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 video game was available prior to NIL, which prevented an athlete from being on the cover of the video game in consecutive years. However, in this day in age, Auburn’s NCAA Football 23 representative would have earned the honor.
Bigsby rushed for 834 yards and five touchdowns during the 2020 season, which was enough for him to win the prize of being the hypothetical NCAA Football 2021 cover athlete.
During the 2021 season, Bigsby took his play up a notch. Bigsby rushed for 1,099 yards in 2021 on 223 carries, which was enough to become Auburn’s leading rusher.
Bigsby is deemed the Tigers’ only offensive candidate for the NCAA Football 2023 cover, as the three ensuing candidates all had great seasons on defense. Zakoby McClain led the team in tackles with 95, with eight being for a loss. Chandler Wooten was next in line with 94 tackles and an interception. Finally, Derick Hall led the team in tackles for loss with 12.5.
Before taking a look at the best photos of the contenders, here is a look at each of our previous hypothetical covers.