I would absolutely not listen to any of the 1 star reviews for this game. 90% of them are just Madden Smooth Brained barely functioning man children crying because the game isn't exactly like Madden. They have never actually sat down and watched a College Football game in their lives. Everyone knows College Football is High Octane offense, with defenses not always being the best. I feel this game replicates real life football WAY better than Madden has in the past 10 years.
Two major complaint about this game that I see on majority of the 1 star reviews is that 'the run game is too overpowered.' and 'Wear and Tear is not necessary' For the complaints about the run game, this falls under the 'I don't actually watch college football.' Running the ball has ALWAYS been easier at the Collegiate level compared to the NFL. Michigan, the reigning national champions, were a power-run heavy team. Wear and Tear is also a fairly realistic system introduced in College Football 25 that adds WAY more depth into player management. The old 'Fatigue' system was barely even a feature, in fact you could probably never even have it impact gameplay. In real life, wear and tear does affect a players performance. So again, because this game isn't like Madden, where you can have guys go decades without injury or performance dips, certain people are gonna hate it.
Anyone who says this game plays like 'Madden with faster animations' has not actually played this game, and has probably heard it from some random streamer who played the game once. The game ABSOLUTELY does not play anything like Madden. College Football 25 has fluid gameplay that Madden has lacked since the jump to Xbox One / PS4. Custom Create a Team is in the game, and it is sometimes a little clunky but once you get the hang of it, creating custom teams are so fun. This game Is NOTHING like Madden. Madden wishes it could have the amount of depth and gameplay improvements this game has.
My only major complaint about the game is that Heisman Difficulty should probably be nerfed a little bit. But that's something that can probably get fixed with sliders.
Anyways, this game is probably the best sports game EA has released since NCAA 14. Most of the Major Dislikes are coming from Madden Scrubs who never actually watch or played football in their lives besides through TikTok Clips.