It seemed inevitable that EA Sports College Football 25 would win both the staff and community voting, and that is precisely how the results came out. EA Sports College Football 25 is without a doubt the 2024 Operation Sports Game of the Year.
Since it’s simple to construct a story about why the community voting turned out to be so unbalanced, I must at least walk you through that part of it. Prior to its July 2024 launch, this series had been on the shelf since 2013, received a return announcement in February 2021, and was the subject of more than three years of anticipation.
There was both happiness and relief when the 11-year run without a big college football game was finally ended in 2024.
There were many periods between 2021 and 2024 when we heard very nothing about this series for months at a time, and there were definitely times when we wondered whether or not College Football 25 would ever be released. The main reason I personally voted for it, however, is that it did come out, had a rather smooth launch, and has been a game that has remained popular ever since.
I can share everything with you and tell you how the community voting turned out because the staff and the community both cast identical votes overall:
- College Football 25 (70 percent of the vote)
- MLB The Show 24 (11 percent of the vote)
- NBA 2K25 (7 percent of the vote)
- WWE 2K24 (3 percent of the vote)
- Madden NFL 25 (2 percent of the vote)
If we had gone beyond a top three, Madden probably would have been in fourth place, but our staff vote produced the same top three in the same order. The point is that it was undeniable, and I don’t think it’s just a sentimental choice or a way to celebrate the return of collegiate athletics. Whether or not you think it lived up to the hype is entirely legitimate, and whether or not you enjoy the design of EA’s football games could also be a barrier, but College Football 25 has a noticeable level of attention to detail that some of the other big sports games don’t always have.
What strikes me when I think back on the “golden age” of sports games, which lasted from around 2000 to 2005, is not just how many alternatives were available to us at the time, but also how many of those games served as love letters to the sport in a way that isn’t as common these days.
To be clear, I don’t think this is because developers don’t care about or love these sports; rather, I think it’s because priorities shift, the size of these games keeps growing, and it’s easier to lose sight of what’s “important” in a sports game because they are now frequently “do everything” games rather than merely showcasing the actual sport. In other words, since we may be playing completely different games at this stage, what matters to me in these sporting events may not matter to someone else.
I can wonder, “Are we better off now than we were in 2011?” when I compare the number of modes and features in NBA 2K25 to a 2K game from 15 years ago. And the reason I would hesitate for a second before responding to my own query with “yes, we are” is because I would consider all the things I don’t play in NBA 2K25.
I played online and offline franchises, MyPlayer, the groundbreaking Jordan Challenge, and I occasionally experimented with Blacktop mode in NBA 2K11. I primarily play one-off online games, play a lot of WNBA content, experiment with MyEras, and play NBA 2K25. These days, I hardly ever use MyPlayer, and I don’t use MyTeam, MyGM, Blacktop, or a great deal of additional content in the game.
In that game, I play about 25–30% of the available content. You might, however, play an additional 25–30% of the game, which I never even glance at. I wouldn’t even know how to completely relate to your experience at that moment, even though you might be completely engrossed in The City.
This is the modern era’s blessing and curse of sports gaming. In some ways, sports games have devolved into content abysses, so I can’t hold creators entirely responsible for failing to update or improve every feature year after year. Indeed, it is impossible for a developer to make significant improvements to a career mode, franchise mode, online play, card-collecting mode, visuals, presentation, and other aspects of the game every eleven months or so.
I picture SSX Tricky, Smackdown Here Comes the Pain, NBA Street Vol. 2, NFL Street 2, NFL 2K25, Madden 2005, MVP Baseball 2005, Gran Turismo 3, ESPN NHL Hockey, and a lot more when I go back to the golden age.
None of those games are “original,” but they all capture the essence of the thing they’re trying to imitate. Some of those games are even the result of years of development before reaching genuinely remarkable heights for their time.
Smackdown Here Comes the Pain, for instance, wasn’t a surprise; you could tell that they were finally beginning to figure out something that would help set the Smackdown franchise apart from the previous gold standard of No Mercy a few years prior with Just Bring It.
Which brings me full circle to our annual game. The love and passion in this game is still evident despite the fact that it lacks a trophy room, complete editing of the real players, a Road to Glory mode that lacks high school games and some of the fun of the previous iteration of that mode, and many other issues.
You could also argue that a lot of the positive aspects of College Football 25 are also present in NCAA Football 14, but it’s difficult to overcome the nostalgia of that year.
For EA, this might have easily gone horribly wrong. The most crucial elements of a college football game are probably the stadiums, the introductions, the pomp, and the atmosphere, and EA hasn’t exactly been the best at capturing the “vibe” of a sporting event. Even while the gameplay is becoming better every year, Madden still lacks the essence of an NFL experience, and 2K has dominated presentation accolades over the years.
However, this game has the sense of a college game from the very first instant you boot it up. The success here is due to the fact that it evokes the same emotions that I experienced during NCAA Football 14. Even if it is theoretically the same firm producing a college football game, that is not always the case. It doesn’t happen by chance, and it wouldn’t if there weren’t a large number of people who were passionate about college football in general who helped create the game.
The fact that dynasty mode is still by far my most played mode in any sports game this year, even if it could be so much more, is a bonus. In addition to playing innumerable real dynasties, I have spent months in two extremely busy online dynasties. Additionally, it indicates that even though we lack complete editing, EA made an effort to update the rosters and ultimately provide us with more precise player counts.
For now, College Football 25 can stand in the end zone and perform a little dance to celebrate a worthwhile return to the sports gaming industry, but I can’t predict how things will look by this time next year or whether fans will still support this franchise.