Deion Sanders and Bill Belichick are notably absent from NCAA 26, and the reason for this absence primarily involves their decisions to withhold their likeness rights from EA Sports.
Bill Belichick has a long history of opting out of video game representations. During his NFL coaching career, he famously declined to let his likeness be used in the Madden NFL series for over two decades. This trend continued with his move to college football, as he chose not to appear in College Football 26. As a result, the game features a fictional coach named "Hector Luna" representing the University of North Carolina team instead of Belichick.
Deion Sanders' absence is more surprising given his high-profile persona and previous appearances in EA Sports Madden games as a player and legend. However, for NCAA 26, he declined to participate, likely due to image rights negotiations and business terms not aligning between his representatives and EA. The game replaces him with a fictional coach named "Kirk Patrick" for Colorado, which some Ultimate Team players have tried to work around by focusing on collectible rewards and cheap CFB 26 Coins to strengthen their rosters.
Other coaches such as Miami's Mario Cristobal and Iowa's Kirk Ferentz are also missing for similar reasons. The absence of these coaches means fans experience alternate, fictional versions instead of the real figures — a change that, while disappointing to some, hasn’t stopped the community from finding creative ways to enhance their gameplay, including strategies that involve buy CFB 26 Coins for faster team building.
Both Belichick and Sanders opted out of licensing their likenesses for NCAA 26, leading to their omission from the game and substitution with fictional characters. This is part of a broader negotiation challenge EA faces when dealing with individual coaches’ image rights, differing significantly from player NIL agreements.