EA Sports set up the Madden 25 cover vote as a new school vs old school challenge and old school has won out. Barry Sanders defeated Adrian Peterson in the final vote to win the honor. In the end it wasn’t even close with Sanders claiming 58% of the over 700,000 votes.

This marks the second year in a row that a Detroit Lion makes the cover after it was Calvin Johnson winning the fan vote a year ago.

Barry got to the final vote by pretty much destroying the old school side of the bracket. Here is how he got to the final matchup against Adrian Peterson:
Defeated Jerry Rice in Semifinals
Defeated Joe Montana in Quarterfinals
Defeated Ray Lewis in Round 3
Defeated Marcus Allen in Round 2
Defeated Ron Rivera in Round 1

Not bad for a guy that was a three seed to start the tournament. It is really no surprise considering Barry Sanders is arguably the greatest running back in NFL history and played the game with an unmatched level of excitement and grace. There wasn’t a reason for any football fan to dislike him, except when he was juking and jiving his way to the end zone if you’re a fan of an opposing team. In fact, more than a decade after his retirement, searching keyword “why did Barry Sanders retire” still brings in a surprising number of hits to this website.

Madden 25 is scheduled to be released on August 27, 2013.

EA Sports released an early gameplay video for the new edition of Madden. It’s pretty sweet as it contains a montage of various stars (including Calvin Johnson) running over, around and through the Green Bay Packers:

Oct 23, 2011; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Lions former player Barry Sanders prior to the game against the Atlanta Falcons at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber- USA TODAY Sports

EA Sports is celebrating the 25th edition of the Madden video game franchise this year so they decided to change up the cover vote by splitting the bracket in half with a new school side and an old school side.

Sanders defeated Ron Rivera, Marcus Allen, Ray Lewis and Jerry Rice to reach the finals where he will take part in one more vote, this time against Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson. Both finalists breezed through the previous rounds with relative ease. Could EA Sports have asked for a better old school/new school final than Barry and AD? I think not.

Voting is now open and will remain so for the next week. The winner will be announced live on television during a special 8 p.m. ET edition of SportsNation on ESPN2.

VOTE NOW!

Oct 28, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) talks with Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) after Seattle lost 28-24 at Ford Field. Mandatory Credit: Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

This year’s voting tournament is broken up into “new school” and “old school” sides of the bracket. Matthew Stafford was the Lions “new school” representative and he has been defeated by Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Doug Martin in one of the first round’s closest votes. Martin got just 53% of the vote but moves on to the second round to face Robert Griffin III.

One Lions great is still in the running on the old school side of the bracket. Barry Sanders received a first round-best 95% of the vote in his matchup with former Chicago Bears great Ron Rivera. Barry is up against another running back in round two, Marcus Allen.

The second round of voting takes place today through March 27 on the SportsNation page on ESPN.com.