University of Hawaii football aficionados who booted up EA Sports College Football 25 this week noticed something amiss with their team in the first entry of the popular video game franchise in more than a decade.
UH, one of 134 Football Bowl Subdivision teams featured in the game, plays its contests not at 15,000-seat Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, nor the shuttered, 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium. Instead, the Rainbow Warriors’ digital green-clad fans occupy a generic home stadium.
That remained the case for the title’s full launch Friday; it was rolled out July 15 to those who pre-ordered it. The game, EA’s first for college sports in the Name, Image and Likeness era, has already tallied sales in the millions of copies. The last edition came out in 2013, when players of teams were represented by nameless stand-ins.
Authenticity, from the biggest of the big fish like Georgia, Alabama and Clemson, to the more modest Group of Five institutions like UH, was a key selling point.
The absence of the Ching Complex, UH’s makeshift on-campus home since 2021, was a result of dropped communication between EA Sports and UH at a critical time in the game’s development, Athletic Director Craig Angelos acknowledged.
"There was some transition and a lapse in email monitoring on our part due to staff changes,” Angelos, who succeeded David Matlin as AD in June 2023, said in a message relayed to Spectrum News. “By the time we followed up a few months later, they (EA Sports) had moved on.
“We’ve already addressed the email issue when employees transition in or out. That will not happen again.”
Angelos took to social media to recent days to assure the UH fan base that his staff was in communication with the gaming giant to set things right.
"We heard from our fans and supporters. We wanted to move quickly to get this resolved,” he messaged Spectrum News.
A version of the Ching Complex is expected to appear in the game with a future update – one that could admittedly take a while.
KC Smurthwaite, a consultant with the company Athletics Admin who works with UH on special projects and revenue generation, told Spectrum News that EA Sports has received all it needs in terms of imagery and specifications to create a digital version of the venue.
That will likely happen sometime in the coming months, according to Smurthwaite, who said he has contacts within EA Sports.
“It’s just going to take a little bit of time,” Smurthwaite said in a phone interview. “I would not be surprised (if) building out a stadium takes until the end of the college football season. In a perfect world, it would’ve already been done. But it’s not.
“Over the next couple of patches and updates, there’s going to be little tweaks to not only just Hawaii. There are multiple schools who’ve had some problems.”
He mentioned Texas State was missing an upper level on its virtual stadium, and at least one other FBS program had major issues with its in-game representation, he said.
But, he said, "You can probably argue and say Hawaii was No. 1" on the list of omissions.
A laundry list of other, smaller issues have cropped up encompassing the vast, mostly real-life rosters within the game. For example, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser noted that UH backup quarterback Micah Alejado throws with his right hand instead of his dominant left.
An “aloha, welcome to paradise” from ESPN broadcaster Rece Davis greets the player upon UH’s introduction. Members of the crowd flash shakas and the traditional UH fight song is played as the team runs out of the tunnel.
The cheerleaders do not, however, do their signature surfboard ride onto the field. UH has submitted video of that tradition with the hope of seeing it included in a later edition.
Angelos and Smurthwaite thanked EA Sports for their responsiveness, as well as Matt Brown of the website Extra Points for helping facilitate recent conversation with the company.
"Hawaii is a staple of the college football community, from the run-and-shoot to the social media challenge of passing 'the Hawaii test' on Saturdays on the continental U.S.,” Angelos said. “We want to be in the game as much as possible."
UH has an overall rating of 74 out of 99 within the game – 71 on offense, 72 on defense. The highest-rated team at launch is Georgia with a 95 and the lowest is Ball State with a 68.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.