College football season will be here soon, and the EA Sports release of its latest football video game owes a lot to Nashville.
On the game’s soundtrack, every college’s fight song and marching band pop song cover was performed and recorded in sessions featuring local college student musicians.
In January, at the Fischer Center at Belmont University, over 100 musicians carrying tubas, trumpets and drum lines got mic’d up as the producer hit record.
“The vibe is play as hyped as possible all the time. All day. For hours. It was a lot of fun. The producers were really great about encouraging us to make it feel like you’re in the stands at a college football game,” says Ryan Middagh, director of jazz studies at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music and a professional musician who is also part of the video game’s marching band. Other prominent musicians include Dave Matthews Band sax player Jeff Coffin, who’s been creating the game’s soundtrack since 2025.
Middagh says, “It’s the best college marching band that you’ve ever heard, because it’s filled with professional musicians. We set an impossible standard for any college marching band of what they should sound like, ’cause it sounds almost too perfect.”
This year, because of the ice storm, some musicians couldn’t make the recording session. That opened up an opportunity for some new players on the soundtrack: actual college students. Students from Fisk, Belmont and Vanderbilt universities stepped up to record on this year’s soundtrack.
It was an unexpected opportunity that Middagh says reflects the deep bench of quality musicians in Nashville.
“It gives me great pride to see my former students and current students able to record and have these opportunities,” he said, “and that only happens when you have a great community of musicians.”
Last year’s version of College Football sold over 1 million copies in its first month. All of the songs are now available on streaming services.
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