In its continuing quest to drum up attention for its college football franchise, game publisher Electronic Arts announced that former Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan will star on the cover of “NCAA Football 09″ for PlayStation 3 consoles.

Ryan won the 2008 Manning Award given to the nation’s top senior quarterback. His will be the third game face announced this season. Electronic Arts subsidiary EA Sports is trying something new this year by having different Football Bowl Subdivision stars featured on each edition of the game, due out in July.

Earlier, EA announced that Darren McFadden, Arkansas star and all-around thorn in the side of the Missouri Tigers in their quest for the Big 12 football title, would star on the Xbox 360 edition. And as a result of fan voting for favorite team mascot held Feb. 14-March 14, Michigan State’s Sparty will get the cover-art treatment on Wii boxes.

Cover athletes for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable editions have not yet been announced.

According to EA, the “NCAA Football” interface also is receiving major tweaking this season, including better player breakaway control, louder crowd participation, more cosmetic changes with cheerleaders and backup players along the sidelines, better passing control and a series of supplementary mini-games, none of which have been detailed.

All 120 FBS teams are in the game, resplendent with dozens of uniform designs to choose from. Gamers also can customize the in-game atmosphere with songs downloaded from their own music collections.

There’s even something called “mascot games” in the works. Perhaps thanks to that, Sparty may become more than just another pretty face on this game after all.