In its continuing roll out of information, EA Sports College Football 25 recently revealed the top 100 players. Previously, EA announced College Football’s top teams regarding offense, defense, and overall power. Now players have a more individual look at the top athletes featured in the game, which helps shed light on their respective teams’ overall stats. Knowing more about individual athletes is also helpful for any players already planning their Ultimate Team mode line-up, and which college they want to choose as their starting base.

If previous EA Sports titles are any indication, theserankings will be subject to change over time. Madden typically updates rosters and stats every week once football season starts, so it would be reasonable to expect that College Football 25 would do the same after college football season is underway. Still, players will have a little over a month after the release of College Football 25 before any updates will be possible, and it is unlikely that things will shift too drastically throughout the season. Even if they change, this initial list likely gives a good idea of the top athletes.

Player Rankings Are Determined By Overall Score

Below is a table of the 100 best athletes in College Football 25, per the Electronic Arts website.

Looking at the breakdown of the top 100 players, it becomes apparent why teams like Georgia and Ohio State have earned such high overall team rankings in College Football 25. With a lot of individual talent on the team, it makes sense that the team as a whole would get a higher overall ranking.

That isn’t to say there are no good players on teams that aren’t among the top 10 overall teams. Teams like Liberty and Wisconsin may not be the highest-ranking teams, but they still have several of the top 100 players in College Football 25. This means choosing the right team won’t be as simple as just picking the one with the highest overall score.

Due to players’ different styles, they will likely want to gravitate toward teams that fit their preferred strategy. Players who like to run a lot of passing plays will likely want a team like Colorado that has a high-ranked quarterback and a high-ranked wide receiver. Alternatively, players who know they struggle on defense may want to pick teams that have better linebackers and defensive tackles, so the automated players can make up for their shortcomings.

Athletes Are Ranked On A Variety Of Criteria

College Football 25’s overall athlete scores are an aggregate score of a few different metrics. Players are given ranks for Speed, Acceleration, Strength, Awareness, and Jumping. While the exact weighting isn’t specified, all of these rankings are not weighted equally and then given a mean score; instead, some are considered more important. For instance, Will Johnson has a 96 overall score, but a mean score of 89.4. It also seems like weights may be different for the different positions, meaning a running back’s speed may have more bearing on their OVR than a tackle’s.

For instance, Will Campbell, another player with a 96 overall score, has a mean score of only 75. However, he scores high in strength and awareness. As a Left Tackle, these attributes are more important to what he does on the field and are seemingly weighted more heavily when creating an overall score for him. As for where these scores come from in the first place, there are a few possible answers.

Though College Football 25’s official website doesn’t specify how these numbers were calculated, it’s safe to assume the game uses a similar methodology as Madden. According to Sports Illustrated, EA Sports uses a player’s stats, as well as discussions with professionals in the NFL, to determine player rankings for its Madden games. As it is the same developers using the same engine to create College Football 25, it would only make sense that they were using the same methods to determine player scores.

Since some of the players’ rankings are based on conversations, it’s hard to find an exact way that College Football 25 reaches its final numbers. If there is a formula that EA uses, it isn’t available to the public. However, it is clear that these numbers are research-based, and weighted appropriately for each athlete’s position.

When Can Players Expect Rankings To Change?

If College Football 25 is going to follow the model of other EA Sports titles, it will likely receive weekly updates to rosters and player ratings once college football season starts on August 24, 2024. That said, many players have expressed frustration in the past, especially with Madden NFL 24, that these weekly updates don’t always seem to be working properly. Some players notice that roster updates don’t necessarily reflect the reality of the previous week, leading to some frustration among players.

Without a firm announcement yet about College Football 25’s possible updates, players will likely have to wait and see how these will be handled. Hopefully, since EA Sports seems to be putting a lot of effort into making the game a success, it will stay on top of any necessary updates to the teams. It’s hard to say how long this type of support will continue, especially if College Football becomes an annual franchise, like Madden.

Source: Sports Illustrated, EA Sports

EA Sports College Football 25

Platform(s)

PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

July 19, 2024

Developer(s)

EA Orlando

Franchise

EA Sports College Football

Genre(s)

Sports

ESRB

E For Everyone Due To Alcohol Reference

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