Some level of order and decency has been restored.
Former USC star and NFL veteran Reggie Bush received his 2005 Heisman Trophy this week after being formally reinstated by the award’s committee.
While most people are thrilled to see Bush get the award he earned returned to him, fans of the upcoming EA College Football 25 could receive an extra bonus.
Bush was forced to forfeit his award in 2010 because he was deemed to have received “improper benefits” while being a student-athlete at USC from 2003 to 2005.
With that decision being overturned, Bush has received his trophy with a replica sent to USC, and he will now be invited to attend all future Heisman ceremonies.
How might Bush’s reinstatement impact the upcoming and highly anticipated EA College Football title? In two words, Ultimate Team. That’s a term EA fans have become very familiar with over the past 15 years.
While EA is expected to have secured NIL agreements from most scholarship players for all FBS teams, those deals will primarily affect the base rosters.
The 2024 FBS rosters are likely only one small piece of what we expect to be a fairly robust version of Ultimate Team for the college game. The power behind most sports collector modes like Ultimate Team is the dip into nostalgia and using the sports’ legends.
Deion Sanders, Mike Vick, Randy Moss, and Joe Montana cards are still very popular items in Ultimate Team, so it only makes sense to follow suit and feature greats from the college gridiron.
In the last versions of NCAA Football (NCAA Football 13 and 14), EA had a mode called Heisman Challenge. This mode included several former Heisman winners, including Bush’s former teammate Matt Leinart.
Here is a look at the old trailer.
We don’t know if the Heisman Challenge is returning, but it isn’t much of a stretch to imagine EA utilizing something that spotlights the college game’s most prestigious award.
NCAA Football 14 had Ultimate Team, but the feature wasn’t as fleshed out as it is currently in the Madden, EA FC, and NHL series. I expect a more refined and feature-heavy version for fans to enjoy with EA College Football 25.
Bush could be one of the more prominently featured cards in the mode, perhaps one that is used to help sell it from the start, considering he’s almost universally loved among fans. Imagine unlocking a 99-overall Bush card. It’s easy to see how a player like Bush could be one of the most valued cards in a college version of Ultimate Team. If it’s possible to include Bush in an upcoming trailer for the game, that piece of media has the potential to make a splash for EA.
EA College Football 25 will be fully revealed in May, with many expecting a release date in July. We should learn most of the pertinent information in less than a month.
Don’t be surprised to see Bush and other former college greats incorporated into the full roster of stars available for the franchise’s reboot.