One of the fundamental ingredients that separates college football from every other sport is the pageantry of each game. And much of that circulates around team entrances.
Whether it involves a flaming spear, a live buffalo or fighter jets, few things energize a home crowd like pre-game festivities.
Friday marks the release of the much anticipated “EA Sports College Football 25” video game, which has been on hiatus since 2014 due to a lawsuit surrounding name, image and likeness. With NIL now legal, and a settlement reached in the lawsuit, the long wait is almost over for the release of the beloved game’s latest installment.
Ahead of Friday’s public release, cllct ranked the top 10 team entrances in the game. And also looked at where the game missed the mark on other teams' arrivals.
The 10 best
1. Florida State Seminoles
It’s amazing when a video game can accurately mimic real life, and EA absolutely crushed it with FSU’s entrance.
Since 1978, Chief Osceola and Renegade have led the Seminoles onto the field with a flaming spear as 80,000 strong fill Doak Campbell Stadium with the Seminole War Chant.
For those who have seen it in person, it is mesmerizing and menacing at the same time; and for a video game to accurately portray this, is truly incredible.
The volume is turned up to 11 in the game as the War Chant fills the air and where EA took it to another level, is how Chief Osceola points to the end zone as soon as he plants the flaming spear at the midfield logo.
If we were scoring this Olympic-style, 10/10 for the Noles.
2. Virginia Tech Hokies
Virginia Tech’s entrance is the best in the sport. Hands down. Before a Friday night game, Lane Stadium is a cauldron of chaos.
Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” has been played at every VT home game since 2000, and every fan sitting in the stadium jumps up and down to every beat. The stadium quite literally shakes.
The game showcases this environment, with fans leaping out of their seats, but it’s not “Enter Sandman” playing. The licensing was reportedly too expensive for EA to include in the game — though EA did find a generic song that sounds incredibly similar. I had to listen to it six times to realize it wasn’t “Enter Sandman."
It’s tough to fault EA for that, as licensing these songs can be incredibly expensive — House of Pain’s “Jump Around” is another example, played at every Wisconsin game, but isn’t in the video game — and the company did a terrific job finding a song that sounds so similar.
What the game also captures, which is hugely important to the institution, is all the Corps of Cadets, given VT’s rich military history.
Before each player races out to the field they touch the Hokie Stone, with signs on each side of it. On the left reads, “For those who have passed. For those to come,” and on the right of the stone reads “Reach for excellence.”
All of these nuances are showcased in the game, the only feature they missed, and it’s the only reason Virginia Tech isn’t No. 1 on this list, is the three captains — and while they change each week, no one would notice this in a video game — each carry out a flag, a Virginia Tech flag, a Commonwealth of Virginia flag, and a United States flag.
If the game had that feature, this would be an easy No. 1, even without having the actual “Enter Sandman."
3. Auburn Tigers
Why do the Auburn "Tigers” shout “War Eagle”? Here’s a bit of a history lesson.
As legend goes, in 1892 a civil war veteran was attending an Auburn-Georgia game, and brought his pet eagle, which he had rescued and had as a pet for over 30 years.
During the game, the eagle randomly took off and began soaring about the stadium. With the eagle flying overhead, the Tigers went on a game-winning drive to defeat Georgia, and since then “War Eagle” has been the official chant of Auburn.
The game does a tremendous job depicting the eagle flying overhead, circling the stadium in pre-game festivities as the fight song plays in the background.
What puts Auburn so high on this list is the fact if you watch the clip of the eagle flying through the stadium, I would bet most people don’t realize it’s a video game, as the graphics are immaculate.
4. Penn State Nittany Lions
Unlike Virginia Tech being able to find a very similar rock instrumental to “Enter Sandman," the absolute most important part to Penn State’s entrance is securing rights to use “Kenkraft 400” by Zombie Nation; and EA made it happen.
The famous “We are Penn State” chant ripples through the crowd’s audio in the game over the German techno song.
And the game nailed the opening walkout, with players linking arms, and the Nittany Lion mascot opening the gates for the team, before running out onto the field first.
But there can’t be someone wearing a blue shirt in the front row of a "White Out" game.
5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
EA made the smart choice to play the hits right away with Notre Dame’s entrance. After opening with a zooming out shot of Touchdown Jesus, the camera cuts to the players all touching the “Play Like a Champion Today” sign as they make their way to the field and then to the Notre Dame leprechaun.
It’s not necessarily as iconic as Clemson’s or as intimidating as LSU’s, but it looks more realistic than both in the game.
