After 11 lonely years, our long national nightmare is over.
EA Sports officially released a new cover of its famed NCAA football game this week, the first in the series since NCAA Football 2014 came out in 2013. Better yet, the rosters will be (mostly) complete with actual current college football players, thanks to the NCAA’s 2021 decision to allow name, image and likeness contracts.
Of course, the game’s return doesn’t make up for the time we spent without it — the legendary players we missed, the defining moments never to be captured in ones and zeroes, and the countless number of times you could’ve blown off a week of work to take UL-Monroe to a College Football Playoff National Championship.
While we can’t create a time machine to fix those missed opportunities, we can provide at least a little revisionist history, by working back through the past 11 years to determine who would have earned the honor of gracing the cover of each version.
First, a quick bit of context: During the game’s run (from 1993, first as “Bill Walsh College Football” through 2013), the cover image couldn’t include an active player. Typically, the new game sported a cover model who had flourished the prior season in college but had already left for the NFL — Denard Robinson, Robert Griffin III, Mark Ingram and Tim Tebow, to name a few — leaving them free to sell their images to EA. But here, we’re imagining a world where the NCAA allowed NIL starting in 2014, making all players eligible for the cover image, even if they still had eligibility remaining. This also means that players such as Joe Burrow who took his talents to the NFL after his breakout season, would not make the cut as a hypothetical cover athlete.
With that said, here are our picks for the cover of each of the 11 missing seasons of EA Sports NCAA Football.
NCAA Football 15
Expected release: Summer 2014
The contenders: Florida State QB Jameis Winston, Florida State WR Rashad Greene, Oregon QB Marcus Mariota, Wisconsin RB Melvin Gordon, Navy QB Keenan Reynolds, Clemson DE Vic Beasley
It’s a shame the game disappeared after the 2013 season, as NCAA Football 15 would’ve had its share of great options of incredibly popular first-year NFL players, from Aaron Donald to Jadeveon Clowney to Mike Evans to Kelvin Benjamin. The crop of returning players was a bit thinner, with some emerging stars like Gordon (1,609 yards, 12 TDs in 2013) and Reynolds (2,403 total yards, 39 total TDs) just ahead of their prime. Mariota would go on to win the 2014 Heisman Trophy, but he entered that season in the shadow of Winston, who would have been the obvious choice if not for a series of off-field issues, including a sexual assault allegation, that likely would have deterred EA from choosing him.
The cover: Greene. Let’s split the difference here. No Winston on the cover, but the honor instead can go to another member of the FSU national championship team. Greene was one of the true leaders of that 2013 squad, and he followed it up with an equally impressive 2014 in which he caught 99 passes for 1,365 yards and seven touchdowns.
Mariota, Amari Cooper, Todd Gurley and Landon Collins all would’ve been in the mix before the NIL era began, but the 2015 class offered one of the most diverse and deep lists of returning players worthy of cover status. Ohio State won the national championship in the first College Football Playoff in 2014, and the litany of returning stars — Bosa, Elliott, Jones, Barrett, Braxton Miller, Von Bell — was incredible. Wright’s unique skill set made him an ideal cover model, while Ramsey might’ve been the most dynamic athlete in college football at the time. Prescott warrants consideration, too, for getting Mississippi State to the top of the first CFP rankings, and had the world known what a star he’d later become in the NFL, he’d probably be the obvious pick here.
The cover: Bosa. We love the idea of Jones, Miller and Barrett sharing the cover after Ohio State won a natty with its third-string QB, but we also envision Urban Meyer putting a stop to any additional media scrutiny — even in the lighthearted form of a video game cover — of his delicate QB situation entering the 2015 season. Instead, Bosa seems like the safe solution. He was dominant in the Buckeyes’ title run in 2014, racking up 13.5 sacks and 21 tackles for loss, and it was clear entering the 2015 campaign that he was destined to be an early NFL draft pick. Plus, it’s good to give the defensive guys some love.
This was a rare season in which the talent returning far exceeded the names headed to the NFL, so EA surely would’ve been pleased to have NIL open the doors to a better cover option than (no offense) Jared Goff or Eli Apple. In any case, the college options were plentiful and all deserving. Mayfield had thrown for 3,700 yards. McCaffrey was an all-purpose Superman. Cook was as electric of a runner as there was in the sport. Fournette was a high school legend who finally seemed poised to live up to the recruiting hype. Watson had come within a hair of leading Clemson past the vaunted Alabama machine for a national title.
