The University of St. Thomas and the rest of the Division I FCS teams aren’t in College Football 25, but there is still a way to play as the purple and gray.
History
The game launched on July 16 for players with early access and had its worldwide release on July 19. The 2025 edition of the game is the first in the series since NCAA Football 14, eleven years ago.
The video game series was originally discontinued after a former player sued the NCAA for using their likenesses after they had graduated. EA didn’t name them but would use virtual avatars modeled after real athletes, including jersey numbers.
The game publisher was willing to pay the college athletes but was unable until the recent changes to name, image and likeness rules for amateur athletes across the NCAA.
Prior to the release of the current iteration, college athletes could opt in to being in the game, and, if chosen, they were paid $600 and given a copy of the game.
CFB 25 includes all 134 FBS teams and around 11,000 players.
How to play as the Tommies
Note: This requires either an Xbox Live or Playstation Plus subscription for online services.
The 129 Division I FCS teams, including St. Thomas and the rest of the Pioneer Football League, were not included in the game. However, a game feature allows fans to add the classic purple and gray uniforms themselves.
On the night of July 18, hours before the game’s worldwide release, EA’s Team Builder site went live.
The website is intended for fans to be able to create their own custom teams and uniforms. But its most popular use is for football fanatics to create uniforms for high school and college teams that aren’t in the game.
There are over 50 downloadable uniforms that resemble the University of St. Thomas. None of them are 100% accurate, but they also include alternates like all-black or throwback uniforms. The most popular is a uniform set called “UST” by user ryanmcf1995.
Other user-created options can be found by searching “Tommies” or “Tomcats” on the TeamBuilder site. Users can also choose an existing stadium to play in and customize their offensive and defensive play styles.
To download a custom team, boot up your copy of the game, navigate to the Create and Share tab and select Download Center.
From here one can search by clicking Y on Xbox and △ Playstation. Gamers can either search for a team name, the most helpful being “Tommies” or “Tomcats,” or by a username visible on Team Builder.
Once a team is selected and downloaded, users can start a dynasty from the home screen and select a Cloud Multi User dynasty. Once gamers choose to use either the default rosters or active rosters, they may select “Import Team Builder.”
From there, they must choose a school currently in the game to be replaced by their new “Tommies” squad and then set up the rest of their Dynasty mode before they are ready to play.
Due to the past legal disputes surrounding these games and rules around the use of name, image and likeness for NCAA athletes, gamers cannot import real rosters or change athletes’ jersey numbers. However, users can edit those on their virtual rosters’ names, positions and physical appearances.
Adam Mueller can be reached at muel7541@stthomas.edu.