Deion Sanders will be featured in EA Sports College Football for first time
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Deion Sanders is in the game.
For the first time in history, the Colorado Buffaloes coach will be featured in EA Sports College Football. The news comes three years after the popular video game franchise dropped its first edition after a reboot.
EA’s Sports' promotional photo release features Coach Prime wearing his Blenders sunglasses and black Colorado hat. College football fans have asked for 'Prime Time' to be included, but there was a dispute between Sanders' reps and EA, keeping him away from the virtual sidelines.
“I don’t know about the video games. I have a wonderful team that handles a lot of business for me," Sanders said at this year's Big 12 Football Media Days in Frisco, Texas. "If I’m not in the game, that means they weren’t paying enough. It probably didn’t fit where we’re going right now. That’s probably it. It was probably just that simplistic.”
While Sanders' logic makes sense, there's a significant gap here that doesn't. The Hall of Famer was featured as an NFL Draft consultant in Dynasty Mode for Madden 25, but didn't want to appear as the Colorado Buffaloes coach in the first two years of CFB releases for EA Sports. In fact, the same time Sanders was using his name, image and likeness for Madden in 2024 was when he hinted at not coming to terms with the video game maker on a deal for College Football 25.
"EA Sports, we do business," Sanders said via Well Off Media before the game was initially released.
With the tremendous support behind Coach Prime at that moment, many fans wanted to see him on the cover. The biggest problem has always been payouts for players and coaches to appear in the game. The standard $600 dollar NIL offer plus a copy of the final product seems like a low amount.
Sanders, who is in his fourth year at Colorado, has made history as the football icon to appear in Madden as a player and College Football as a coach for EA Sports.
Coach Prime did not appear in College Football 26, the first year college coach likenesses were added to the game in its entirety. Every program’s head coach and coordinators are eligible to be included. The wildly-popular video game franchise rebooted after over a decade of litigation over proper NIL usage, which halted production in 2013.
Coaches are not paid for their likeness to be included in the game, a source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Roundtable. The topic was originally reported by The Athletic back in July when at least six coaches were omitted from the game, including UNC's Bill Belichick and Miami's Mario Cristobal.
Indiana coach Curt Cignetti appeared on the cover of the game’s deluxe edition right after leading the Hoosiers to their first national championship win.
Colorado star Travis Hunter was featured on the cover of College Football 25. This came during the same year the Buffs two-way star won the Heisman Trophy. College Football 25 was the best-selling sports video game of all time, according to EA Sports. Hunter was the face of the reboot due to his popularity in the sport. He played the majority of snaps at wide receiver and cornerback at CU under Sanders.
Hunter was selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, becoming the highest drafted cornerback and second-highest drafted wide receiver in NFL history.
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