“EA Sports College Football 25” is on the horizon as the long-anticipated video game is set to be released on July 19. The buzz surrounding the game went into overdrive with the release of the trailer in May and the video game company is adding to the hype with the reveal of several rankings this week.
The company capped the week on Friday by releasing its top 25 team power rankings on Friday, following the release of the top offensive/defensive unit rankings on Thursday. There aren’t too many surprises here as the list features several of what we would consider the top teams heading into the 2024 season.
NEW: EA Sports College Football 25 Team Power Rankings
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The 2024 season will, of course, mark the first year where the College Football Playoff will expand to 12 teams and I wanted to take a look at what it would look like according to EA’s team rankings.
As a refresher, the five-highest-ranked conference champions will receive an automatic bid. While the rules don’t explicitly guarantee entry for specific leagues, it’s widely accepted the five will be the SEC/Big Ten/ACC/Big 12 champions + the highest-ranked Group of Five champion. After that, the next seven highest-ranked teams will fill out the rest of the field with at-large bids.
The top four seeds will receive a bye straight to the quarterfinals, while the other eight seeds will play their first-round games at the on-campus site of the higher-ranked squad. Something to note is that since the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are independent and because they cannot win a conference championship, they are ineligible for a top four seed. The Fighting Irish will always be thrown into the at-large category should they be ranked high enough to make the CFP.
Here’s what the field would look like if EA Sports’ rankings hold.
Based on EA’s rankings, the five conference champion auto-bids would be No. 1 Georgia (SEC), No. 2 Ohio State (Big Ten), No. 3 Clemson (ACC), No. 4 Utah (Big 12), and No. 12 Memphis (AAC). Memphis is the Group of Five rep and although it wasn’t included in the top 25 team rankings, I put it in the field based off it being the only G5 school to appear in Thursday’s unit rankings. The Tigers would assumably be the odd team out of the top four and given their status as a G5 program, I’ll assume the CFP committee will slot them at the bottom at No. 12.
Now let’s see how the bracket would play out.
First round
Friday, December 20 or Saturday, December 21
No. 9 LSU at No. 8 Notre Dame
No. 12 Memphis at No. 5 Oregon
No. 10 Penn State at No. 7 Texas
No. 11 Michigan at No. 6 Alabama
The first batch of first-round games this year will be interesting due to the fact that we’ll see on-campus playoff games and the peculiar situations some road teams will find themselves in.
In this scenario based on EA Sports’ rankings, LSU vs. Notre Dame would be a must-watch for multiple reasons. First, it would feature Brian Kelly returning to Notre Dame for the very first time. Second, the average high-low of South Bend in December is 36/22 and the city averages 17 inches of snowfall during the month. So there’s a good chance that LSU will have to play in freezing temperatures and possibly snow depending on what time this matchup will kick off.
Michigan-Alabama in Tuscaloosa will be intriguing as it will be a rematch of last year’s Rose Bowl thriller that saw the Wolverines survive in overtime. What’s also notable about this rematch is that both teams will have new head coaches with Sherrone Moore taking over for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and Kalen DeBoer taking the reigns for Bama following Nick Saban’s retirement.
Quarterfinals
Tuesday, December 31
No. 12 Memphis/No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 4 Utah (Fiesta Bowl)
Wednesday, January 1
No. 8 LSU/No. 9 Notre Dame vs. No. 1 Georgia (Peach Bowl)
No. 10 Penn State/No. 7 Texas vs. No. 2 Ohio State (Rose Bowl)
No. 11 Michigan/No. 6 Alabama vs. No. 3 Clemson (Sugar Bowl)
Like the four-team playoff, the No. 1 seed will get to pick where it wants to play its quarterfinal game and the CFP committee will assign the other three to their destinations. In this scenario, No. 1 Georgia would almost assuredly choose the Peach Bowl in Atlanta for what would be a de-facto home game against either LSU or Notre Dame. Meanwhile, No. 2 Ohio State would most likely get assigned the Rose Bowl to upkeep the Big Ten’s history with that game and it could very well face a Big Ten team if No. 10 Penn State advances to the quarters.
Semifinals
Thursday, January 9 or Friday, January 10
No. 8/9/1 vs. No. 5/12/4 (Orange Bowl/Cotton Bowl)
No. 7/10/2 vs. No. 6/11/3 (Orange Bowl/Cotton Bowl)
The Orange and Cotton Bowls will serve as the semifinal sites for this year’s CFP. It should be noted that if things break a certain way in the bracket, we could get an Ohio State-Michigan rematch here, marking the first time these two bitter enemies will have met outside of Columbus or Ann Arbor.
Championship
Monday, January 20
Semifinal winner vs. Semifinal winner (Atlanta)
The CFP title game will be held on January 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Should No. 1 UGA go the distance, it would mark the fourth time playing at the venue that season between this, its season opener against Clemson, an assumed victory in the SEC Championship Game, and the aforementioned Peach Bowl.
Prediction: Ohio State 34, Georgia 27
Given that CFP has expanded, it’s going to be even more of a war of attrition and depth is going to play a vital role for one of these teams going the distance. It’s for that reason that I’ll go chalk and predict No. 1 Georgia facing No. 2 Ohio State in the title game with the Buckeyes taking down the Bulldogs in a de-facto road game. Ryan Day, you can rest easy in this world.
