Speculating over Coach Prime's absence from CFB26, insiders urge EA Sports to fix the gap

Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders, also known as Coach Prime, will not be in College Football 26. While a new feature in the game was the addition of 300+ real-world coaches to the game, Coach Prime will not be one of them. There is still time for Sanders to change his mind, but as things stand, he has not given his consent to include his likeness in the game.

On Friday, a new episode of "Bunch Formation" was released. In the episode, the two hosts spoke about how some coaches have not replied to EA about being in the game, implying that they could say yes before the release date on July 10. However, Deion Sanders appears to be one of the coaches who told EA he does not want to be in the game (Timestamp 7:55).

"Deion's pretty obviously guarded over his image," Ubben said. "I think it would probably behove him to do it. I'm sure whatever they're paying the coaches, I'm sure Deion would have liked more and he probably deserved that. I'm not sure what happened there and if they can fix that. They should probably do whatever they can to try to mend that."

Deion Sanders is not the only high-profile head coach who was not included in the game. North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Bill Belichick is also reportedly not in the game.

"Deion Sanders and Bill Belichick are reportedly NOT in the new game."

Coach Prime is not one of the 300+ coaches included in College Football 26

The beloved EA College Football franchise returned last year after an 11-year hiatus. College Football 25 was released to fans, making it the first game released in the franchise since NCAA Football 14. However, the first edition of the rebooted franchise did not include real-world coaches.

That is changing this year as College Football 26 has the likeness of over 300 college football coaches. However, Coach Prime is not expected to be one of those coaches. The Athletic's Chris Vannini had the opportunity to play an early edition of the game and wrote an article about it on Thursday. He wrote about how he did not see Coach Prime while playing as Colorado.

"Not everyone is signed up, either because they declined or haven’t responded yet," Vannini wrote. "Bill Belichick is not in the game, which is not a big surprise since he didn’t make himself available for Madden either. I also didn’t see Deion Sanders when playing a game as Colorado."

The game is scheduled to be released on July 10.