Ole Miss receives its power ranking for upcoming EA Sports College Football 25 video game (2024)

Ole Miss is a consensus top-10 preseason team in reality, unlike its virtual ranking.

Jared ReddingJun 28th, 11:06 AM

Despite being considered by almost every significant media network and college football expert as a top-10 before the the 2024 season kicks off, Ole Miss hasn't received any rat poison from EA Sports, who are just over two weeks away from releasing its college football video game.

Ole Miss' overall offensive rating (87 OVR) and No. 13 ranking was disputed by fans and non-fans alike on social media on Thursday. Ole Miss also didn't appear in the top-25 of the game's defensive rankings or ratings. With that basically averaged out, it gives Ole Miss an unexpected ranking among the 134 FBS college football teams in the game.

On Friday, Ole Miss was rankedas the No. 15 team in the game by EA Sports, with an 88 overall rating (max is 99). When factoring in said rating, that would make the Rebels tied for the fifth best team in the game.

The series has served as a fun and realistic college football virtual simulator since 1993, with official FBS college football teams, real life modeled stadiums, imported college fight songs, accurate team schedules, accurate team tendencies, accurate team tradition both on and off the field, and accurate representation of each team's players and coaches. With the advancements in college football and in technology over the course of the series' hiatus, Ole Miss fans will soon have the best method of building their own virtual football program from the transfer portal, high school recruiting, play-callingand much more.

The story of the college football video game's discontinuation in 2013 stems directly from conflicts regarding name, image and likeness — which has since become the norm in the real life game today.

The series started in 1993 under the title "Bill Walsh College Football" and annual releases followed each year over the next two decades to coincide with each individual season the game was developed around. After a rename to "College Football USA" in the mid-90's, the NCAA was licensed to be included in the game's title, corresponding with the year that followed the intended season (for example, the 2013 game was titled NCAA Football 14).

Due to the NCAA's previous legislation, players were barred from profiting off name, image and likeness. The loophole around that, for the game's sake, was to not include any specific names in the game, despite having players' position, height, weight, tendencies, home state and more all fairly accurate to the real life person (for example, former Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace in NCAA Football 14 very much resembled the real life counterpart, but was named "QB #14 in the game).

This became an issue that blew up in the NCAA's face thanks in large part to the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit in the mid-2010's that argued using players' name, image and likeness for commercial purposes. The NCAA settled with all parties involved with the similar situation, which forced EA Sports' hand in discontinuing the franchise indefinitely following the latest release of NCAA Football 14. Since that time, college football fans have made a cult following of the latest entry, even going as far to modify the game itself to suit the current climate of college football.

However,with the NCAA adopting its current NIL policy in 2021, it opened the door for the franchise to return, with players now having the ability to profit off having their full name, image and likeness in the game. The franchise eventually announced its return, but development hurdles followed due to the changing landscape of college football among other challenges trying to stay in bounds and make sure all players' NIL were accounted for.

The real-life Rebels will begin this heavily anticipated 2024 campaign on Aug. 31 inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium against Furman. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. CT and can be seen on SECN+/ESPN+ or listened to on the Ole Miss Radio Network.