EA College Football 25 cover athletes revealed: Who's cashing in on video game NIL?

We have unfortunately lived in a world without a college football video game to play for over a decade. The Ed O'Bannon case brought a swift end to that. While college football has still done a great job of creating new fans, not having a video game to play was a missed opportunity to say the least. The good news is that EA College Football 25 will be released later this summer, so get ready!

As if you could possibly contain yourself over the news that this thing is actually going to come out sometime in a few weeks, the deluxe edition cover just dropped... Oh, my god. Stop everything you are doing at once because this is the only thing that matters for the rest of the work week. Now is the time to careful plan PTO days for staycations. Hopefully, you've got a few sick days to burn as well.

For the first time ever, players will be compensated for their names, images and likenesses in this medium. Back when millennials and Gen-Xers played this video games in their door rooms or their mom's basements, you had to connect the dots in thinking that Player X was really this guy on Team Y. This is precisely where the NCAA and Electronic Arts got in trouble, and the video game went away.

Behold! The most sacred deluxe edition cover your beautiful eyes could ever hope to gaze upon!

While there are helmets abound on the cover, name and jersey numbers appear for these six players.

• Michigan Wolverines RB Donovan Edwards
• Texas Longhorns QB Quinn Edwards
• Colorado Buffaloes CB/WR Travis Hunter
• Ohio State RB Quinshon Judkins
• Alabama Crimson Tide QB Jalen Milroe
• Georgia QB Carson Beck

Given who all of them are, these are arguably the right six players to cater this game's return around.

Which players are on the deluxe edition cover of EA College Football 25?

The first three players you see on the cover are Michigan Wolverines running back Donovan Edwards, Texas Longhorns quarterback and Colorado Buffaloes "Mr. Everything" Travis Hunter. Edwards is the star running back on the defending national champions. Ewers quarterbacked Texas to its first-ever trip to the College Football Playoff. Like Ewers, Hunter projects as a certain top-five pick next spring.

After that, you can see former Ole Miss star running back Quinshon Judkins in an Ohio State uniform, as well as two star quarterbacks from SEC country in Jalen Milroe of Alabama and Carson Beck of Georgia. These are arguably the three most popular programs in the country today. Having a household name from the Buckeyes, Bulldogs and Crimson Tide on the cover makes so much sense.

Overall, I cannot begin to tell you how huge this game will be for everyone. People who love college football and don't play video games, like myself, will have to seriously consider buying a console. Casuals who have consoles will become bigger fans of the sport, as this is a must-have game. And for those who just have consoles, they just might maybe become fans of the greatest sport on Earth.

A game some 12 years in the making, thankfully, we will be able to play it at some point this summer.