TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Video games have carved out their own lane within the greater sports discourse. NFL players are celebrated for their Madden ratings, for example. NBA players take pride in their 2K ratings.
Could the new EA Sports College Football 25 eventually play that same role for college football players? It may already be trending that direction, if it isn’t there already.
With relaxed rules regarding athletes’ name, image, and likeness, EA brought back its famed college football video game to great fanfare. We got our hands on a copy of the game, courtesy of our friends at EA Sports (shoutout to Edwin and the gang
We’ve been playing the game for the last month, primarily as Alabama. We wanted to see what it was like to play with the players we’ve covered and written about. We wanted to see how realistic it was — which meant analyzing the player ratings.
The following is a closer look at how EA did when it came to creating Alabama’s roster. These ratings are from the most-recent update, which dropped a week ago. We looked at the Crimson Tide’s top players, who’s the fastest and the strongest, and more.
Top-15 Players
- Parker Brailsford, OL/C, 93 overall
- Malachi Moore, DB, 92 overall
- Jaeden Roberts, OL, 92 overall
- Jalen Milroe, QB, 91 overall
- Tyler Booker, OL, 91 overall
- Deontae Lawson, MLB, 90 overall
- Keon Sabb, DB, 88 overall
- Graham Nicholson, K, 88 overall
- Kadyn Proctor, OL, 88 overall
- Justice Haynes, RB, 86 overall
- Jam Miller, RB, 86 overall
- Domani Jackson, CB, 86 overall
- Germie Bernard, WR, 85 overall
- Jihaad Campbell, MLB, 85 overall
- Ryan Williams, WR, 85 overall
Thoughts: The top six — Brailsford, Moore, Roberts, Milroe, Booker, Lawson — were in EA’s Top 100. It makes sense that they’re Alabama’s top players. The other nine behind them make sense as some of the Tide’s best for 2024, although Tim Keenan III and LT Overton, at Nos. 16 and 18 respectively, probably had cases for the top 15.
Obviously the game developers are high on both Sabb and Nicholson, two transfers. Sabb played important snaps for Michigan a year ago, so it’ll be interesting to see how he holds up all season. Nicholson, of course, was the nation’s top kicker.
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