A Heisman Trophy winner, a national champion and a household name.
These would have been the easy picks to front NCAA Football 08, the next installment in Electronic Arts' vaunted franchise, slated to hit the Xbox 360, Xbox, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 2 this summer. Look back at past covers and that's what you see: Heisman winners, national champs and marketable household names. That's what college football fans expect.
But doing what everyone expects has gotten EA Sports into trouble as of late. Its library of next-generation sports titles have received lukewarm reception from fans for being feature-light and a tad, well, boring. At the same time, interest in current-generation games is waning as they seem to have reached an innovation plateau. So, EA decided it's time to do the unexpected.