Another season of college football brings another edition of EA Sports’ College Football game. While that hadn’t been the case since 2014, last year’s return of the EA CF empire brings back one of college football’s best trends. The 2026 cover athletes are Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith and Alabama’s Ryan Williams. It’s been quite a run for EA, since the original games didn’t feature active players. Here’s a rundown of top EA cover athletes.
Top EA Sports College Football Cover Athletes
#6 Sparty (EA NCAA Football 2009 for Wii)
This one is unique. The handle of different NCAA Football 2009 releases each got separate cover athletes. For instance, Boston College QB Matt Ryan was the cover athlete for the PlayStation 3 version of the game. But for some reason, the Nintendo Wii version’s cover athlete was Sparty, the Michigan State mascot.
Eye catching? Certainly. Strange? Really yes. But in a series that has almost exclusively featured star players on the cover of the game, the use of Sparty was certainly something new and creative.
#5 Jared Zabransky (EA NCAAFB 2008)
Zabransky’s name is certainly not a common one. But he’s here for a very specific reason. As the quarterback at Boise State, Zabransky led the Bronco’s upset of Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Those kinds of upsets are one of the things fans have always loved about the EA series.
Experienced players love to build up smaller or more obscure schools and ultimately topple college football’s historical big boys. When they do so, they’re acting in the prototype that Zabransky and Boise set. He’s not a household name, but his example launched a million video game upsets, which is a pretty fun legacy.
#4 Charles Woodson (EA NCAAFB 99)
Woodson was electric — the lone true defensive player to win the Heisman. It also helped that Woodson was on the cover when EA Sports’ technology really started to shine. By this point, the ability to recruit players, build up dynasties, and try to govern your own college football empire was becoming a reality for EA’s players.
Woodson was an excitable and nearly ungovernable freak of nature. That kind of makes him a perfect symbol of what EA Sports was becoming in the video game world.
#3 Reggie Bush (EA NCAAFB 07)
Bush is another fun prototype — the player who can just do anything. If running a dynasty is the favorite act of one type of player, another type of player just loves to re-write the record book with an untouchable superstar. That’s the kind of players for whom Bush stands out as a particularly special legend.
Bush could run, he could catch passes, he could even return kicks and punts. He remains one of the most unstoppable players in EA Sports history — which makes him a very deserving cover artist.
#2 Travis Hunter (EA CF 25)
Hunter has some of the same mojo as Woodson, with the difference that he was an even more electrifying player because of his offensive ability. That made him a perfect cover athlete for the return of EA’s College Football games. Yes, there were two other cover picks, but Hunter, as the winner of the Heisman Trophy, stands out as the main star of the return of the ever-popular series.
#1 Tim Tebow (EA NCAAFB 11)
Tebow felt like a video game character as a player. The brilliant Florida QB could run like a bruising fullback or pass the ball all over the field. In many ways, the 2011 edition of the game was EA Sports hitting on all cylinders. With the ability to turn your player into a campus legend, Tebow was a perfect point of aspiration for most players. Gamers could build up multi-faceted stars and dominate the game on several planes.
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