Football fans have had more than a decade to think about which team they’re going to use when EA Sports College Football 25 finally drops. Obviously, plenty of us will fire up the game and use our alma maters the very first time, dropping the difficult all the way down to the easiest setting and giving the team we hate the most a whooping in a video game that they’ve managed to avoid since NCAA 14.
But not everyone is normal like I am. Other folks are not guided by a fandom that revolves around tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, and they may need a little bit of guidance about which team they should use in the game. If you’re one of those people, fear not, because we’re here to help you out with the most fun team to use depending on a number of different factors.
The most fun team to use if you wanna grind opponents to dust: Ohio State
Unlike years past under Ryan Day, this Ohio State team is probably not going to throw the ball for a million yards. However, while the offensive line has some questions, they have the best running back room in the country with the 1-2 punch of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins, a quarterback in Will Howard who is a bulldozer in the running game, and an elite defense with no major holes. You’ll want to get familiar with the name Jeremiah Smith as soon as possible for future versions of the game — he has the potential to be the best WR they’ve ever had in Columbus — but for this year, you’re gonna want to play ground and pound with OSU.
The most fun team to use if you don’t like a challenge: Georgia
We must stress that if you use Georgia and you are not a Bulldogs fan, no one will respect you. They are to EA CFB 25 what prime Barcelona was to FIFA games in the early-10s, or the Kevin Durant Warriors were in NBA 2K. Having said that, they have the best offense in the game (94 overall) and the second-best defense (also 94 overall), and they are unsurprisingly loaded on both side of the football. They have four of the 25-best players in the game — FS Malaki Starks, RG Tate Ratledge, QB Carson Beck, LOLB Mykel Williams — and you will win games if you use them. You will get made fun of for using them, but you’ll win games and recruit well!
The most fun team to use early (but maybe not late): Colorado
I do not think ratings adjustments throughout this season are going to be especially kind to Colorado. The team started well last year and were the story of the sport for the first month, and then things went entirely off the rails over the final nine games of the year. Having said that, EA really likes them heading into the year, and they have a legitimately good QB (Shedeur Sanders) and group of skill position players, led by two-way star Travis Hunter. Take advantage of how fun they’ll be before the non-Sanders and Hunter are brought back down to earth as the season goes on.
The most fun teams to use if you want to get in a shootout: Missouri and Kansas
Neither of these teams have one of the top-25 defenses in the game. Mizzou has the No. 9 offense, while Kansas comes in at No. 14. Both have elite talents on offense who are capable of single-handedly winning you games, with the Tigers having the game’s second-best WR in Luther Burden III, and the Jayhawks having an excellent 1-2 QB and RB punch in Devin Neal and Jalon Daniels. I expect their defenses to be on the leakier side, but for some people, that’s part of the appeal — and I can’t blame them, because few things are more fun than winning a game 45-42 because you got the ball last.
The most fun team to use if you want to get in a defensive slugfest: Iowa
I must recommend that you do not use Iowa, as I attended a Big Ten school that is not Iowa and I have seen too much Iowa football in my life as a result. But their defense is an 88 overall (which is probably way too low), while I anticipate their offense will not be good in the slightest, as it’s Iowa. They have four of the top-100 players in the game, and all of them are on defense: MLB Jay Higgins, FS Sebastian Castro, ROLB Nick Jackson, and SS Xavier Nwankpa. Their offense would be a fun challenge for you to have to figure out, but if you are hell-bent on trying to score a defensive touchdown, this would be your best bet.
The most fun team to use if you want to build a contender from the ground up: A lot
All the attention always gets put on the top-25 teams. Well, according to my pal Bill Connelly’s SP+ metric, here are the 25 worst teams in FBS heading into this season:
110. Sam Houston
111. Old Dominion
112. San Jose State
113. Middle Tennessee State
114. New Mexico State
115. Florida Atlantic
116. Tulsa
117. Eastern Michigan
118. Buffalo
119. Central Michigan
120. Ball State
121. Nevada
122. Louisiana Tech
123. Southern Miss
124. Florida International
125. UTEP
126. UConn
127. Charlotte
128. UMass
129. Kent State
130. Kennesaw State
131. New Mexico
132. Temple
133. Akron
134. UL-Monroe
If you want to use a team in a Power 5 conference, the 10 worst heading into this season via SP+ are Vanderbilt, Arizona State, Indiana, Stanford, Michigan State, Pitt, Wake Forest, Virginia, Boston College, and Northwestern. Best of luck, friends.