Notre Dame Confirms It Will Be in EA Sports College Football 25 Ahead of Release Date

The University of Notre Dame confirmed Tuesday that it will be featured in the upcoming EA Sports College Football 25 video game.

When the return of the EA Sports college football video game franchise was first conceived in 2021, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick released a statement in which he said Notre Dame would not be involved "until such time as rules have been finalized governing the participation of our student-athletes," however, Swarbrick made Notre Dame's involvement official in a new statement released Tuesday:

The institution of rules allowing NCAA student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL) in 2021 opened the door for the return of EA Sports' iconic college football series, which has been dormant since the release of NCAA Football 14.

EA Sports' first foray into college football video games occurred in 1993 with Bill Walsh College Football. It eventually evolved into College Football USA and then the well-known NCAA Football franchise, which started with NCAA Football 98.

In the years that followed, the NCAA Football video game series became a favorite of gamers and sports fans alike, and it was oftentimes heralded even more than Madden due to the immersive experience.

The one major thing missing for NCAA Football video games compared to professional sports games was the names of the players.

Since players could not be compensated for their name, image and likeness at the time, all players in the game were unnamed, although most of them had the same jersey number as their real-life counterpart, and their player model usually resembled them to at least some degree.

Diehard fans of the franchise and college football went so far as to edit the names of every player themselves, which allowed gamers all over the world to play with accurate rosters.

The NIL battle put a stop to the NCAA Football video game series due to the belief that it was unfair for student-athletes to go uncompensated despite their likenesses essentially being featured in the games.

Since NCAA athletes are now allowed to be paid, College Football 25 is in the works, and it figures to be the most accurate and in-depth college football video game ever thanks to the inclusion of legitimate player names and likenesses.

While it remains unclear if every FBS football program intends to participate in College Football 25, Notre Dame's inclusion is huge.

Notre Dame is one of the most storied and history-rich programs to ever be part of the college football landscape, having won 22 claimed and unclaimed national championships.

Although no official release date has been announced, College Football 25 figures to be released prior to the start of the 2024 college football season, and Notre Dame will indeed be in the game.