EA Sports’ College Football returns, and all is right again with the video-game world

Wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter was holding up the National Championship Trophy, fresh off setting the Heisman on an already crowded mantel.

Shedeur Sanders had captured any piece of hardware that had anything to do with quarterback on it, flashing the “Show the Ice” celebration along the way to being the top signal-caller drafted.

And just like that, Colorado once again was the epicenter of college football.

Somewhere coach Prime had to be smiling because all was finally right with the world.

Welcome back, EA Sports College Football . . . you were truly missed.

To say that the sports-video gaming world has been in a decade of darkness is an understatement. Eleven years to be exact.

That was the last installment of the franchise’s highly successful college football video game, done in by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, who filed a lawsuit against the company and the NCAA because of likeness laws.

Right or wrong, it left fans of the game dusting off old PlayStation 3s on rainy days, shedding a tear as they stared at NCAA Football ’14 cover boy Denard “Shoelace” Robinson.

But since that ruling went down, college sports have changed drastically. Name, image and likeness (NIL) deals have freed the sport and turned it into the Wild West. Thanks to that, college football’s smoking gun is back.

First a few knocks: There’s not a real tutorial, but even Generation Xers like myself can figure out the mechanics of the read option and RPOs quickly.

Also, while there are likenesses of players, they’re almost cartoonish compared with the images EA uses with the Madden series.

That’s about where the knocks end.

While there has been some criticism that this game is just Madden reskinned because of the Frostbite Engine that’s used to show player movement, don’t believe the hype.

The game play is smooth and as realistic as a football video game can get. There’s a revamped passing mode that lies somewhere between brain surgery and rocket science to figure out, but enter that at your own risk.

The way around it is to take the option of the old school passing mode, crack open a cool one, mash those buttons and let it rip.

You want different game modes? Oh, they’ve got different game modes.

Create a player and go to the “Road to Glory” mode, walking on campus and landing NIL deals, only to break the hearts of your coaching staff and alumni when Ohio State throws a mill in your direction to leave.

Ultimate Team?

Build your squad with current players and legends to become a juggernaut as you complete challenges to add coins and talent.

But the place anyone who loved this game a decade ago wants to be in is Dynasty Mode. It’s the cold bath in the corner of the locker room after a long workout.

Play it solo, but to grab 10 or so buddies and compete against each other on the field and off it with recruiting — and now the transfer portal — it really doesn’t get any better than that.

A few cautions in playing Dynasty Mode, however: The days of taking over some MAC school and turning it into a national powerhouse by Year 2 are over. The more difficult game play and recruiting take care of that.

And the other warning is don’t expect to grab a team, take your five-star defenders on the field and slow down offenses — especially explosive ones. If you like defense, go grab a shooter game and crouch in a building until you can snipe some unsuspecting 10-year-old and taunt him on the headphones.

This is about building your coaching tree to fit your playstyle and watching the scoreboard light up like I did playing with Colorado.

At least here in Week 1 of the release, it’s not an easy game. That’s the beauty of it.

So it’s time to make that call and get the old league together with a few new faces.

To my wife and kids, apologies now, but coach Prime needs me.

Grade: A