Many sports video game fans across the country (including myself) were excited to learn that the NCAA Football franchise is on track to return to our lives in the summer of 2024, which will be re-named “EA Sports College Football.”
Plans for the game were threatened to be delayed due to a lawsuit from The Brandr Group, citing that the franchise’s $500 million pool, which would give each athlete represented in the game $500, was considered to be “far below market value.”
Despite the setback, EA Sports remains on schedule to release the game next summer.
“We’re incredibly excited to bring back an authentic college football experience for fans and athletes that have shown such passion for the franchise, and we’re looking forward to delivering it in Summer 2024,” an EA spokesperson tells On3’s Pete Nakos.
It has been ten years since the release of the last game, NCAA Football 14. It has us at Auburn Wire thinking… which Auburn athletes missed out on being a cover athlete for the famous video game franchise?
The college football world was introduced to [autotag]Bo Nix[/autotag] during the 2019 season. The true freshman passed for 2,549 yards and 16 touchdowns, which would be his best season in an Auburn uniform.
Sure, he kicked off his college career in a big way, but was he worthy of being the cover athlete for the hypothetical NCAA Football 2021 video game? He’s a close second, in my opinion. The true winner was the guy on the receiving end of most of his passes, [autotag]Seth Williams[/autotag].
Like Nix, the 2019 season was Williams’ best at Auburn. He hauled in 59 passes for 830 yards and eight touchdowns. He had several memorable games over his career, but his last-minute touchdown catch in the 2019 opener against Oregon stands out the most. With 16 seconds remaining, Nix launched a 26-yard pass to Williams, which resulted in the go-ahead touchdown to put Auburn ahead, 26-21.
Other worthy candidates include [autotag]Jeremiah Dinson[/autotag], who led the team in tackles with 88, and [autotag]Zakoby McClain[/autotag], who made 55 stops and a pick-six.
Before you take a look at the best photos from each of the contenders, here are the previous hypothetical covers.