New College Football Game News Opens the Door for Michigan Cover Athlete

May is approaching, which means fans of EA Sports's college football video game are about to learn a ton about the first game in the series in over a decade.

There has been loads of speculation on everything concerning the game. One thing that always grabs fan attention is who the cover athlete will be. While that won't be announced for some time, fans did get some helpful news concerning the reveal.

Matt Brown, arguably the most plugged-in reporter when it comes to the game, wrote in his ExtraPoints newsletter Monday morning some exciting updates concerning the cover athletes for the game expected to release in July.

• "There are multiple cover athletes, since EA is releasing multiple versions of the video game.
• Each cover athlete is a current college football player who plays in a different power conference."

While there was plenty of speculation that EA would have a special edition with Nick Saban on the cover or another cover with every Heisman winner since the game was last released, those rumors can seemingly be put to rest.

However, this should spark some excitement among Michigan Wolverine fans. Brown reported that, for the first time ever, the cover athletes are active, power conference players, likely with one player per version. Brown also confirmed each version will feature a different position.

The previous NCAA series did this with NCAA Football 09 which had different athletes for the various consoles. Michigan State's Sparty was even a cover for the Wii version of that game.

While it's not clear if that's the route EA is taking (personally, I doubt it, there aren't nearly as many consoles these days), it does mean the Wolverines are serious contenders to have a cover athlete on a version of the game.

Now, it's worth noting that the Wolverines lost a ton of their best players following the 2023 season. Many of the great candidates are now in the NFL. The three best options for Michigan are CB Will Johnson, RB Donovan Edwards, and DT Mason Graham.

We can likely rule out Johnson because of Colorado's Travis Hunter, who almost assuredly going to be one of the cover athletes with this format.

However, the door is practically wide open for Edwards or Graham.

The SEC is likely between quarterbacks Quinn Ewers from Texas and Alabama's Jalen Milroe. The Big 12 is likely Hunter, as previously mentioned.

That just leaves the Big Ten and ACC. Now, not every Power Conference will be featured, and it looks like the ACC would be the odd man out here.

Edwards or Graham would be excellent options, though Edwards would be more likely of the two since Hunter has the defensive side covered.

Of course, this is where Ohio State gets in the way. Wide receiver Emeka Egbuka or running back Treveyon Henderson are top contenders for a cover spot and could understandably be seen as "more popular" than Edwards.

Edwards at least has a national championship season (and a great performance in that game) to help his case.

Should any Wolverine grace the cover, it would give Michigan four covers in the series history, breaking a tie with USC for the most in the series's history. It would also be the first time one school had back-to-back cover athletes, even if 11 years separated them.