Pitt Football Opponents Receive EA CFB 25 Ratings

The Pitt Panthers have a few opponents who received early EA Sports College Football 25 video game ratings ahead of its July release.

EA Sports College Football 25 Pitt Football /

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers will feature in the in the upcoming EA Sports College Football 25, the new college football video game, set to come out in less than a month.

Electronia Arts (EA) released a few new updates this week, including toughest places to play, sights and sounds deep dive, top offenses and defenses and overall team rankings.

They only released the top 25 teams for the ratings and rankings, which Pitt did not make, but some of their opponents did.

Clemson made all three ratings, coming in tied at the No. 10 offense, 87 overall, tied at No. 3 defense, 90 overall, and tied at No. 6 power rankings, 90 overall.

The Tigers have players returning in Second Team All-ACC linebacker Barrett Carter, Third Team All-ACC tight end Jake Briningstool, offensive tackle Blake Miller, offensive tackle WIll Putnam, plus Honorable Mention All-ACC running back Phil Mafah, defensive end T.J. Parker and safeties Khalil Barnes and R.J. Mickens.

Pitt will host Clemson at Acrisure Stadium on Nov. 16 in the season home finale. Pitt defeated Clemson in their last matchup, 27-17 in Oct. 2021, en route to the ACC Championship.

SMU comes in ranked tied No. 17 offense in the game. They return players like First Team All-AAC guards Justin Osborne and Logan Parr and tight end RJ Maryland, Second Team All-AAC running back Jaylan Knighton and Third Team All-AAC quarterback Preston Stone.

Louisville and North Carolina ranked tied for No. 18 with an 84 overall ranked defense. Pitt upset then ranked No. 14 Louisville, 38-21 on Oct. 14, but lost to then ranked No. 17 North Carolina, 41-24, on Sept. 23.

The Cardinals return First Team All-ACC Ashton Gillotte, Third Team All-ACC safety Devin Neal and Honorable Mention All-ACC defensive tackle Dezmond Tell, linebacker TJ Quinn and cornerbacks Jarvis Brownlee and Quincy Riley.

The Tar Heels return Second Team All-ACC defensive end Kaimon Rucker, Third Team All-ACC linebacker Power Echols and Honorable Mention All-ACC cornerback Elijah Huzzie.

The EA Sports College Football video game will likely serve as one of the biggest games of the year. It is the first college football video game to come out since 2013, ending an 11-year hiatus. 

Bill Walsh College Football was the first college football video game and it came out in 1993. The legendary head coach of Stanford and the San Francisco 49ers served as the cover for the first two editions and then College Football USA 96/97 would feature as the next two.

The NCAA started to brand the video game in 1997 with NCAA College Football 98 and would continue to do so through 2013 with NCAA College Football 14. All FBS teams then came into the video game, but with the NCAA branding, so too did official bowl games and awards like the Heisman, Biletnikoff and others. 

The game had different modes that people could play, like dynasty mode, ultimate team in later editions and Road to Glory, which allowed players to play as themselves and become a star.

NCAA College Football came out on a number of consoles, including Wii, PlayStation, XBOX, GameCube, Windows and more. This new edition will come out for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Pitt even had a player grace the cover, as Biletnikoff winner Larry Fitzgerald was the cover on NCAA College Football 2005.

The reason for the hiatus of a college football video game came when the NCAA, Electronic Arts and the use of college athletes' likenesses all came together. 

Disputes included some conferences backing out of the game, the NCAA continuing to argue the amateur status of student-athletes, and a lack of understanding of how to pay college athletes, which forced EA to choose to shelve the game for the foreseeable future.

NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) allows student-athletes to profit off of themselves, which made it easier for EA to figure out how to make a new college football game.

Student-athletes also have the ability to truly play as themselves. Previous editions didn't have names of the players or any descriptions. They will now have their own pictures, names and more for the game.

NIL will pay student-athletes around $600 for participating and the game for free, which costs around $70. 

Electronic Arts has worked with One Team Partners, who work with NIL rights and CLC, the country’s top college trademark licensing company, allowing more 15,000 current student-athletes to make merchandise deals, and now, a video game deal too. 

With the last game selling around 1.5 million copies, expect a much higher number than that this summer, with the game coming out on July 19. 

Make sure you bookmark Inside the Panthers for the latest news, exclusive interviews, recruiting coverage, and more! 

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