Who Should Be the Next Cover Athlete of NCAA Football?

NCAA Football finally returned last year after a 10-year hiatus, and football video game fans absolutely loved it. This game featured many teams and little details that pertained to their favorite colleges, which saw this game becoming one of the top-selling games of all last year. It easily outsold its counterpart, Madden, and it probably will continue to do so for the next several years. With EA Sports announcing that they will be making a new version of the game this year, who will be the cover athlete or athletes for this next version?

Last year, for the game's return, EA Sports decided to have three players represent their schools as the cover athletes. This included Donovan Edwards from Michigan, Quinn Ewers from Texas, and Travis Hunter from Colorado. This was a good mixture of conferences, positions, and popular brands. They did a great job of selecting Travis Hunter as he would go on to win the Heisman Trophy, but Donovan Edwards didn’t see much success after his National Championship win with the Wolverines last year, and Quinn Ewers was frankly the limiting factor on a very talented Texas team. Therefore, EA Sports needs to think long and hard about which players they believe can represent the game and college football at large for their next cover of NCAA football. So, who are some good candidates?

Firstly, I think it goes unsaid that they should absolutely include a player from the National Championship-winning Ohio State Buckeyes. Therefore, Jeremiah Smith should be the obvious pick here. He absolutely dominated several teams’ secondaries on their way to a National Title, and he will be a top pick in the NFL Draft next year no matter what happens this coming year. I also believe picking a rising quarterback out of the SEC like DJ Lagway, Arch Manning, or LaNorris Sellers makes a lot of sense here. It is difficult to predict breakout players in college football because the landscape can change so quickly, but if you pick a big-name player from a big school, then there is likely not going to be much pushback from fans. These candidates come with a lot of upside and make the statement to fans that the future of college football is bright.