ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit dropped an interesting tidbit about the College Football 25 video game during a live stream appearance on Tuesday evening.
While appearing on the “Streit Talk Show“, which is hosted by Kirk Herbstreit’s twin sons, Tye and Jake, on YouTube on Tuesday night, Herbstreit was asked numerous questions about the upcoming revival of the popular NCAA Football video game.
The game is set to return this Summer after not being made since 2013, due legal disputes with the name, imagine and likeness (NIL) of the student athletes represented in the game.
Those issues went away with the passing of numerous NIL laws over the past few years that made it legal for student athletes to receive payments on their name, imagine and likeness without losing eligibility. Soon after, in 2021, EA Sports announced that the game will be returning, but not until at least the Summer of 2023. The actual return of the game ended up being a year later than that date, but the wait is now over.
Herbstreit served as the color commentor for the game for a few seasons, including the last copy in 2013, which was called NCAA 14. Herbstreit’s booth partner for that edition of the game was play by play man Brad Nessler, now of CBS. Herbstreit is expected to return as one of the voices in College Football 25, but according to him, he won’t be alone.
“I think as you’re doing different games, there’s going to be different broadcast teams doing the game,” Herbstreit said during the live stream. “Yeah, that’s a major difference between what it’s been in the past and what they’re going to do now.”
While it’s not clear who all the commentors will be in the game, it’s possible this new feature may be dependent on what time of the day the game is set at and what teams you and your opponent are playing with.
For instance, if you’re playing a game in which two SEC teams are matched up for a night game, the commentators may be Herbstreit and his ESPN play by play partner Chris Fowler. If you’re playing as a Big Ten team at noon, you may get the Fox Big Noon team of Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt.
This would certainly be an exciting new feature in College Football 25, and considering developers had a decade to come up with new ideas, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that EA Sports is pulling out all the stops for the highly anticipated return of the game.
This isn’t the first story pertaining to College Football 25 to drop this week. Earlier this week, Texas backup quarterback Arch Manning announced that he will not be featured in the game. Manning cited wanting to focus on football as his reasoning for opting out.
Each player that opts into the game receives a $600 payment, as well as a free copy of the game, for their name, imagine and likeness being used in College Football 25. EA Sports was hoping to have 87% of student athletes opt into the game, but the video game developer has already far exceeded those expectations with over 10,000 athletes, including walk-ons, opting into the game in just over a week, according to ABC News.
Fans will have the opportunity to play as their favorite players, sans Manning, and now it sounds like they will have an opportunity to hear the voices and input of many of their favorite commentators as well. College Football 25 is starting to sound like a win-win for all parties involved, especially the fans who have waited patiently for its return.
