On Thursday, EA released a massive update for College Football 25. The new title update adds 718 new NIL players to the game, affects gameplay, user interface, Dynasty, and Ultimate Team, and adds an entirely new layer to Team Builder via Adobe Express.
Here are the details from EA and my reactions to some of the changes. The updates from EA’s blog are in italics.
EA College Football 25 Gameplay Update
General
- Refreshed the Ability Loadouts of players in Front End Rosters.
- DEV NOTE: These ability changes are based on current player performance this season and changes to their ratings. We focused on the Top 25 teams in the game and their players. This will result in players like Ashton Jeanty receiving an upgrade to his abilities. Make sure to check out your favorite players to see if they have had any changes!
- Reduced the frequency of pitches out of tackles missing the pitch back.
- Fixed aftershock ability inappropriately triggering on blocks.
Alignment
- Fixed an issue where using a Cover 3 Shell on a Cover 1 Blitz play vs Empty Base Flex or Trio would result in the Tight End being left open.
- Fixed an issue where using a Two High Coverage Shell (Cover 2, Cover 4, etc.) on Nickel Over Double Bracket would cause the defense to align in a single high safety look.
- Fixed an issue where using a Cover 2 Coverage Shell on a Cover 1 play would result in the Tight End being left unguarded.
- Fixed an issue where using a Cover 0 Coverage Shell on Cover 2 Man vs Empty Base, Empty Chip, or Empty Quads would result in the inside receiver being left unguarded.
Coverage
- Added Box Call logic to Cover 4 Quarters and Cover 4 Palms to better Cover Bunch Formation route combinations.
- DEV NOTE: Box Call logic will dictate which eligible receiver a defender picks up/matches on. This is especially effective against Bunch and will have defenders in the best position to cover their assignments. Deep Zone, Quarter Flat, and 3 Rec Hook defenders will coordinate to make sure all eligible receivers are picked up.
- Fixed an issue where giving a Safety on the left side of the field the Outside Third L Defensive Hot Route would assign him to play outside third on the other side of the field.
- Fixed an issue where some press animations would press the receiver 10 yards down the field.
Pass Blocking
- Addressed an issue where using the Defensive Linemen Slant Inside Command would cause defenders to rush into the same gap.
- Changed the functionality of Defensive Linemen Shifts on Double A Gap defensive formations to eliminate unrealistic alignments.
- Fixed an issue where Pass Block targeting lines were not appearing when the user would enter Pass Block adjustments.
- Added new logic for Defenders to no longer be able to instantly disengage to the outside if they are given the Slant Inside D-Line Adjustment pre-snap.
Settings & UI
- Fixed the issue where users would not get any clock run off with Accelerated Clock turned ON for Online Head-to-Head Ranked Games.
- Fixed an issue where the Switch Stick delay setting that a user would set would not stick once the user changed the menu.
The biggest issue in gameplay I’ve experienced is a lack of zone integrity on defense. There have been some instances where I felt I could not trust my AI-controlled safeties to be in the proper position to take away deep middle throws.
Hopefully, this update that addresses Cover 2 (my base alignment) will improve the performance on that end.
EA College Football 25 Dynasty Updates
- Fixed an issue with the Power lineman archetype where they would not progress Pass Block Finesse.
- Updated Bryant-Denny Stadium to be Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
- Fixed an issue where the prospect list performed a full refresh every time a recruit is targeted.
- Various news story fixes.
- Resolved an issue preventing custom schedules from working properly.
- Fixed an issue with how weights were displayed in the Team Needs screen.
- Fixed an issue where the free practice tile would not always appear in the Dynasty Hub.
- Fixed an issue where you could not super sim from the play calling screen when playing as a coordinator.
- Increased the amount of wear and tear damaged body parts recover on week advance.
- When viewing a recruit in the recruiting board, you are now able to change which recruit you are looking at by going up/down on the right stick.
Besides the limitations to player editing, I’ve been in a good place with the Dynasty experience. The recruiting is fun and engaging, but it is still good to see updates to small things under the hood.
EA College Football 25 Ultimate Team Updates
- Included Play A Friend as a playable mode.
- Increased AP limit to 12 for Season 3
- Increased the AP cost of ‘Aftershock’ from 2 AP to 5 AP. Having 4 Defensive Linemen with Aftershock is no more.
- Fixed issues that were causing the following combinations to be unplayable in Lineups:
- Warren Sapp and Booger Mcfarland
- Brian Bosworth and Payton WIlson
- Tavon Austin and Kamdyn Benjamin
- Players can now have both a Travis Hunter WR and Travis Hunter CB in your lineup at once.
