Madden has dominated the football video game world for decades. But after a more than 10-year hiatus, college football is re-entering the mix with a game coming out later this year. 

College athletes in the U.S. are now able to profit from their name, image and likeness — something that is largely to thank for the new game.

At the University at Buffalo, members of the UB Bulls are eager to see themselves in the action.

UB Football began in 1894. The program has played nearly 1,000 games in its history, but the 2024 team is set to do something none before it has — before evening taking the field.

They will have their names in a video game. It's called "EA Sports College Football 25."

“It’s something that you really couldn’t even imagine," said Al-Jay Henderson, a UB junior. "It was like a dream come true. Now I can have my little brother play the game and family members. We can all go back home and as a team just play they game with each other and play against each other.”

"I love it. Of course, I want to make it to the NFL and get on Madden, but it’s somewhat of a small achievement of that goal," said Red Murdock, a UB Redshirt sophomore. "It’s pretty cool to me."

“I really didn’t even expect it to happen because everybody saw that we think NCAA might come out, so it was probably it’s not going to come out," said Henderson. "Then when it did come out and we were in the game, it was really exciting.”

“First thing I said was 'finally,'" said Marcus Fuqua, a UB grad student. "The last game was 'NCAA 14' and I’ve been stuck playing that since then. I was very happy, very excited. I don’t have to worry about downloading rosters anymore, so I was excited.”

UB has been in college football video games before, but players were simply known by their jersey number. Now they’ll be themselves — at least by name. Their attribute ratings are a different story.

“Speed ... they got to give me the highest speed on that," said Henderson. "If they don’t, then I’m going to still max it out when I get a chance to so it’s going to be OK.”

“You can’t get sensitive about that because if you’re going to get sensitive about that, you just got to show it on the field," said Fuqua. "I remember when they first released it, I had posted on Instagram that there’s a lot of guys who are going to get humbled. So you just got to know who you are and how good you really are and be ready to take the criticism.”

All 134 FBS programs will be represented in the game, but these Bulls plan on besting them all.

“First couple of games I’m definitely going to play with UB," said Henderson. "We got to beat some of the people that we lost to last year. I definitely got to get my revenge on that.”

“First year, I’m going to get good at the game and we’re going to go 12-0,” said Fuqua.

Even if some losses come along the way, there is one number in the real world that these players can count on – the $600 each gets for being in the game.

“Man, it can’t get no better than that ... $600 is amazing to me," said Murdock.

It's the cost of making UB football history.