Now....I can finally catch my breath

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

Today is a big day. Friday, July 19 marks the official worldwide release of EA Sports College Football 25, even though hundreds of thousands of fans who purchased Early Access packages have been playing since Monday.

I’ve been extensively writing about the development of this game since early 2021. It has probably been the biggest story that this publication has been connected to, and I know it’s the mechanism that thousands of new readers first became exposed to me and my work. For good or for ill, this video game, and how it connects to the greater College Sports Industrial Complex, has been a major chapter in my professional life.

In fact, if I can share something cool with all of you…. I’ve been so deep in the weeds on this game that if you pop open the credits and scroll to the bottom, you’ll see a familiar name.

Yes, that’s right. Bud Elliott!!! And also me lol.

So yes, seeing this thing to the end feels like a big deal!

Which is why I’m not at my desk today. I’m on vacation. By the time you read this newsletter, I’ll be chilling at an Airbnb somewhere south of Salt Lake City, getting ready to hit a hiking trail with my family. My PlayStation did not make the trip.

I’m grateful that I had a chance to be a part of the coverage of this story. I legitimately believe that college sports video games aren’t just a consumer story or a “gamer” story, but a licensing story, athlete activism story, revenue story, and a story that touches nearly everything else in the sport. As an industry, video games are probably undercovered relative to their social cachet and economic prowess, and that’s particularly true in sports.

Tracking this beat down gave me a chance to flex some FOIA muscles, sure, but also helped me build more relationships not just at EA, but in the licensing world, with university external relations personnel, with athletes, and with non-industry fans. I hope that some of those relationships and skills will continue to serve this readership as I continue to spend the bulk of my time writing about stuff that isn’t about video games.

I’ll also note that part of the success of our coverage came from what I now believe to be a bedrock editorial principle of this newsletter. One of the best ways to understand something is to go do that thing.

We built our own computer game. It’s small, it’s simple, and it doesn’t have very much in common with AAA software development. But even that process taught me enough about Game Design principles, about how staying on schedule and on budget is so dang hard, about the perils of debugging…that I felt that I could ask different questions to the folks who make CFB 25.

When we wanted to understand NIL…we did NIL deals. And I think you’ll see that later this year, when we want to understand and explain how other major components of college sports work…we’ll do it by jumping right in.

I’ve spent a lot of time behind the scenes these past few months on some of those projects, but for now, I need to take a break. It’s hard to think about new products, new stories or new ideas when you’re also facing a near-daily editorial deadline and trying to close some new sales deals and fielding a gazillion video game questions every time I check Twitter. Which, despite the pleading of my business partners, family and medical personnel…is more often than I should.

So I’m going to try and unplug over these next few days in Utah with my family. I’m not gonna do any school visits, or reporting, or file any open records requests. I’m gonna hike in some canyons and get sunburned, I’m gonna read fiction, catch up with extended family, and I’m gonna pay five dollars to drink some fancy artisanal soda cocktail called an“NCMO” or something (IYKYK). It’s going to be great.

We’ll run some columns by freelancers and Friends of the Newsletter while I’m out. I’ll return to Chicago late on the 24th, and will get back to being a Serious Professional then.

Here’s some other stuff we wrote this week:

• Yes, sorry, I know there’s a lot of video game related posts here. But I also think the game can be a mechanism to help expand the reach of college football beyond North America. It just might need a small push from schools, conferences and broadcast partners.

• Last week, I wrote that I thought the NCAA kinda won the Johnson ruling, even though the text of that ruling was deeply skeptical of the NCAA’s arguments about amateurism. Law professor Sam Ehrlich wrote that, actually….the fact that the decision is so anti-NCAA is pretty dang big deal. In plain English:

• I filed a 3,000 word-ish review for Polygon about EA CFB 25, which didn’t publish before I went on vacation, so I can’t link to it here. But if you’re interested in my early thoughts on whether the game is actually any good or not, fear not, I wrote a newsletter about it.

Last video game notes here for a second I ABSOLUTELY PROMISE

A few community members have asked if I plan to set up a Dynasty run, or some other mechanism for EP readers to play CFB25 with each other. My answer right now is probably…but let me think about the best way I want to execute that while I’m on vacation. I hope to have more detailed answered for you later in July…but I think we can do something like that.

Many readers, and many MORE people who don’t read this newsletter but do follow me on Twitter, have reached out to me to highlight bugs in the game, or perhaps improperly rendered stadiums, uniforms, crowd traditions, or other oversights.

I love the passion, but despite the fact that I have several EA employees in my phone book…. I don’t work for EA. I don’t make the game, and I don’t have any special powers to fix Oregon State’s stadium renovation or Nebraska’s lack of alternate uniform options or Clemson’s fight song arrangement or Colorado’s ratings.

If you have a bug or a realism mistake you want EAs to know about, please fill out this form. Please don’t tweet me, DM me, email me, mail me a letter, etc. There are too many of you, only one of me, and I’m already overwhelmed. But if you fill out the form, I’ll share it with EA folks the next time I talk to them.

Non-video game people, thanks for sticking around. I promise you’ll get your newsletters soon!

Before I go, let me share some messages from our wonderful sponsors:

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Thanks for reading everybody. I’ll see you when I get back.