“College Football 25,” released by EA Sports on July 19th, 2024, has ignited a wave of excitement among gamers since its release. The game became the highest selling sports game in 2024 and generated over 5 million active players in its first week. One of the features in the game, Team Builder, has been a staple for the franchise. Team Builder allows players to create their own unique college programs from the ground up. Uniform, stadium and team customization options allow sports gamers to pay homage to their respective schools. The last college football game to release was in 2013 (NCAA 14), over a decade ago. As a passionate football fan who grew up playing football from middle school to sophomore year of college and every Madden game since 2007, I decided to recreate Langston University in College Football 25.
FROM CONCEPT TO CONTROLLER
While recreating Langston, I realized how extensive Team Builder is. Some of the customization options include adding custom layers, helmet designs, brand choices between Nike, Adidas, and Under-Armor, pants, gloves, socks, cleats, and home stadium colors and logos. Lastly, players can choose their team rating and the quality of the team. These options are shown in the center of the website, with each tab showing how the designer wants the team to look. Once created, press the ‘Submit’ button when previewing your team. Students can import the team in the game by clicking on the ‘Download Center’ feature in the game itself. They can search for Langston using the search bar in the Download Center and download Langston.
CAMPUS REACTIONS
When I first created Langston in the game, shared it to friends and posted it on Fizz, I did not realize the support I would get. I thought it was too niche to get attention. However, seeing the overwhelming amount of positive reactions has been amazing. With over 2,000 upvotes and many reposts on Fizz, it is special knowing that so many people care about this project just as much as my friends and I do. Reactions from other people have been great to hear. Keyonte Hammon, a senior information systems major, said “I think it’s really fun and unique to have the school represented in the game, to be able to create it and do that. Especially since we’re NAIA, obviously College Football focuses on the bigger programs. So being able to implement our own team into it is really cool and neat for people.” Josiah Grayson, a senior computer science major, said, “ I think that’s really huge; HBCUs like Langston have that type of representation.”
WHAT’S NEXT?
For Team Builder, there are some limits to the mode. Students cannot create real players, or build their own stadium; they can only select a prebuilt one. No other HBCUs are in the game; students have to create them through Team Builder. Hammon thinks some of these shortcomings can be fixed. “I believe that’s possible. It would definitely take some time.” This idea was approved on Fizz as over 500 students upvoted to include every HBCU in the game.
LEVELING UP
Growing up, watching friends or places that I see every day on TV is a surreal feeling. It is the same surreal experience I get looking at Langston in College Football 25. The support on this project shows that students love their HBCU being represented. “ It leaves a pretty sizable impact, considering how it can now put more eyes onto our school,” Joshua Ogunbase, senior biology major, said. With this in mind, I imported Langston on every gaming console in the Lion’s Den, and now students can come across the same surreal and unique experience I had when playing on Saturdays, seeing the school we all go to on their consoles and TVs. With Langston in College Football 25, students and alumni alike can not only enjoy their football team in real life, but in the virtual world as well.
Joshua Heck
Staff Writer
Joshua Heck is a junior computer science and broadcast journalism major
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The Gazette serves as the student voice of Langston University. It is produced within the Department of Communication as a teaching tool and local news source for the campus community. The views and opinions expressed within are those of the writers whose names appear with the articles and do not necessarily represent the views of Langston University.
