Operation Sports Newsletter - Madden 25 Has Arrived, Should You Care?

Madden 25 Vs. College Football 25: A New Battleground

If I’m playing against the AI, then it’s EA Sports College Football 25 all day. It does not seem like there is any version of “real-time coaching” in Madden 25, and if you’re not aware, that’s College Football’s new way of having the AI adapt to what you do during a game. It’s not that Madden’s AI never changes, but playing the AI feels very much like every other Madden in recent times. Playing the AI in College Football 25 feels far more unique and interesting. Maybe that’s the vast amount of teams and the disparity in ratings between them, but I just feel I have to adjust in that game much more than I do in Madden.

It’s likely that a lot of this comes back to the individual team playbooks in Madden and how that drives so much of every team’s playstyle. It’s a big reason why the Chiefs always have a TE that goes for a lot of yards in franchise mode simulations even after Travis Kelce retires.

(As an aside, I do want to mention the playbooks did get way more love than usual this year, likely because whatever tool they implemented for College Football 25 also allowed them to iterate more easily in Madden. There are a ton of new plays, and a lot of the playbooks have gotten rather big refreshes.)

Still, the structure of these playbooks is also likely a reason why a lot of teams end up passing way more than running. You might not be aware, but there was a lot of talk about pass/run ratios and how the AI ran far too many pass plays in Madden 24. The same iffy ratios do seem to exist in Madden 25 — though don’t freak quite yet, keep reading — but my guess is there are a couple reasons for this. One, is the legacy issue that playbooks probably don’t have the right pass/run ratios and thus AI teams choose passing plays way more by default. This goes a layer deeper because I don’t think the AI knows how to properly parse the playbook. Just think of how Coach Suggestions for you will still always give you Four Verticals if you’re down and there’s like 3 minutes to go in the game.

The other area that comes into play probably goes back to the adaptive AI. The CPU QBs are very accurate and deadly as usual, and I think Madden 25 is a very pass-happy environment because both human and AI can move the ball easily through the air in many situations. If the AI is carving you up through the air, then why should they pass? So it’s not that I haven’t seen good pass/run ratios in this game, but it more seems to depend on you slowing them down through the air — and also certain teams just don’t want to run the ball either way.

Now, you might say that’s true to life, and that’s fair. A lot more teams believe in the idea of “pass to score, run to win” where you run more in the fourth quarter to ice the game (I believe in it as well). On top of that, “establishing the run” doesn’t really mean anything to a lot of teams anymore, and I think that’s also true.

However, it’s not the right comparison here. The score matters to an extent in Madden, but it’s pretty clear the AI is not time and game situation aware enough to really comprehend when it’s time to burn some clock with some running plays. It also feels rather self-evident so far that some teams just run the ball more than other squads independent of anything. Again, that sounds fine when reading it, but it’s not necessarily the teams you would think. The Chargers are not out there grinding out first downs and so on.

In other words, until EA figures out how to make the AI work through its playbook in a more functional way or give coaches more of an identity, I think we’re going to have some run/pass imbalances even if you’re good enough (or find sliders you like) that help corral the AI passing game and make them maybe have to think about running to be more efficient.

EA Sports College Football 25 Will Remain My Go-To Game Against The AI

Beyond that, the other reason I am framing my gameplay preferences this way is because, look, no shocker, franchise mode does not hold up to dynasty mode. I’m not ready to give a full breakdown of franchise mode because I have played way more online H2H games than offline franchise mode games so far with Madden (I’m having a good time playing others online so that’s why I’m playing it that way), but I don’t think scenarios and the updated NFL Draft are really going to drag me away from the recruiting world of College Football 25.

Madden needs its “recruiting/transfer portal” selling point. What is the draw of Madden’s franchise mode beyond playing the games? I still don’t have a good answer for that. Scenarios are not it to me, and team building isn’t that interesting in an NFL game week to week during the season. You have the ability to get way more XP than AI teams, and so I always have to put rules in place anyway so my team doesn’t run away from all the others as I train my guys up.

I don’t know if giving us impressive weekly recap presentation elements or maybe tapping into old Head Coach concepts and just trying to make building game plans more interesting is the answer, but at some point we need something to keep the mode intriguing off the field in a way recruiting does for College Football. Because regardless of any issues you might have with recruiting and the transfer portal, it’s undeniable that recruiting is way more interesting than anything you do in Madden’s franchise mode because it’s the core of how you build a team, and you have to take it seriously week to week.

So that’s where I’m at here on day one. If you want to play a lot of head-to-head games, or Ultimate Team, or play in an online franchise with some buddies, I think Madden 25 will be in a good place. If you just want the offline experience, I can’t see this game pulling me away from College Football 25. My feelings could change since it’s still only day four of me playing Madden, but that’s where I’m at here on the “official” launch day.

(I’m still likely going to play plenty of Madden 25 franchise mode, but it will probably be on PC once modders start working their magic so I can get my custom camera angles, improved broadcast graphics, and so on. I still recommend people going back and checking out Madden 24 on PC with some mods if they can.)

Let’s get to the rest of the news and community notes.

Speaking Of Franchise Modes…

2K dropped their MyNBA and MyGM details this week, and it’s not a big surprise the selling point was the introduction of another new Era. This time the Steph Era. This was met with a lukewarm response on OS because it’s starting to feel a little stale, especially when it’s not a big departure from the LeBron Era.

We might just be getting to the point where the new Era isn't enough, and we'd rather just start in any year. I think it's more about grabbing as many courts, players, teams, etc. as possible and letting us get going from there, but it's quite the undertaking I imagine to have The Lakers be "correct" at the start of each season from like 1980-2024.

Even so, it's pretty clear that this is the closest (outside of like an OOTP) we've ever had to a true "sandbox" franchise mode, so why not just go all the way with the sandbox if you can? I've sort of given up on them figuring out certain longstanding issues, but a lot of that stuff for me can mostly be glossed over if you can create the universe you want. After all, NBA 2K is still the best franchise mode around (even if it’s partly by default), and so doubling down on its strengths should be the priority.

We’re getting a feature-complete, current-gen version of NBA 2K25 on PC this year, so maybe community folks make a lot of these dreams come true at some point, but obviously the impact is always greater if this sort of stuff comes from the developers themselves.

2K Soccer Or FIFA 2K? Not Bloody Likely

Elsewhere, Take-Two was back in a familiar position of answering questions about whether they’re going to make a new sports game. While NFL 2K is always on the brain, this latest round of rumors actually was about 2K maybe making a soccer game at some point. KG wrote about it on OS this week, and I agree with his take that it feels like it’s not on the horizon. Licensing is the deciding factor for most sports games, and securing worthwhile licenses for a soccer game might be a bigger hassle than any other pro sport.

Get The Community’s Take

I’ve yapped a lot here, so I don’t want to take up too much more of your time, but I do want to mention you can head over to the Madden 25 impressions thread if you don’t want to just take my word for things so far. The community has plenty of thoughts. We’re also going to be doing a bunch of guides the next week or two that should relate to both football games. We have one up on how to identify coverages before the snap, and we have one that can help you figure out what style of passing you should use.

And since we’re only like a week away from Week 0, I do want to mention OS user LopaKa and his Stormin’ Mormons dynasty mode story that he’s just starting to really get into now that the real college football season is upon us.

Until next time y’all. And, as always, thanks for reading.

-Chase