The cover: McCaffrey. It’s a tough call between the Stanford star and the emergent Watson, who’d go on to win a national title over Alabama at the end of the 2016 season. But at the time, there was no more remarkable talent in the sport than McCaffrey, who was a unanimous All-American after amassing 2,019 rushing yards, 645 receiving yards and 1,070 return yards for a truly astonishing tally of 3,864 all-purpose yards — 613 more than the previous record held by Barry Sanders.
Mayfield had just posted his second straight season as a Heisman finalist, throwing for 40 touchdowns. Barkley had rushed for nearly 1,500 yards and 18 TDs. Fitzpatrick was an emerging superstar on Alabama’s defense. There were good options. But there was only one obvious choice.
The cover: Jackson. His skill set would’ve put him among the pantheon of the greatest video game stars of all time, alongside Tecmo Bo Jackson, Jeremy Roenick in NHL 94, Bald Bull from “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” and former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jeff D’Amico, who we all once used to throw a perfect game against our college roommate in MLB ’99. Every play with NCAA Football Lamar Jackson would’ve been a deep ball or a scramble, and he’d finish a season with 20,000 yards because there would’ve been no answer for him.
It seems like an oversight that Mayfield spent three seasons dominating the Big 12 without ever cracking our hypothetical NCAA Football cover, but alas, he’d moved on to doing insurance commercials in a Cleveland Browns uniform by now. Fitzpatrick, Jackson, Barkley, Derwin James and Rashaad Penny were all off to the NFL, too, though all would’ve been exceptional cover options under the old system. Instead, the battle for the cover starts with a number of elite backs. Love was fresh off rushing for 2,118 yards and 19 TDs. Singletary had a little Heisman hype, including a model race car mailed out to Heisman voters to push his campaign. Taylor had turned in the first of three straight seasons with more than 1,900 yards rushing in 2017. Oliver would’ve been a great option, too. He was a dominant force with his own Heisman campaign (a bobblehead on a horse). But the honor likely comes down to two options: The ascendant QB at Alabama or the dominant defensive front at Clemson, each member returning for one last ride that eventually ended with a national title.
The cover: Tagovailoa. As much fun as it would’ve been to see the Clemson D-linemen don their famous Power Rangers costumes on the game’s cover, the buzz in the summer of 2018 was all about Tagovailoa. He’d come off the bench at halftime to rescue Alabama from the abyss in the national championship game, making him a rare combination of genuine star power and unknown commodity. The only problem with the choice is the reaction it would’ve undoubtedly engendered from Nick Saban, who wasn’t entirely eager to stoke the flames of the supposed QB battle between Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts that summer. Of course, if NIL rules were in place in 2018, does anyone think Hurts would’ve stuck around to ride the bench anyway?
Lawrence and Etienne made for a worthy tandem, both fresh off a national title with two years left at Clemson. Moore was a revelation as a freshman, electric as a receiver and a return man. Young was the second coming of Bosa, a force of nature at the line of scrimmage who racked up 9.5 sacks and 14.5 TFL, presaging an even bigger season in 2019. Tagovailoa and Jeudy had just been dismissed by Clemson in the title game, but there was still ample hype surrounding Alabama.
The cover: Lawrence. Not since Herschel Walker in 1980 had a freshman seemed so destined to win multiple championships as Lawrence at this point. He’d taken over as Clemson’s starter in Week 5 of the 2018 season, posted dominant numbers, then led the Tigers to a national title while annihilating the unstoppable force of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Alas, it was not to be, and by the end of 2019, Lawrence’s title team didn’t even seem nearly so dominant anymore after Joe Burrow & Co. set the standard in college football. Still, Lawrence was a bona fide star, and if there’s anything we’ve learned from lifestyle magazines over the years, it’s that hair as glorious as his belongs on the cover.
If scrubbing Lamar Jackson from the college football video game record books is the biggest loss from NCAA Football’s 11-year hiatus, the lack of a 2020 edition is a close second. It’s hard to overstate how many units would’ve sold at the height of the COVID-19 shutdown, when it looked for much of the summer as if no actual college football would be played. Instead of going for walks, starting home renovation projects or spending quality time with immediate family, we could’ve wasted away those long, tumultuous days challenging LSU’s supremacy with plucky upstart Grayson McCall and Coastal Carolina and built a dynasty. Alas, it was not meant to be.
This also might be the year when EA was most convinced to go back to the old process and select a player who starred in the prior college football season but was now off to the NFL, because Burrow absolutely deserved a cover after his 2019 campaign. If we’re sticking with our precedent of returning players, however, his LSU teammates Stingley and Chase made for exceptional consolation prizes. Stingley starred as a true freshman, anchoring that LSU defense, while Chase was the most dominant receiver on a team absolutely stacked with talent at the position. Parsons would’ve been a nice alternative after offensive players dominated the covers, and Sewell could’ve been a worthy hat tip to big men everywhere. Smith wasn’t exactly heralded as a genuine superstar entering the 2020 season, but he’d racked up 1,256 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior and, by year’s end, would become the first Heisman winner who wasn’t a QB or running back since Charles Woodson.