- Fixed player appearances in silhouettes.
- Nissan stadium is now the default stadium for Playstation tournaments.
- Fixed a crash that was occurring when reaching gameplay after changing your favorite team within your profile.
- Fixed stability issues that were causing long load times in Menus after users navigated to the Item Binder.
- Fixed an issue with the ‘Open Next Pack’ functionality.
- Promoting to Starter from the Item Detail View no longer duplicates the player’s name on the screen.
- ‘In Lineup’ tags are no longer added on player items that are not in your lineup when flipping them in the item binder.
- Fixed an issue with the Live Events Tab that caused the screen to flicker after navigating around.
- Fixed overlap text on the Auction Details Screen .
- Fixed scaling issue that was occurring in the Catalog after selecting ‘Find this Item’ from Sets.
- Increased the size of the NAT, BND, and LTD labels that may appear on Player Items.
- Position names no longer overlap with the lineup tabs on the Lineup Screen.
- Viewing the back of a Player Item in a Fantasy Pack and advancing to the next round no longer causes attributes of the previously viewed item to appear instead of the correct items attributes.
- Cleaned up overlapping text with Pack offers in Stores.
- Stars within a Challenge Sequence and Milestone screen are now displaying correctly.
- Selecting a wildcard slot in any set no longer allows you to choose from any player in your collection. Previously, users would select a player and then receive a server error afterwards.
Ultimate Team hasn’t grabbed me for College Football 25. However, most of these updates appear to be cosmetic or minor changes to quality-of-life tweaks instead of significant impacts.
EA College Football 25’s Road to Glory Updates
- Various scenario fixes
- Removing a rogue pickup basketball scenario that triggers multiple times for some players.
I have played two careers in RTG, and I feel deprived that I’ve never seen the “rogue pickup basketball scenario” mentioned here. That probably would’ve been fun.
EA College Football 25’s Presentation And UI Updates
- Added uniform pieces for: Florida State, SMU, UCF, Texas State, Ole Miss, UNLV, Illinois, Miami, Oregon State, Cal, Old Dominion, Toledo, Oregon, Texas A&M, UTSA, James Madison, Colorado, Arizona State, Stanford, ULM, Texas Tech, FIU, Utah, Mississippi State, Air Force, BYU, North Texas, Louisiana Tech, Minnesota, WKU, WKU, South Alabama, Rice, NMSU, Miami OH, San Jose State, Arizona, TCU, Houston, Georgia Tech, UTSA.
- Updated pre-existing uniform pieces for 2024 season: SMU, Kent State, New Mexico, Washington State, Ohio State, Florida Atlantic.
- Introducing 718 new NIL Players.
- Competition Nissan Stadium has been added to the game.
- Additional Ratings Updates for players. Updated Overall Team Rankings.
- DEV NOTE: These ranking changes are exclusive to Play Now and Road to College Football Playoffs.
Here’s where a good amount of the meat is for the most recent title update. We have a new stadium, ratings adjustments for players and teams, 718 new players, and various changes to team uniforms.
The new player updates have Boise State superstar Ashton Jeanty leaping to 97 overall as he streaks toward a possible Heisman Trophy.
From launch, EA College Football 25 was built mainly on accurate representation of the teams and as much as possible, the players. The updates have added to that concept.
However, I wish it was easier to see precisely which players were upgraded and downgraded. It’s a bit of a task tracking down the information.
EA College Football 25’s Team Builder Update
- Introducing Adobe Express Integration for Team Builder.
- DEV NOTE: Team Builder is getting an upgrade! We’re excited to announce a new partnership with our friends from Adobe. Adobe Express, a content and design generation tool, is now integrated as an optional feature into Team Builder, allowing you to express your creativity and customize your experience in more ways than ever. To utilize the tool, head to your logos page and click “Create with Adobe Express.” Simply create an Adobe account or login with an existing one to instantly access up to 25 credits to use towards logo generation OR design from scratch with the powerful design elements built into Express. Design away and then click “Save” in the Adobe Express tool to get back to Team Builder, importing your new custom image into your Logos page. From there, you can apply your custom layers to your stadium, uniforms, and more.
It’s great to see EA leaning into customizing uniforms for your school. The new Adobe-powered layer brings “500,000 royalty-free Adobe Stock photos, 290,000 icons, 44,000 designs, including shapes, illustrations, brushes, textures, frames and more,” per an additional brief EA provided me.
While this adds density to the already robust creation suite, it doesn’t cover the gap users still have regarding limited editing capabilities for players in the game. Hopefully, College Football’s version of Team Builder will one day function the way Madden 25’s does.
