Fans of college football finally will get to play a video game about the sport again. After not releasing a title in its NCAA Football series in more than a decade, EA Sports will drop the highly-anticipated EA Sports College Football 25 next month, and as part of the build up, we learned which teams will be the best on offense, defense, and overall this week.
Of course, these are video game rankings, so they’re not going to make everyone happy. Still, this year’s game has some wrinkles it’ll need to iron out, as the initial ranking of the top-25 teams could have been a bit better. Here, we’re going to look at three teams that are overrated by EA Sports, and three that deserve a bit more love, with a little help from the predictive measure SP+.
Overrated
Colorado
It is, quite frankly, stunning to see just how high Colorado is in the initial rankings. The offense legitimately has a ton of talent — Shedeur Sanders is one of the best signal callers in America, while their skill position players led by Travis Hunter are going to be fun to use in the game. But between a patchwork offensive line that might start a true freshman at left tackle and a defense that was one of the worst in America last year (even though Hunter is quite good as a cornerback), ranking them at all is pretty crazy. Frankly, unless Sanders and the skill position guys can carry them to a bunch of shootouts, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a pretty serious change whenever the ratings get updated in-season.
EA Sports CFB: 87 overall (No. 16), 89 offense (No. 8), 84 defense (No. 20)
Post-spring SP+: 69th overall, 46th offense, 105th defense
Kansas
The Jayhawks are a blast, as Jalon Daniels is one of the best quarterbacks in America when he’s healthy (unfortunately a big if), Devin Neal is one of the nation’s best running backs, and head coach Lance Leipold always has his teams punch above their own weight. Their offense is going to be good, but their defense has been quite leaky over the years and they lost a good amount of talent on both sides of the ball — nothing completely insane, but they’re 78th in America in returning production, which includes losing Jason Bean, the backup QB who stepped in when Daniels dealt with injury issues and performed well. Again, their offense will be fun to use in the game, but they probably should start just outside the top-25.
EA Sports CFB: 87 overall (No. 22), 87 offense (No. 14), N/A defense
Post-spring SP+: 37th overall, 16th offense, 66th defense
Clemson
It’s been a weird couple of years for the Tigers, which have been the single most hostile Power 5 program towards the concept of using the transfer portal. As such, the team has to replace a number of major contributors who left for the NFL on both sides of the ball, while the guys they have coming back (namely everyone involved in their passing game) have left something to be desired. I do think EA Sports betting on their defense even though it lost a ton of talent is not a bad bet, considering how good they’ve been over the years even after Brent Venables left for Oklahoma, but their offense has a ton to prove before I’m willing to say it’ll live up to its ranking.
EA Sports CFB: 90 overall (No. 6), 87 offense (No. 10), 90 defense (No. 5)
Post-spring SP+: 14th overall, 15th offense, 13th defense
Underrated
Tennessee
How on earth is Tennessee not in the top-25? The Vols lost a ton on offense and a good amount on defense, but they’ve recruited at a top-15 level over the last few years, and they’ve pretty consistently put up good offenses — even last year, when they took a step back by replacing Hendon Hooker with Joe Milton under center, the Vols put up 31.8 points and 448.1 yards per game. With blue chip QB Nico Iamaleava taking over at QB, I fully expect them to compete in the SEC, and they’d very possibly beat all three of the teams I dropped into the overrated section.
EA Sports CFB: N/A overall, N/A offense, N/A defense
Post-spring SP+: 16th overall, 14th offense, 19th defense
Ole Miss
Losing star running back Quinshon Judkins to Ohio State hurts, but Ole Miss should be viewed as a top-10 team entering the season. EA Sports, however, has them on the outside looking in. No team did better in the transfer portal than Lane Kiffin’s squad, which went 11-2 last year and brings back a ton on the offensive side of the ball, namely standout QB Jaxson Dart. They’re going to score points, and if their defense is able to perform at a high level (which, I think they will, as they killed it in portal recruiting on that side of the ball), this is a team with top-5 potential.
EA Sports CFB: 88 overall (No. 15), 87 offense (No. 13), N/A defense
Post-spring SP+: 8th overall, 6th offense, 15th defense
SMU
The Mustangs not being ranked at all is also unfortunate — there were no current or former Group of 5 teams in the initial overall ranking, which makes some sense, and while they’re jumping to the ACC this year, they are coming off of 11 wins and an AAC championship. Still, SMU is going to be awesome on both sides of the ball, and will have an outside shot of winning the ACC during their first year in the conference. Star QB Preston Stone is going to lead a dynamic offense (EA Sports did rank them among the top-25 offenses), while their defense has a ton of talent. They’re a top-25 team in post-spring SP+, and should be in CFB 25, too.
EA Sports CFB: N/A overall, 85 offense (No. 20), N/A defense
Post-spring SP+: 23rd overall, 22nd offense, 39th defense