6. Florida Gators
Everything that the game had to hit with Florida, it did. Opening with Albert (mascot), doing the Gator Chomp, before transitioning to the players touching the gator head in the locker room and then into the tunnel.
The fans join in on the Gator Chomp as the players take the field. There’s nothing especially iconic about Florida’s entrance in the way there is for some other schools, but aesthetically, this is one of the best in the game.
7. Tennessee Volunteers
Incorporating Smokey the dog running onto the field, and making him look good, is huge. Plus, the way the players run through the “T” is one of the most accurate pieces in the entire game.
The only issue is you don’t actually see the separation of the base of the “T” where the players run through. In real life, the band essentially goes from a “T” as shown, to a bubble-letter “T” so that players can make their way through, and it’s tremendous to see the band design the letter.
8. LSU Tigers
LSU might be the single toughest place to play in the country, and that’s without having one of the greatest entrances, like FSU or Virginia Tech or Penn State
But the game does a great job showcasing some of the finer details of LSU’s pre-game rituals, like its tunnel walk, cannon firing and swag surfin'.
9. Clemson Tigers
Writing this one really bugs me. Clemson has the grandest entrance in the sport. It is a true spectacle.
One thing of note with it, which is a recent highlight, is Dabo Swinney sprinting to midfield ahead of the team. That can’t happen in this game because real-life coaches are not featured in the game, so that isn’t something EA can control.
What the game does well:
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The shot from behind the team looking out onto the field and to the crowd looks spectacular, and is truly representative of real life.
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Rece Davis quoting Frank Howard and saying, “Keep your stinkin’ hands off my rock."
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The players running down the hill and jumping at the midpoint.
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The close-up at the end of Howard’s Rock is a great touch.
What the game doesn’t do well:
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Way way way too much time spent on the man who shoots the cannon. Show it briefly and then move on. More time was spent on him than any other individual.
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There are supposed to be orange balloons that are released when the cannon goes off. But the game doesn’t have any balloons.
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There’s one shot with someone up super close that it blocks the rest of the screen. I'm guessing it's a glitch, but this is what we have to work with at the moment.
If done correctly, this had a chance to be No. 1. But it’s close to slipping out of the top 10. Lucky enough, there’s so much that goes into that, that it’s nearly impossible to take it off the list.
10. Washington Huskies
The ability to incorporate non-human aspects into the game, and make them look good, is really impressive and earns points.
Dubbs II leading the Huskies onto the field looks great. And the purple fog is a nice touch, but there just should’ve been more fog.
Honorable mentions
Texas Longhorns:
The shot of Bevo might be the single best in the game, and the mascot flashing "Horns Up" is cool, but there’s not much of note with the actual team.
Michigan Wolverines:
The players jumping up to touch the “Go Blue” sign is obviously one of the most popular pre-game traditions in football, and the game depicts it aesthetically really well.
Colorado Buffaloes:
The running of Ralphie looks really good, but there’s nothing else of note.
This is one that is way cooler to see in person than in a video game, because it doesn’t look all that more impressive than a dog leading out the team, but in person, of course, it showcases the pageantry.
Texas A&M Aggies:
Reveille looks great leading the team onto the field, and the shot of the cadets swaying from side to side adds important flavor, but you simply can’t forget the fog machine
USC Trojans:
In real life, I actually think this might be the most overrated pre-game ritual in the entire sport. But the way the game designed the Trojan warrior presenting the sword to the crowd before stabbing it into midfield, looks terrific.
Still, the fireworks over the eternal flame at the Los Angeles Coliseum look like an older video game. If that looked better, this would be top 10.
Five that missed the mark
Miami Hurricanes:
What makes Miami’s entrance breathtaking is the orange and green lights shining through the fog machines and the players running out through it. This game doesn’t seem to feature that.
Virginia Cavaliers:
The best part of the entrance is the Cavalier, leading the team on horseback out to the field. The Cavalier, nor the horse (Sabre) appear to be in the entrance.
Texas Tech Red Raiders:
This is quite literally the same problem as Virginia. Texas Tech is led out every game by the Masked Raider. There is no Masked Raider in the game.
Baylor Bears:
One of the best traditions in college football is the Baylor Line, and it’s absent.
Syracuse Orange:
I went to Syracuse and there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that will anger people from Syracuse like calling it “Upstate New York;" it’s Central New York.
Matt Liberman is a reporter and video producer for cllct.