FARGO — It’s a brave new world for North Dakota State as it enters the FBS landscape, and that world got a little bit bigger earlier last week. The uber-popular College Football 2027 video game trailer debuted on social media Thursday night, and included in that two-minute video clip was something that has never been there before.
A North Dakota State Bison logo.
It is true, NDSU will be in this year’s version of the Electronic Arts video game. The game is set to be released on July 9 to be played on PlayStation and Xbox.
“We first heard from EA in early February,” said NDSU senior associate athletic director Troy Goergen. “It was shortly after we announced we were heading into the Mountain West that they reached out. We then started coordinating the licensing process, to make sure they had the proper logos and getting the athletes signed up.”
There was some doubt that NDSU would be in the game since the Mountain West announcement came in early February, when the game development was well underway. EA’s creative people were then in constant contact with the school, asking for as many images and videos that NDSU could provide. Goergen estimated that they provided the video game creators over 1,200 images and videos of the Fargodome to try to make it as accurate as possible.
“I was a little worried early on on what the Dome was going to look like in the game,” Goergen added. “But we’ve seen some early renderings and it looks pretty good. We’ll keep adding more info to them for next year and it will continue to look even better going forward.”
The news of NDSU being in College Football ‘27 went viral last week thanks to a YouTube influencer named Bordeaux. He posted four screenshots of a Bison player in an NDSU uniform with his player grade, a shot of a Bison in action on the sideline, one photo of NDSU running back D.J. Scott and his player profile and the other of the Bison logo. What sent fans into a tizzy was a brief clip in the trailer, which included NDSU and Sacramento State facing each other, the other team that is transitioning to FBS this fall.
“That trailer really puts things in perspective,” said Goergen. “I’m too old for video games, my idea of video games is Pong, but for the younger people in our office, they kept talking about it and seeing the buzz online, you realize how popular this game really is.”
The EA College Football game was one of the most popular sports games after it was created in 1993. The game was halted in 2014 after several lawsuits were filed by athletes about using their name, image and likeness without getting paid for it. Once NIL was allowed in 2021, EA announced that the game would return in the summer of 2024. Since then, Bison and FCS fans have had to go and create their favorite teams for the game, as it was limited to just FBS teams.
Now they can play with the Bison. Perhaps no one is more excited than the actual NDSU players.
“I most definitely will be playing myself,” said Bison junior linebacker Donovan Woolen back in February after the announcement. “Everybody’s talking about that. The chance to be in a game, you grow up wanting to be able in a game like ‘Madden’ or ‘College Football”.”
For the Bison players, there’s a financial incentive that now comes with the game. Each player that has their likeness in the video game will be paid $1,500. Some can earn more than that. Goergen estimates that 63 Bison players’ information was sent to the video game developers.
There’s more money on the line for the school. Last year, EA announced that all FBS schools would be paid based on their popularity and usage in the game. To put it simply, the more people play as NDSU in College Football ‘27, the more money NDSU can make through royalties.
Ryan Collingwood from the Springfield News-Leader reported that 2025 FBS newcomer Missouri State finished 69th out of the 136 FBS schools in team usage in last year’s game. That equated to $100,000 in royalty payments to MSU.
Goergen believes NDSU could see mid-to-high five-figure royalties initially with potentially more on the way. “We will be promoting the game locally, regionally and nationally through social media,” he added.
“We’ll have an influencer to help with marketing and do some contests and promotions to encourage game play. Those details will be out later this month, but we’re really excited about the potential there.”
Dom Izzo is the Sports Director at WDAY-TV. He began working for WDAY in 2006 as the weekend sports anchor and was promoted to Sports Director in 2010.