College Football

If ‘NCAA Football 18’ were real, here’s how EA Sports might rate each team

Rankings of all 130 teams for 2017, in the three categories the old games used.

by Jason Kirk

Updated Jul 11, 2017, 6:46 PM UTC

YouTube: Golden GS

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EA Sports isn’t releasing a college football game this year, just as it hasn’t since NCAA Football 14 came out in 2013. Seeing as this is mid-July, this is the exact time of the year at which the game would’ve come out. Because of that and the college football season still being more than a month away, jonesing is at peak levels.

We don’t know exactly how all 130 FBS teams would’ve been rated in NCAA 18, but we can take a guess. I used Bill Connelly’s S&P+ projections for each team — which factor recruiting, returning production, and recent history — and crammed those numbers into a 60-to-99 range, like what EA used in 14, then did some fiddlin’ to account for coaching changes, transfers, and such.

On that scale, a team rated 60 is almost certainly the worst in FBS (that scale still leaves room for an FCS team to play like a 45 or so), and a 99 team is likely one of the best ever.

College football teams in ‘NCAA Football 18’ would be rated something like this

Team	Conference	Overall	Offense	Defense
Alabama	SEC	94	91	96
Ohio State	Big Ten	93	92	93
Florida State	ACC	91	90	92
USC	Pac-12	90	93	87
Clemson	ACC	89	86	92
Penn State	Big Ten	89	92	86
LSU	SEC	89	88	89
Oklahoma	Big 12	88	96	80
Auburn	SEC	88	89	87
Michigan	Big Ten	88	85	90
Wisconsin	Big Ten	88	85	90
Louisville	ACC	88	90	85
Washington	Pac-12	88	91	84
Stanford	Pac-12	87	85	88
Georgia	SEC	87	86	87
Florida	SEC	86	81	91
Oklahoma State	Big 12	86	95	77
Miami	ACC	86	83	88
Notre Dame	Independents	86	87	84
Texas	Big 12	85	89	80
Texas A&M	SEC	85	86	83
NC State	ACC	85	82	87
TCU	Big 12	84	87	81
Oregon	Pac-12	84	93	75
Tennessee	SEC	84	87	80
Virginia Tech	ACC	83	78	88
UCLA	Pac-12	83	85	81
Baylor	Big 12	83	85	81
Ole Miss	SEC	82	88	76
Georgia Tech	ACC	82	84	80
Boise State	MWC	82	88	76
USF	AAC	82	89	75
Northwestern	Big Ten	82	81	83
Minnesota	Big Ten	82	79	84
Arkansas	SEC	82	86	77
Mississippi State	SEC	82	88	75
Pitt	ACC	82	89	74
South Carolina	SEC	82	81	82
Indiana	Big Ten	81	76	86
North Carolina	ACC	81	82	80
Oregon State	Pac-12	81	83	78
Kentucky	SEC	81	85	76
Washington State	Pac-12	81	86	75
Iowa	Big Ten	81	74	87
Utah	Pac-12	81	84	77
West Virginia	Big 12	81	86	75
Kansas State	Big 12	80	84	76
Nebraska	Big Ten	80	76	84
Cal	Pac-12	80	86	74
Colorado State	MWC	80	87	72
BYU	Independents	80	76	83
Houston	AAC	80	78	81
San Diego State	MWC	80	80	79
Colorado	Pac-12	80	83	76
WKU	C-USA	80	84	75
Missouri	SEC	80	87	72
Arizona State	Pac-12	80	87	72
Appalachian State	Sun Belt	79	79	79
Vanderbilt	SEC	79	79	79
Michigan State	Big Ten	79	79	79
Duke	ACC	79	81	77
Syracuse	ACC	79	86	72
Iowa State	Big 12	79	86	72
Toledo	MAC	79	88	70
Wake Forest	ACC	79	75	82
Temple	AAC	79	76	81
Tulsa	AAC	79	84	73
Memphis	AAC	79	86	71
Texas Tech	Big 12	79	92	65
Navy	AAC	78	83	73
Arizona	Pac-12	78	82	73
Cincinnati	AAC	78	76	79
Virginia	ACC	78	77	78
Maryland	Big Ten	77	75	79
Utah State	MWC	77	78	75
UCF	AAC	76	74	78
Troy	Sun Belt	76	78	74
Boston College	ACC	76	67	84
Wyoming	MWC	76	79	72
WMU	MAC	75	73	77
Purdue	Big Ten	75	77	73
SMU	AAC	75	80	70
Louisiana Tech	C-USA	75	83	67
Arkansas State	Sun Belt	75	73	76
Illinois	Big Ten	75	73	76
NIU	MAC	75	77	72
Southern Miss	C-USA	75	77	72
Miami (OH)	MAC	74	74	74
Ball State	MAC	74	79	69
MTSU	C-USA	74	84	64
Rutgers	Big Ten	74	69	78
Tulane	AAC	74	69	78
CMU	MAC	74	75	72
UTSA	C-USA	74	75	72
Old Dominion	C-USA	74	76	71
East Carolina	AAC	74	77	70
Bowling Green	MAC	74	78	69
EMU	MAC	74	80	67
FAU	C-USA	74	83	64
Kansas	Big 12	74	78	69
Georgia Southern	Sun Belt	73	71	75
Army	Independents	73	71	74
Marshall	C-USA	73	71	74
FIU	C-USA	73	76	69
New Mexico	MWC	73	84	61
Ohio	MAC	72	68	76
San Jose State	MWC	72	73	71
Hawaii	MWC	72	78	66
UL Lafayette	Sun Belt	72	67	76
South Alabama	Sun Belt	72	71	72
North Texas	C-USA	72	72	71
Fresno State	MWC	72	73	70
UMass	Independents	72	73	70
Nevada	MWC	72	74	69
Georgia State	Sun Belt	71	68	74
Air Force	MWC	71	77	65
UNLV	MWC	71	79	63
Rice	C-USA	71	73	68
Idaho	Sun Belt	71	75	66
Kent State	MAC	70	68	72
UConn	AAC	70	69	71
New Mexico State	Sun Belt	70	73	66
UTEP	C-USA	70	73	66
ULM	Sun Belt	70	74	65
Akron	MAC	70	74	65
Buffalo	MAC	68	65	70
Charlotte	C-USA	68	69	66
Texas State	Sun Belt	67	67	66
Coastal Carolina	Sun Belt	66	70	62
UAB	C-USA	62	60	64

Based on a 60-to-99 scale. Starting point: Bill Connelly’s 2017 S&P+ projections, with slight and subjective adjustments based on coaching changes, transfers, and so forth

These line up roughly well with the expected preseason rankings and Vegas’ season projections.

Stock NCAA 14 rated defending champ Bama as a 99 across the board and Oregon’s offense as the only other 99. Those all felt a little high, because even Bama should have room for improvement, once you take over and start signing nothing but five-stars. So since none of 2017’s teams look likely to be in the running for greatest ever, nobody’s really close to 99.

Expect the game to return at some point, but not any time soon. You can still play any of the old games, and you can still download updated rosters. Dedicated internet communities update the game’s rosters every year. And the new Madden will include at least a couple college teams in its new story mode.

For now, that’s about all we have, until the NCAA steps out of the way of the free market.