Football
Until Saturday: College football’s toughest places to play?
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Today weâre talking all about EA Sportsâ College Football 25 stadium rankings, which were released earlier today. Letâs start with some quick trivia:
Which team suffered the biggest drop from where it was ranked in NCAA Football 14âs default toughest places to play? Weâll reveal the answer later in the newsletter.
EA Sports Rankings Week
Did EA get it right?
There are 24 days left until the release of College Football 25 ⌠and yes, we are all counting. To add to the anticipation, EA Sports announced yesterday the launch of its âRankings Week,â with daily reveals of info, including where teams stack up in virtual categories. Hereâs what to expect:
- Today:Â Toughest places to play
- Wednesday:Â Sights and sounds deep dive
- Thursday:Â Top offenses and defenses
- Friday:Â Overall team power rankings
First up, EA Sports released its ranking of the 25 toughest stadiums, a list of venues that will pose additional challenges to gamers playing as the visiting team. When playing at these âtop environments,â a gamer âmight experience squiggly lines, play art appearing incorrectly, audibles and hot routes failing to register at higher rates, or receiver icons fading in and out during a crucial moment of your game,â in EAâs words. Itâs a feature the gameâs bringing back from older editions.
The list includes quite a few placements sure to fire up fanbases. (And newsletter voters. Penn Stateâs Beaver Stadium, which won Until Saturdayâs âBest Stadium in College Footballâ survey bracket earlier this year, ranked only No. 6.)
Here are a few of my initial thoughts on EA Sportsâ rankings:
Biggest surprise: I was shocked to see Notre Dame Stadium ranked below the top 20. One spot above Spartan Stadium and one spot below Kinnick Stadium seems really low for the Irish. As Chris Vannini pointed out in our staff analysis today, fans at Notre Dame Stadium were penalized in 1988 for being too loud, and plenty of high-stakes games have been played in South Bend over the years. It deserves at least a top-15 rank. Thereâs a fair argument Tiger Stadium should be ranked No. 1, too.
Biggest snub: Itâs tough to see Oklahoma Stateâs Boone Pickens Stadium left out of the top 25. The Cowboys are tied with LSU for the 10th-best home winning percentage in the Power 5 over the past five years (.844).
Also, letâs compare these rankings to the best home winning percentages among Power 5 teams over the past five seasons. Seems like Oregon and Clemson should move up?
Our staff reacted to more of the biggest surprises and snubs from the list here.
Trivia answer: The stadium that suffered the biggest drop in ranking from NCAA Football 14 to now is âŚÂ Nebraskaâs Memorial Stadium. It ranked No. 13 in the last edition of the game but fell completely out of the new rankings. Maybe that has to do with Nebraskaâs nearly even 35-31 home record since 2015. Other previously ranked stadiums that fell out of contention include Stanfordâs (prev. No. 14), USCâs (prev. No. 16), Oklahoma Stateâs (prev. No. 20) and Washingtonâs (prev. No. 25).
Elite 11
A rising QB star
The Athleticâs Bruce Feldman recapped last weekâs Elite 11 quarterback camp, and several coaches told him that the Class of 2025 was one of the most impressive they had ever seen ⌠and No. 1 recruit Bryce Underwood wasnât even in attendance. Here are a few of Bruceâs biggest takeaways:
- Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele (6-foot-3, 205 pounds) was the biggest rising star. Coach Devin Gardner described the three-star prospect from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, as âunbelievableâ and âa fire-breather.â Currently the No. 39 QB in his class, Sagapolutele has offers from Boise State, Oregon State, Utah State and Cal, among others.
- Bruce suspects Notre Dame commit Deuce Knightâs stock could shoot up after he shined at the Elite 11 camp. At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, the lefty is a supreme athlete and looked like a more polished passer last week.
- Ohio State commit Tavien St. Clair showed parallels to former blue-chip recruit Dylan Raiola. Both are powerful passers and big-framed athletes. One coach said St. Clair âmay not be quite as electric as Dylan, but heâs really smooth.â
Objection!
How will House v. NCAA affect small schools?
Houston Christian University filed a motion to intervene in the House v. NCAA lawsuit last week. The motion argues that HCUâs financial interests were not adequately represented by the proposed terms of the House settlement agreed to last month.
Those terms include a future model sharing revenue directly from schools to athletes and $2.75 billion in back-pay damages the NCAA will owe former Division I athletes who were previously barred from earning NIL compensation.
According to the proposed settlement terms, FCS schools like HCU would be responsible for paying out roughly 12 percent of those damages.
The motion, if granted, could signify the first of many objections from smaller universities that felt they did not have a sufficient voice in a potentially historic reshaping of college sports. Read more from Justin Williams here.
Quick Snaps
Last night, Tennessee won its first college baseball national championship with a dramatic 6-5 win against Texas A&M. After losing Game 1, the Vols came back to force the winner-take-all Game 3 before clinching a championship that is especially satisfying for a team that has come so close so many times before, writes Joe Rexrode.
What do you need to know about the recruiting landscape this summer? Listen to all the updates on todayâs Until Saturday podcast.
Lane Kiffin and his Ole Miss roster have benefitted perhaps more than any other program from the transfer portal. But in an interview last week, Kiffin admitted that âitâs a horrible system.â Why does he want to change it? Read more here
The Longhorn Network â the 24-hour TV channel that exclusively covers the University of Texas â will relaunch as a free streaming service on July 1.
The fans have spoken, and Notre Dame supporters seem to have a lot of optimism about the Irish this season. Read the results of Pete Sampsonâs Notre Dame fan survey here.
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(Top photo: Maria Lysaker / USA Today)