College Football 25 sounds like it’s the first football game EA Sports has gotten right in years

July can’t get here quickly enough, man.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win! Thank you so much for rocking with me today. I appreciate you.

Did anyone else get extremely hyped up on Wednesday when EA Sports’ College Football 25 reviews started trickling in from around the internet?

The developer invited some reporters and YouTubers to its Orlando offices to give the game a test run for a couple of hours. It’s still not complete yet, according to The Athletic’s Chris Vannini, with a few bugs popping up here and there and some of the ratings still incomplete. That’s natural for a game still going through its development lifecycle.

Even with that, there’s so much reporting out there that makes this game seem like it’ll be awesome.

The pros: Everything from the college football traditions included to the fact that you’ll be able to sign name, image and likeness deals with your created player has me giddy. This is the college football sim I’ve always wanted.

  • The game will include all of your favorite CFB traditions and some of the awesome music we love hearing.
  • Road To Glory mode is back (this is one of my favorites). You’ll be able to create your player again and put them on a team of your choosing. Your player will also be able to snag NIL deals, per IGN’s Taylor Lyles, and those deals will influence your rating in some way. How is not exactly clear yet.
  • Dynasty Mode (this is the big one) is largely the same as it was previously, but this time you’ll have to deal with the Transfer Portal and NIL deals yourself as the director of your school. I can’t wait to steal all of Georgia’s players away from Kirby Smart.
  • Roster updates will be part of the game throughout the season. That makes a ton of sense for a modern sports game, but we’ve never experienced this on an NCAA game before. And, I’ve got to say, it sounds awesome.

The cons: Because nothing in this world is perfect, there were some things in the news that I was not as excited about.

  • Road to Glory doesn’t have that truncated high school season mode anymore where you’d have to play your way up to get recruited by the best schools, Lyles says. Instead, you just pick your star level and school now. BORING.
  • You’ll also be unable to export draft classes from College Football 25 into Madden if that’s something you’re into. Madden isn’t my cup of tea, so I wasn’t as concerned about this. But it still would be a nice feature to have.

I’m not going to lie, folks. I was very worried about this game. Those of you who play Madden know — the experience has been extremely buggy and glitchy over the years. I was so afraid that this game would just be a copy and paste job by EA, bringing all of the qualities of Madden over to the college football world.

But the big takeaway from everything I’ve sifted through on this one so far is that this game is not Madden. They are built on the same engine, but the gameplay is different. This game is its own beast. That, alone, has me extremely pumped to play this.

July can’t get here quickly enough.

JJ Redick? Seriously?

(Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)

If you’d told me at the beginning of this NBA season that, by the time it was over, JJ Redick would be in the lead spot as the Lakers’ next head coach, there’s no way I would’ve believed you.

As a first-year head coach with no prior experience on an NBA bench, JJ Redick coaching a LeBron James team sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Alas. Here we are. It sounds like Redick is the guy for the job. According to Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes, all signs point to Redick as the guy in LA.

“Everything that I’m hearing is JJ Redick. From what I know he’s doing some background, calling some assistant coaching candidates who might be able to join his staff … I’m pretty positive it’ll be JJ.” 

I told y’all that podcast with LeBron James was just one big head coaching interview.

That’s a tough sell for me. JJ is a very smart basketball mind, obviously. But for his first head coaching gig to be coaching LeBron James’ Lakers? Sheesh, man. That’s a lot.

He could be pretty good on the bench but this just feels so risky. We’ll have to wait until after the NBA Finals to see if he’s the guy.

A new champion in a new league

(Photo by Troy Parla/Getty Images)

Wednesday was a big night for hockey and not just because the Oilers tied up their series at 2-2 against the Stars with a stunning 5-goal rally (though that’s a pretty big deal, too).

The big news here is that the PWHL just crowned its first champion: Minnesota. On Wednesday, Minnesota beat Boston 3-0 to win it all. This is Minny’s first championship squad since the Lynx won it all in 2017.

The crowd after last night’s game was electrifying. The arena was packed wall-to-wall.

This is so awesome to see for a league that has only existed since August of 2023. Shoutout Minnesota. The PWHL is up.

Quick hits: Do I stay or do I go? … The offseason of LeBron … and more

— Here’s Cory Woodroof with the top 15 stay-or-go NBA draft decisions to look out for

— Blake Schuster has details on LeBron James potentially putting pressure on the Lakers to pick up Bronny by opting out of his deal.

— Bryan Kalbrosky is comparing the cast of the FX’s new Clippers series to their real-life counterparts.

— Here’s Christian D’Andrea with 10 contract situations in the NFL that could impact this season and beyond.

— Charles Curtis is introducing you to Charley Hull, who might legitimately be the coolest golfer out right now.

— Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka going at it was must-see-TV. Here’s Meg Hall with more.

That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time. Have a fantastic day! Peace.

-Sykes ✌️