There Wasn't A Role For Female Broadcasters in 'EA College Football 25' | Bobby Burack

EA Sports announced that the following seven broadcasters would be included in the upcoming EA College Football 25 video game: Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Jesse Palmer, Desmond Howard, Kevin Connors, and David Pollack.

ESPN reporter Holly Rowe has since criticized the list, arguing the game should've included her and other women.

"How about including some women @EASPORTS 30 years on the college football sidelines," Rowe posted on X. 

Other women in broadcasting shared Rowe's sentiment.

"How about including some women @EASPORTS 30 years on the college football sidelines," said Molly McGrath.

"As a girl who grew up playing NCAA/Madden… I’m so excited for this! However, I think they missed a great opportunity to include some of the incredibly talented women who fill these roles and/or like roles in the real world, too," said Mary  Alex Anders.

Adding, "Ex: @LauraRutledge , @MariaTaylor @sportsiren @MollyAMcGrath - just to name a few! Won’t mean a single thing to most male consumers, but to girls who play it and/or are pursuing sportscasting… it would be pretty cool! But hey, not now doesn’t mean not ever," added Mary Alex Anders.

EA Sports is trending on X over Rowe's post.

There's a lot of outrage. Yet the outrage is more a grit than a serious gripe. No surprise, coming from Holly Rowe, an "anti-racist," per her bio.

EA Sports did not include females in its initial roll-out because women who cover college football are primarily sideline reporters. 

The game included Fowler and Herbstreit because they are lead commentary booth for college football on ESPN. Davis, Howard, Pollack, Palmer, and Connors comprise the hosting and analyst roles that surround the video game's pregame and halftime shows.

It's a challenge for football video games to make use of a sideline reporter. 

NBA 2K does. NBA 2K25 features Allie LaForce interviewing players post-game. However, there are only 15 players on an NBA team. Recording voice samples, personalities, and mannerisms for most NBA players is not that fierce of a challenge. 

But to do so for every available college football player would be a daunting task -- a colossal waste of time, resources, and budget.

The alternative is programming a sideline reporter to give updates throughout the gameplay, such as halftime reports, and not appear next to a player or coach.  In fact,  EA Sports just added Danielle Bellini in that role for Madden 25.

I suspect EA College Football will eventually add a similar feature, given the outrage. But the addition to Madden has been met with criticism. Technology cannot yet teach a video game character to say more than a few, repetitive during a halftime report:

"Coach X said his team needs to play harder." 

"Team leaders call for more effort." 

"Coach is happy with the overall performance."

Cringe.

EA Sports likely left out such a patronizing feature for the much-anticipated return of the college football series.

Simply put, the omission of women in a video game has everything to do with the role of a sideline reporter; not some inherent bias against females.

Now, a detractor would say, "Why are women only sideline reporters?" "Why are women not in the booth calling games?", 

If that's your stance, and you truly believe there are women at ESPN who could outperform Fowler and Herbstreit – take that up with ESPN, the network whose broadcasters EA Sports depicts.

Laura Rutledge is a better studio host than Rece Davis. But she's not the lead college football studio host. Davis is. Thus he's featured in the game and Rutledge is not.

Pat McAfee is a better analyst than David Pollack. But Pollack was a lead ESPN CFB analyst at the time of the video games's creation. McAfee wasn't. So Pollack remains.

EA Sports doesn't dictate who calls games, analysts, and sideline reports on ESPN's college football coverage.

So we suggest Holly Rowe tag her employer, not EA Sports, in her angry tirade.