

God I cannot wait….very near the top of my most hyped releases.

 

[YaBish]

Article implies no PC version?

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No mention of a PC version in the article. Considering EA's other sports titles relationship to PC I'd say it's doubtful.

 

[northnorth]

Stoked for this. Crossing my fingers for a Steam release

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That would be AMAZING. I'd buy the ps5 version to do online dynasty with friends.. Then do my own 60 year dynasty on PC with mods and wild shit.

 

[Kratos2098]

Man I've been waiting for this. I still play NCAA 14 from time to time on my PS3. Will be nice finally having a modern college game.

 

[Digital0Reality]

No mention of a PC version in the article. Considering EA's other sports titles relationship to PC I'd say it's doubtful.

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I was hopeful considering Madden made it to steam and its supposedly on the same engine.

 

[Wiltsghost]

So sick of sports games skipping pc. Guess I'll have to finally buy a series x for this.

 

[AustinJ]

I was hopeful considering Madden made it to steam and its supposedly on the same engine.

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The only difference is that Madden on Steam is the last gen version, and I think I read in OP that NCAA will be current gen consoles/engine. I would bet that the first NCAA game that makes it to Steam (eventually, I hope) would be the year following Madden upgrading the PC game to the current gen engine.

 

[G-X]

Key points:

• Expanded level of detail on a per-school basis (specific songs at specific points of the game, traditions, etc...)

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so Clempson gets to delay kickoff by atleast 10 minutes every home game to drive away from the stadium to then walk down to the field and touch a stupid rock. then pipe in fake "ambient" crowd noise when the other team is on offense, and their fans rush the field after every home game, even if its a FCS team they were favored to beat by 40?

these are the levels of detail I want need!

also need that true realism of your head coach getting fired after game 2, with a 15 million buyout only 2 weeks before it gets reduced to 7 million, and due to that expense your next head coach has less overall staff budget so you end up sucking because you got a DC from the MAC

 

[YaBish]

also need that true realism of your head coach getting fired after game 2, with a 15 million buyout only 2 weeks before it gets reduced to 7 million, and due to that expense your next head coach has less overall staff budget so you end up sucking because you got a DC from the MAC

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As a Nebraska alum... Too soon man xD

 

[Bessy67]

I used to love NCAA games back in the day so I'll see how this plays out. Seeing how Madden has fared lately I'm not that optimistic though.

 

[Meowmixez]

Marshall should have a pretty good team to play as. They are giant slayers. They didn't just defeat Notre Dame. They salted the earth on the way out by taking out their QB for the season.

 

[BPHusker]

View: https://twitter.com/mattbrownep/status/1594882648937209861?s=46&t=-WXEQPgy4eHrUmtFvyCFMQUgh delayed!

 

[Dolce]

No mention of that in the article. I have to imagine that would be a feature that EA would introduce in a future release that they could sell as a "new" feature.

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i really hope not, especially when you have sports games out there like NBA 2K with super indepth create-a-team, franchise, etc.

really hope it is. so i can make my yellow and black bee team like it's NCAA 06.

 

[Lueken]

Sucks to see the delay. This was one of my most anticipated titles for 2023. I shall remain patient, hahaha.

 

[est1992]

Betting this is probably because of the new rules around paying college players. I know some people asking for a bag!

 

[Landy828]

View: https://twitter.com/mattbrownep/status/1594882648937209861?s=46&t=-WXEQPgy4eHrUmtFvyCFMQUgh delayed!

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Son of a @#&$!

 

[sedael]

Betting this is probably because of the new rules around paying college players

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I would actually be pretty surprised if that was the reason. to their credit EA wanted to pay the players for using their likeness long before the NCAA was willing to consider it, for all the faults of 2014 EA, the NCAA was still the worse party lol

 

[est1992]

I would actually be pretty surprised if that was the reason. to their credit EA wanted to pay the players for using their likeness long before the NCAA was willing to consider it, for all the faults of 2014 EA, the NCAA was still the worse party lol

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I know they wanted to pay them, but there isn't a union or anything for college players that would smooth this out to my knowledge. Madden has an agreement with the NFLPA to use the players rights every year and it's a fixed rate. I don't think the NCAA has such a thing for the athletes and their new rules. If so, there's no stopping a college player from asking for more than someone else.