An Audemars Piguet, a Mercedes Maybach, a Lamborghini Urus, and a Rolls Royce Cullinan are some of the most prized possessions of Shedeur Sanders. Yet, someone made a claim against Shedeur Sanders of playing “greedy” since he deliberately decided not to praise his teammate Travis Hunter for getting featured on the EA Sports CFB 25 cover. It’s just one of the many claims being made against Shedeur since this stunt. Agreed that he was rudely ignored as a prospect for getting featured on the cover, but looking at the situation through RJ Young’s lens, it might seem that his actions led to the claim.

It all traces back to the headlines in late February 2024. EA Sports promised $600 to each NCAA player for opting in their College Football 25 game. Travis Hunter was one of the first prominent players to say yes, creating more buzz around it. Fast forward to May 2024 when EA Sports released the standard cover for the game. Surprise, surprise, they featured Travis Hunter as the cover athlete. The ones waiting just for the game enthralled, but the CU fans stunned. The NCAA’s top QB, Shedeur Sanders, was nowhere to be seen.

Speculations started flooding discussions. Why was Shedeur Sanders ditched? The question plagued the fans for weeks. RJ Young, the host of The Number One College Football Show finally had his version of the answer.” I assume the reason that you don’t see Shedeur Sanders on the cover of NCAA 25 is because he commands a higher price tag than Travis Hunter,” the host said. Hearing it for the first time might portray Shedeur Sanders as a money-motivated athlete.

But think about it like this: Shedeur Sanders is the highest NIL-valued athlete in the NCAA. This would naturally mean his ‘price tag’ for any endorsement, let alone with EA Sports, would be a bit higher than others. And EA Sports didn’t seem too keen on spending much on the athletes then. It wasn’t looking like it was going to work out for either party.

To further rub salt in Shedeur’s wound, Young added Hunter’s perspective. Per him, Hunter would hardly give a “good damn” about the money when he is getting a feature in EA Sports, especially when gaming is a favorite activity of Hunter’s friend circle. Young is right, Shedeur did lose a chance at making quite a fortune. For Travis Hunter, the deal was a steal.

What Shedeur Sanders lost that Travis Hunter gained

Financially, close to nothing. EA paid both Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders $600 to be in the game.The amount was surely not something that would sound luring to a $4.6 million NIL-valued player. Hunter might have received a bit more in compensation but not “that much” to make a difference, as Young pointed out.

But the hype of being on the cover of the most awaited game in CFB for the last 10 years, the boost in fan following that Travis Hunter got bumping up his NIL value with it, and most important of it all, his chance to gauge his competition against the ones he considers his top contenders in the 2024 Heisman race, all of it was surely a huge miss for Shedeur Sanders. What more do you think Shedeur Sanders missed out on? Drop your thoughts in the comments.