Not saying that you couldn't be right and that's all there is to the "connected" part but I think it's a given that the Franchise mode from M12 has changed in M13.
The most obvious evidence being that new menu hub that has already been released. It has a section for "Play Career" "Be a player or Coach", so that seems to imply some sort of various POV options for playing the same career mode. Instead of like in M12 and previous Maddens where they were two separate options entirely.