Fast forward to January 2025. The North Carolina Tar Heels are national champions, Colorado quarterback Shedul Sanders is a Heisman Trophy winner and the Memphis Tigers are in the College Football Playoff.
Could that happen?
Come spend time with us.
The dynasty mode of EA Sports' College Football 25 video game was used to simulate the 2024 season. Those who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition will have access to the highly-hyped title starting at 4 p.m. on Monday. After an 11-year hiatus, the standard edition of the game will be officially released on Friday.
Before we look at the results, a few caveats: We used the default roster and sliders, left the injuries out, set the difficulty to Varsity, and did not play any games.
The results of the simulation are as follows:
National Winner: North Carolina
Ah, yes! The Tar Heels finish the season 8-5 in 2023 and make a big push to win the title in 2024.
After first-round draft pick Drake Maye left for the NFL, Texas A&M transfer Max Johnson quickly took his place and lived up to expectations, passing for 4,450 yards and 45 touchdowns.
North Carolina started the season with a 4-3 record, then reeled off nine straight wins, including a win over Miami in the ACC Championship to clinch the No. 3 seed in the CFP finals.
After receiving a round of 12 exemption, the Tar Heels thumped No. 9 USC 52-38 in the quarterfinals, beat No. 2 Ole Miss 24-21 in the semifinals and defeated defending champion Michigan 34-31 in the finals.
They finished the year with a 13-3 record.
oh.
College Football Playoff brackets and results
Did the virtual committee get this right? Wow. If this had been the final 12, I would have paid to scroll through X (formerly Twitter).
- Oregon (12-1 at the start of the CFP, won the Big Ten title)
- Ole Miss (11-2, won SEC title)
- North Carolina (10-3, won ACC title)
- Colorado (10-3, won Big 12 title)
- Notre Dame (10-2)
- Ohio State (10-2)
- Georgia (10-2)
- Alabama (10-2)
- Michigan (9-4)
- Texas A&M (9 wins, 3 losses)
- USC (8-4)
- Memphis (11-2)
Round 1
- Notre Dame defeats Memphis 38-28
- USC beats Ohio State 38-37
- Georgia beats Texas A&M 42-39
- Michigan beats Alabama 37-34
Quarter finals
- Michigan beats Oregon 20-19
- Ole Miss beats Georgia 35-32
- North Carolina beats USC 52-38
- Colorado beats Notre Dame 31-13
Semi-finals
- Michigan beats Colorado 37-19
- North Carolina beats Ole Miss 24-21
Final game
- North Carolina beats Michigan 34-31
What to take home?
Memphis won the American Athletic Conference and earned an invite to play outside the Power Four, Colorado completed a rebuild, and the remaining teams are filled with big-name teams and recruiting/portal aces.
Most of the matches were good, with seven of the eleven games decided by three points or less.
Heisman Trophy Winner: Shedul Sanders
That's not surprising, considering the Buffaloes' point guard is the highest-rated quarterback in the game (93 overall), tied with Georgia's Carson Beck.
In this world, all five Heisman finalists are quarterbacks, and Sanders won the award over Alabama's Jalen Milroe, Oregon's Dillon Gabriel, Notre Dame's Riley Leonard and Virginia Tech's Kyron Draughn.
Sanders threw 4,431 yards and 43 touchdowns through the air, completing 71% of his passes with just five interceptions, and also threw 514 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground.
First Team All-American
- QB: Shedul Sanders, Colorado
- HB: Donovan Edwards, Michigan
- HB: Ollie Gordon II, Oklahoma State University
- WR: Dorian Singer, Utah
- WR: Will Shepard, Colorado
- WR: Chris Bell, Louisville
- TE: Bryson Nesbitt, North Carolina
- LT: Will Campbell, LSU
- LG: Clay Webb, Jacksonville State University
- C: Jonah Monheim, USC
- RG: Tate Rutledge, Georgia
- RT: Jonah Sabainaea, Arizona
- LE: Jack Sawyer, Ohio State University
- Subject: James Pierce Jr., Tennessee
- DT: Mason Graham, Michigan
- DT: Walter Nolen, Ole Miss
- LOLB: Michael Williams, Georgia
- MLB: Jay Higgins, Iowa
- ROLB: Barrett Carter, Clemson
- CB: Will Johnson, Michigan
- CB: Benjamin Morrison, Notre Dame
- FS: Caleb Downs, Ohio State University
- SS: Jonas Sanker, Virginia
- K: Graham Nicholson, Alabama
- P: Mark Bassett, Colorado
UCF:Running back RJ Harvey pleased with EA College Football 25 ratings, looking forward to Big 12 season
National Record
This is a bit surprising for a video game: in year one, no individual game, season or career national records were broken.
Probably the second year.
How likely is this to happen in the real world?
Would you go for 0.1% to be safe?
No. There is no chance that real fall will go exactly like this.
But this exercise uses video games, and it's fun thanks to Shock and Cinderella.
And, 11 years after the last college football video game hit store shelves, fun is the focus.
