74 Days Until Kansas Football: The Kansas Path to a (Virtual) Football Championship

Next year, you could have the chance to lead the Jayhawks to a national title!

The countdown to the return to Kansas Football is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in that I get to find a bunch of different angles to talk about the football team and stay connected to the program during the summer. But also a curse because I have to find so many different topics to cover to fill out a 100-day countdown.

Which is why the news that dropped on Friday was such a great thing. By that I mean the edition of Matt Brown's Extra Points Newsletter that updated everyone on the latest surrounding the return of the EA Sports NCAA Football game, currently slated for July 2023.

There have been plenty of articles talking briefly about the updated news, including one from the main SI site. But none of these tell you why YOU should care about the game.

Obviously, anyone that likes to play sports games will immediately be interested, especially anyone who remembers playing the last version of the game. I have fond memories of leading the Jayhawks to an undefeated record and national title in NCAA '13, the last version of the game that I bought. Sure, the dynasty mode was janky, with all the recruiting touchpoints and the like that are both ridiculous simplified and horribly complicated at the same time. But it was the only place that I could live out my dream of seeing the Jayhawks bring home a championship trophy.

But there is one other thing that I am personally looking forward to with the game coming out: seeing actual players in the game. Part of the reporting by Matt Brown is that EA is adamant about including individual players in the game AND compensating them for their appearances, something that is now possible due to the changes in the rules surrounding Name, Image and Likeness. And if the excitement from NFL players surrounding the Madden game is any indication, players will absolutely love to see themselves in the game, so you can expect pretty much everyone who is given the opportunity to appear in the game will be in there.

That means that not only will current players like Jalon Daniels, Jared Casey, Devin Neal and more have an opportunity to be current players on the field in the game, but there are plenty of opportunities to bring back historical players like we've seen on so many other sports games. That includes players who played for the Jayhawks during the years where the game was not available. That would include some past KU players like Carter Stanley, Pooka Williams, Dorance Armstrong Jr., Bryce Torneden, and many others who have come through Lawrence.

I'm working on a series where we look at some of those potential players as part of the countdown, so stay tuned to the countdown for some further thoughts on which players might have been good additions to the game, and which ones might pop up on some historical rosters.

And of course, make sure you tell us which recent players you are hoping to see in the game!

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