The cover: Stingley. There were lots of good options here, but Stingley had the recruiting hype, on-field performance, and post-national title glow to warrant a cover, and it’s nice to get away from the QBs and skill position guys on offense. That the rest of Stingley’s LSU career didn’t quite match the freshman hype — largely due to injuries — is unimportant here. LSU was the best team to grace a college football field in decades, and he had a strong argument to be considered its biggest returning star.
And so it is that we’ve reached the year in which actual NIL deals were happening around college football, even if EA would need another three years before it could take advantage of the rule change to release a new game. Still, NIL allowed players like Uiagalelei, Young and Stingley to become household names outside of just the college football world, enjoying national endorsement deals and a new level of prestige. But Dr Pepper is one thing. The cover of NCAA Football is another. Young hadn’t taken a meaningful snap yet at Alabama, but his star turn was all but assured. Gardner, fresh off leading Cincinnati to the first playoff berth for a Group of 5 school, might’ve been an intriguing choice, too. A retrospectively amusing option might’ve been J.T. Daniels, who looked poised to take over at QB at Georgia in the summer of 2021, only to lose his job to a former walk-on — who we’ll get to in a bit — a couple months later.
The cover: Uiagalelei. There’s not a clear front-runner among the contenders, but Uiagalelei was probably the biggest name at the time. He’d started two games in relief of Lawrence in 2020 and looked terrific in both. He was a former five-star recruit. He had a big personality, big arm and already had inked some very big endorsement deals. It’s almost hard to imagine now — knowing how it all turned out — but on the heels of Tajh Boyd, Watson and Lawrence excelling at Clemson, Uiagalelei seemed about as close to a surefire star as possible. But hey, maybe in 2023 at Florida State, he’ll actually become one.
Georgia’s run to a national title allows for plenty of options in Athens, with Bowers the clear headliner, Carter the defensive force, and Bennett the beloved underdog success story. Anderson was coming off one of the best seasons for a pass-rusher in recent memory, and Williams and Robinson had both flashed enough talent in the latter half of 2021 to be primed for even bigger things ahead. And then there’s Young. The prior two Heisman winners to return to school the following year — Winston and Jackson — were our selections to grace the cover, so ignoring Young’s win would be tough. In other words, this would’ve been among the deepest pools of cover candidates during the 11-year absence of the game, but it also would’ve marked the 20th edition of NCAA Football, and it’s entirely possible EA would want to celebrate the occasion with a retrospective, perhaps featuring some past cover models such as Tommie Frazier (from the game’s first cover), Woodson, Tebow or Reggie Bush.
The cover: Bowers, alongside the greats. This is the most elegant solution. Yes, EA should’ve celebrated its 20th installment by putting past stars on the cover, but the best way to blend the old with the new would be to add Bowers — soon to be the game’s most dynamic tight end — to the group.
Williams was the defending Heisman winner. Perkins looked like he’d be the biggest star in the sport after a show-stopping freshman campaign. Harrison was already a star with ample name recognition. The entire Colorado story was a cash cow for everyone involved.
The cover: Williams. And perhaps this is the one time we’re grateful for the game’s absence because, as much as we think Williams would’ve been the deserving honoree to grace the cover, there’s also a pretty strong chance the allure of a Coach Prime sales bump would be too hard to ignore, and frankly, Sanders didn’t need any more hype. On the other hand, there’s plenty of time for Prime to win the Big 12, watch as his son wins the Heisman, recruit a top-five class without leaving his office, and nab the cover of NCAA Football 26.
OCEANPORT, N.J. — Journalism launched a dramatic rally to win the $1 million Haskell Invitational on Saturday at Monmouth Park.
It was Journalism’s first race since the Triple Crown. He was the only colt to contest all three legs, winning the Preakness while finishing second to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
Heavily favored at 2-5 odds, Journalism broke poorly under jockey Umberto Rispoli and wound up trailing the early leaders. He kicked into gear rounding the final turn to find Gosger and Goal Oriented locked in a dogfight for the lead. It appeared one of them would be the winner until Journalism roared down the center of the track to win by a half-length.
“You feel like you’re on a diesel,” Rispoli said. “He’s motoring and motoring. You never know when he’s going to take off. To do what he did today again, it’s unbelievable.”
