In the game! Clemson, USC football to participate in EA Sports video game

Get ready to fire up those consoles.

The Clemson and South Carolina football teams confirmed Thursday they’d be participating in the highly anticipated EA Sports College Football 25 video game, which is set to be released this summer, and hyped up fans in the process.

“We’re in the game!” Clemson football said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), a few minutes after EA Sports announced in its own social media post that all 134 FBS schools would be included.

“Oh yeah, we’re in,” USC football added in its post, adding mock-up covers of XBOX One and PlayStation 5 versions of the games featuring a Gamecocks cover athlete decked out in a garnet and white uniform.

The news isn’t a surprise, as the Tigers and Gamecocks athletic departments have been working with EA Sports for well over a year to send in team information including stadium details, uniform details and fight songs.

But it added further excitement to the release of the game, which was first announced as returning in summer 2021 but has been delayed a few times as EA Sports collected data and handled the name, image and likeness (NIL) side of things in regards to players in the game.

The use of players’ likenesses (and the threat of lawsuits surrounding those uncompensated appearances) was the main reason the beloved NCAA Football franchise stopped a decade ago after the NCAA declined to renew its licensing agreement with EA Sports.

NCAA Football 14, featuring former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson on the over, was the last iteration of the video game until the NCAA allowed student-athletes to benefit from their NIL in summer 2021.

For the 2025 game, players can sign a contract to opt in to participation and receive $600 and a copy of the game (which will sell for around $70) in return, according to reports from multiple outlets Thursday.

An EA Sports representative told ESPN, in an interview published Thursday, that while about 11,000 players will have the opportunity to opt into the game, real-life coaches will not be in the first iteration of the game. In other words, you can’t play as USC or Clemson with a virtual Shane Beamer or Dabo Swinney on the sidelines.

But Sean O’Brien, EA Sports’ vice president of business development, said the company is exploring ways to “offer coaches the opportunity to opt in beyond Year 1.”

The new College Football 25 game will include a number of classic game modes and functions that became wildly popular in the previous NCAA Football video game franchise that ran 1993-2013, including Road to Glory (taking an individual player through a college career) and Dynasty mode (taking over a program as coach).

The new game will also incorporate NIL, the transfer portal and conference realignment, though details surrounding those functions are limited. EA Sports is planning a “full reveal” of the game in May ahead of a summer release.