5 Reasons Why 2K Needs To Bring Back College Hoops

The simplest reason to make a new College Hoops is that there’s a huge fan base just waiting to grab a new college basketball game. If the success and attention that College Football 25 got aren’t enough, then all 2K has to do is consider its own incredibly large share of the sports game market.

Of the millions of people who play NBA 2K out of their love for The Association, many, if not all, are also rabid college basketball fans – and that part of their fandom simply isn’t being served right now. There’s a hole in their heart the size of their alma mater, as they dream of taking their school to the big dance or going on a Cinderella run during March Madness, upsetting that number one seed in the first round.

On the flip side, people who haven’t played NBA 2K in ages should also be a consideration, given how stale the franchise has become in some players’ eyes. A new College Hoops would help bring defectors back into 2K’s basketball ecosystem like College Football 25 did for Madden. And with the added ability to bring amateur athletes’ likenesses to video games these days, a College Hoops game could resonate with fans now in ways that it never could before.

It’s no secret that 2K needs to overhaul both the MyCareer and MyPlayer modes that NBA 2K offers, and a College Hoops game is the best way to do that. 2K has dominated basketball video games for years now. As a result, since it has no competitors, it struggles to innovate. This is clear to see in MyCareer and MyPlayer. (And, for what it’s worth, the same could be said of EA’s Superstar mode in Madden.)

Career modes often struggle in the modern era of sports games because the money is made in online modes. College Hoops 2K8 is beloved by many for its offline Legacy mode, in which gamers play as coaches as they take over programs, recruit stars, and build dynastic teams. But what about a mode where you get to be the star recruit? In an age where variety is at an all-time low in sports games, having a college version of NBA 2K’s MyCareer, focused on a created athlete, would revitalize that side of basketball games for many who tend to skip buying new releases each year because not enough new features have been added. (Again, an EA parallel here is how refreshing College Football’s Road to Glory mode is compared to Madden’s Superstar mode.)

MyPlayer, 2K’s sort of mode within a mode, a hub in MyCareer where you customize your avatar outside of the mode’s narrative, is what would need to most revamping if it were repurposed for College Hoops. For so many 2K fans, it’s hard to even describe what you really get out of this thing anymore. OG fans can’t stand how much junk 2K has put in between you and just playing the game. And for younger fans, whether they like the experience of MyPlayer or not, the sheer cost of investing in their players is staggering.

No such hub exists in College Football. If 2K is as smart as EA, College Hoops would take a similar approach to storytelling and character-building as College Football, creating a streamlined mode like Road to Glory that improves upon something like Superstar by offering more fun, fewer transactions, and lots of free customizations. If such a mode were added alongside Legacy, players could immerse their avatars in an on-campus journey rather than just styling their characters off the court in NBA 2K.

How would you navigate NIL deals and playing for different coaches in college? What would you do if you got passed up by your dream school after they recruited you? Would you stay in school if you lost in the Final 4? There are so many fresh plot lines out there for a new College Hoops game. Running around a college campus sounds far more fun and immersive than some invented city at this point. And being able to continue that journey in NBA 2K, the way created College Football athletes can be ported over to Madden, would make the whole process that much more fulfilling.

While Madden 25 sales may have suffered due to the overwhelming popularity of College Football 25, EA only profited. Yes, in a monetary sense, but also, crucially, in a gameplay feedback sense. Many preferred the way playing the AI felt in College Football over Madden, which is critical feedback that EA could only get from publishing its own competition. 2K is not short on feedback from fans, but without a competitor, there’s little to no incentive to take risks or truly innovate year after year. But, the publisher making its own college game, ensuring whatever sales it loses from NBA 2K go to College Hoops, is the closest thing to a perfect feedback loop an insatiable shareholder could ask for.

Give us new shooting mechanics. Heck, go back to “old 2K” shooting, and just call it “new” for College Hoops. Tinker with animations, add a new gameplay mode – actually try to test something that fans have been clamoring for, evaluate it, then bring it to all other games in the future. Bring back the Chant Creator and give fans a fresh way to interact with their favorite teams. Much like the relationship between college and the pros in real life, 2K can benefit from having a built-in feeder system for its flagship basketball franchise.

College basketball fans may ask, “Why not have EA make the next college basketball game?” Well, while we’d love to see EA compete in the basketball space again (genuinely this time, not like what they did with NBA Live 19), if you want a college basketball game anytime soon, it’s got to be 2K who makes it. Plus, 2K already has a better college basketball reputation than EA. College Hoops 2K8 is way more revered than EA’s NCAA Basketball 10. 2K can take the existing infrastructure they have with NBA 2K and go back into the archives with the College Hoops franchise and make something truly special. EA would face an extremely uphill battle trying to develop a new basketball game for the first time this decade, especially given the company’s broader struggles outside of its sports vertical. But hey, anything could happen, as both sides have already reportedly explored the idea.

And now for the most important reason to bring back College Hoops: 2K needs to capitalize on and join in the current wave of support for NCAA women’s basketball. The women’s tournament has been thriving with dynamic players and teams facing off for the past few years, while the men’s game has floundered, with programs struggling to adapt to the NIL era in college sports.

2K has been integrating the WNBA more into NBA 2K, but the publisher has the opportunity to not only revitalize the College Hoops franchise by making it more inclusive but also to center female basketball players the way no video game ever has. Imagine USC’s JuJu Watkins as the sole cover athlete of College Hoops 2K26. That would go insanely hard.

“Go woke go broke” is ridiculous in any context, but as far as the audience for basketball video games is concerned, which is naturally as progressive as the audience for basketball IRL, this is a rare moment in which the monetary and cultural motivations for diversifying a game would perfectly overlap. 2K can prove it’s a supporter of female athletes by starting the next generation of College Hoops with the most inclusive rendering of college basketball ever seen in a video game, welcoming players who’ve never been fully represented in gaming culture.

Have NCAA men’s and women’s basketball in the new College Hoops on day one, plus Legacy and created player modes for both, and true ball-knowers will swarm to the game like Angel Reese on a “mebound.”