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EA Sports released the deluxe edition of 'College Football 26' on Monday, with arguably the two most prominent coaches in college football in terms of mainstream appeal, Bill Belichick and Deion Sanders, not part of the game.
This year's edition introduced coaches having their identities as part of game, not just the players with name, image, and likeness revenue sent their way.
North Carolina's Belichick and Colorado's Sanders will now have stand-ins taking their spots at the helm of the Tar Heels and Buffaloes respectively by not opting in to the game.
The new Tar Heels coach is a man named Hector Luna, who has a B+ rating as a coach, while in Sanders' spot is a fake person named Kirk Patrick, whose rating is A+, per The Athletic.
Those revelations came out alongside the designs for coaches that opted to be part of the second edition of the revival series of EA Sports' college football cult classic game.
Some of those designs went viral, including an interesting haircut for Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy.
Bill Belichick and Deion Sanders are both not featured in EA Sports' 'College Football 26'
Neither coach opted into having their likeness featured in the game unlike their contemporaries
Belichick's absence was not a surprise, as he never chose to be part of the Madden NFL video game franchise when coaching the New England Patriots.
The three most notable college head coaches to opt into the game are Ohio State's Ryan Day, Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin, and Clemson's Dabo Swinney.
The most prominent head coach joining Sanders and Belichick not to be in the game is either Stanford's Frank Reich or UAB's Trent Dilfer, due to their time in the NFL.
Expectations for both coaches are high entering the 2025 season, especially for Belichick, as the Atlantic Coast Conference appears wide open.
The Buffaloes will have to deal with the losses of their two best players, Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, who both left for the NFL.
