EA College Football Game Info Due Monday

As if Monday’s CFP National Championship Game needed a boost, EA Sports' College Football will reveal new information in conjunction with the imminent return of the popular game, sources confirmed with NFLDraftScout.com Thursday.

EA has held its cards closely regarding the expected release, but new information will be shared  

That will be sometime Monday,  the same day No. 1 Michigan plays No. 2 Washington for the national championship in Houston, 7:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPN.

The long-awaited video game, on hiatus since NCAA ’14 in 2013, is expected to drop this summer but will not include the NCAA banner. Timing of this announcement follows EA Sports' methodology from the 2000s when the company began releasing hints about the product that would become available in about July.

Expectations are that the game publisher might show off screenshots as part of an interview, as was the case a decade ago.

Following significant legal and financial challenges working with players, EA Sports contracted OneTeam Partners to facilitate deals to include players' name, image and likeness (NIL). The BrandR Group filed a lawsuit in June claiming tortious interference but settled with OneTeam Partners in November and the suit was vacated.

“We are pleased that BrandR has decided to withdraw their claims without any payment from EA,” an EA spokesperson said in a statement released Nov. 30. "We’ve been clear from the beginning that this suit had no merit. Our focus continues to be on directly licensing individual college athlete name and likeness rights through an opt-in program that will give college athletes the choice if they want to be in our game. We’re pleased to move on from these claims and look forward to delivering EA SPORTS College Football in Summer 2024.”

Here's what we know about EA Sports College Football so far ...

The game is built on the Madden engine

EA Sports College Football is built on the Madden engine, but fans should expect tweaks to gameplay, much like previous iterations of the NCAA Football franchise in the 2000s and 2010s.

The game design, atmosphere and unique traditions for each school are primarily what EA Sports will lean into for the game. That said, the game isn't simply a reskin of the Madden game.

The playbook will be much more robust and team specific, too.

The NCAA Football franchise was the first to introduce RPO plays in the 2013 version of the game and such plays were not in the Madden game.

The EA Sports team is focused on making sure the presentation is uniquely collegiate, which is why EA spent so much time designing stadiums and implementing assets to differentiate game-day atmospheres from school to school. The difference between NCAA Football and Madden franchises was the nostalgic focus on the pageantry of college football traditions. Expect that to continue.

Fan-favorite features returning

EA Sports kept much of its game modes under wraps but the developer will continue "Dynasty" and "Road to Glory" modes, according to a report in 247Sports in 2022.

More modes could be downloaded along with content updates in the fall, winter and spring. That means legends from college football's past could be included in future updates for an "Ultimate Team" mode.

The game is also expected to include the return of virtual magazine covers in Dynasty Mode, a popular feature among fans. Simulated issues of Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine were featured in the final 11 years of the NCAA Football franchise.

Throwback uniforms, helmet stickers included 

EA Sports made an effort to include unique helmet stickers for teams in the game and is building a library of throwback uniforms, "which are huge hits with fans," according to emails between EA Sports and school administrators.

One school provided EA Sports more than 3,500 assets to assist designers, according to correspondence obtained by 247Sports via an open-records request.

Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) and EA also urged schools to share photos of stadiums with fans on social media with the "#easportscollegefootball" hashtag in the summer of 2021 to "create some fun buzz around the project and build excitement for the upcoming game."

Which CFB teams are in the game? 

CLC first contacted its 118 FBS schools of the potential return of the game in January 2021. CLC CEO Cory Moss confirmed during a speaking engagement at the Learfield Intercollegiate Athletics Forum in December 2021 the intended launch of the game is July 2023 but EA Sports pushed back publicly, releasing a statement that the company has "not announced a specific release timeframe."

Not all schools at the time had agreed to be in the game, but the expectation is most — if not all — outside the CLC umbrella will do so before the game's release.

—NFLDraftScout.com founder and publisher Frank Cooney was on the original EA launch team that created the underlying player rating system in the mid-1980s, which became a blueprint for virtually every game of this type.