The release of EA Sports College Football 27 is merely weeks away. College football fans will be scrambling to create their own player or start up a Dynasty, taking their school to the national championship with hopes of winning it every year.
Alabama may be a program that some fans will try to "rebuild". Fans have had plenty to say since the overall ratings were released earlier this week. Alabama, surprisingly to me, who has bought into the Keelon Russell hype, is no longer a top team in the series. Which is weird, when it seemed like with the first two releases since EA brought back their college football series, Alabama was always a top team. Your friends would complain when you took them to an online league or for a quick head-to-head game.
For years, Alabama has always entered the season with the title of elite. Well, until proven otherwise. Preseason polls, recruiting rankings, and even video game rankings. The Tide always received the benefit of the doubt. Welp, that seems to have faded away.
Alabama is no longer getting the benefit of the doubt
This year's rating for the Tide tells a different story. Alabama is the 12th-ranked team in the game. They are behind teams like Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Miami, Georgia, and the best overall-rated team in the game, Oregon. They are sitting at an 86 OVR rating, tied with BYU and USC. Rather than being one of the game's perennial teams, Alabama is a mid-tier team in the game. This is a shift from the previous installments and shows that even the makers of the video game are not giving the Tide any benefit of the doubt anymore. The national perception of the Tide has changed.
I am criticizing the rating, but I am rational. I know why it exists. There are legitimate questions surrounding the team. Who is going to play quarterback? Can the offensive line hold up and be revamped? Will the Tide be able to run the ball more effectively than last season? Can the linebacking core replace key players and leaders from last year? These are just a few, but it adds perspective to why the developers, and the way-too-early preseason polls, have Alabama off their radar. These preseason ratings are built on uncertainty and unproven production.
The Talent of this team could have been taken into consideration more with the overall ratings. The roster will have future first-round picks and has blue-chip recruits from the previous two classes. Some players did get respect from the developers. Zabien Brown is one of the top-rated cornerbacks in the game, along with fellow safety Bray Hubbard, who is near the top of the highest-rated safeties in the game. That's about it, though, for high-ranking weapons in the game for the Tide.
The issue isn't whether Alabama has elite players, but can these young players come together to answer some of this offseason's questions? The roster is talented, but the developers don't assign high ratings to question marks on this team.
Whether Alabama's rating is too high or too low is beside the point. The biggest takeaway is what the ratings represent. For the first time in a long time, the Crimson Tide is entering the season without the inevitable confidence of the rest of the college football world. If Alabama can answer the offseason's biggest questions, EA Sports will regret ranking them so low in July. If the last two decades have taught college football anything, counting out the Crimson Tide this early in a July video game release is foolish.
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