Gosger held on for second, a neck ahead of Goal Oriented.
The Haskell victory was Journalism’s sixth in nine starts for Southern California-based trainer Michael McCarthy, and earned the colt a berth in the $7 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar on Nov. 1.
DOVER, Del. — Chase Elliott took advantage of heavy rain at Dover Motor Speedway to earn the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
Elliott and the rest of the field never got to turn a scheduled practice or qualifying lap on Saturday because of rain that pounded the concrete mile track. Dover is scheduled to hold its first July race since the track’s first one in 1969.
Elliott has two wins and 10 top-five finishes in 14 career races at Dover.
Logano is set to become the youngest driver in NASCAR history with 600 career starts.
Logano will be 35 years, 1 month, 26 days old when he hits No. 600 on Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway. He will top seven-time NASCAR champion and Hall of Famer Richard Petty by six months.
The midseason tournament that pays $1 million to the winner pits Ty Dillon vs. John Hunter Nemechek and Reddick vs. Gibbs in the head-to-head challenge at Dover.
The winners face off next week at Indianapolis. Reddick is the betting favorite to win it all, according to Sportsbook.
DOVER, Del. — NASCAR race team owner Denny Hamlin remained undeterred in the wake of another setback in court, vowing “all will be exposed” in the scheduled December trial as part of 23XI Racing’s federal antitrust suit against the auto racing series.
A federal judge on Thursday rejected a request from 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to continue racing with charters while they battle NASCAR in court, meaning their six cars will race as open entries this weekend at Dover, next week at Indianapolis and perhaps longer than that in a move the teams say would put them at risk of going out of business.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell denied the teams’ bid for a temporary restraining order, saying they will make races over the next couple of weeks and they won’t lose their drivers or sponsors before his decision on a preliminary injunction.
Bell left open the possibility of reconsidering his decision if things change over the next two weeks.
After this weekend, the cars affected may need to qualify on speed if 41 entries are listed – a possibility now that starting spots have opened.
The case has a Dec. 1 trial date, but the two teams are fighting to be recognized as chartered for the current season, which has 16 races left. A charter guarantees one of the 40 spots in the field each week, but also a base amount of money paid out each week.
“If you want answers, you want to understand why all this is happening, come Dec. 1, you’ll get the answers that you’re looking for,” Hamlin said Saturday at Dover Motor Speedway. “All will be exposed.”
23XI, which is co-owned by retired NBA great Michael Jordan, and FRM filed their federal suit against NASCAR last year after they were the only two organizations out of 15 to reject NASCAR’s extension offer on charters.
Jordan and FRM owner Bob Jenkins won an injunction to recognize 23XI and FRM as chartered for the season, but the ruling was overturned on appeal earlier this month, sending the case back to Bell.
Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 winner driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, co-owns 23XI with Jordan and said they were prepared to send Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace and Riley Herbst to the track each week as open teams. They sought the restraining order Monday, claiming that through discovery they learned NASCAR planned to immediately begin the process of selling the six charters which would put “plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.”
Hamlin said none of the setbacks have made him second-guess the decision to file the lawsuit.
“Dec. 1 is all that matters. Mark your calendar,” Hamlin said. “I’d love to be doing other things. I’ve got a lot going on. When I get in the car (today), nothing else is going to matter other than that. I always give my team 100%. I always prepare whether I have side jobs, side hustles, more kids, that all matters, but I always give my team all the time that they need to make sure that when I step in, I’m 100% committed.”
Reddick, who has a clause that allows him to become a free agent if the team loses its charter, declined comment Saturday on all questions connected to his future and the lawsuit. Hamlin also declined to comment on Reddick’s future with 23XI Racing.
Reddick, one of four drivers left in NASCAR’s $1 million In-season Challenge, was last year’s regular-season champion and raced for the Cup Series championship in the season finale. But none of the six drivers affected by the court ruling are locked into this year’s playoffs.
Making the field won’t be an issue this weekend at Dover as fewer than the maximum 40 cars are entered. But should 41 cars show up anywhere this season, someone slow will be sent home and that means lost revenue and a lost chance to win points in the standings.
“Nothing changes from my end, obviously, and nothing changes from inside the shop,” Front Row Motorsports driver Zane Smith said. “There’s not typically even enough cars to worry about transferring in.”
Smith, 24th in the standings and someone who would likely need a win to qualify for NASCAR’s playoffs, said he stood behind Jenkins in his acrimonious legal fight that has loomed over the stock car series for months.
“I leave all that up to them,” Smith said, “but my job is to go get the 38 the best finish I can.”