Re-Ranking All 124 College Football Teams In 'NCAA Football 13'

BATON ROUGE, LA - NOVEMBER 25: Linebacker Lamin Barrow #57 and quarterback Zach Mettenberger #8 of the LSU Tigers and the rest of their teammates run out onto the field before taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks at Tiger Stadium on November 25, 2011 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

What if we used some advanced stats to come up with ideal team ratings for NCAA Football 13? Let's do just that! Follow @SBNationCFB Follow @JasonKirkSBN

EA Sports' NCAA Football 13 comes out this week, making for a holiday on the college football calendar and a landmark that means the real-life season is near.

Team and player ratings have already leaked, raising an eyebrow or two along the way. They're fine for the most part, and aren't really going to stop anybody from dumping the regular annual allotment of hours into this game.

But let's say EA Sports hired us to provide ratings for all 124 FBS teams. This means Overall, Offensive and Defensive ratings for each, scaled from 99 for the best team to like 50-ish for really bad teams. Also, a Prestige rating, which affects recruiting and which coaches a school can hire -- basically a resources rating.

For the first three, I fiddled with Football Outsiders' 2012 F/+ projections, which you'll be able to get your hands on soon (buy the book!). FO likes Alabama the best, while I have LSU on top, but even they're not worthy of a 99 if we're accounting for all-time teams -- a 99, to me, means a team like 2001 Miami or 1995 Nebraska. By that scale, I might still have LSU too high.

SB Nation interviews NCAA 13 cover man Robert Griffin III

Among the more noteworthy tumbles were Texas' offense, Michigan's defense, Michigan State's offense, Arkansas' defense, Wisconsin's defense, Utah's offense and Kansas State's everything (but numbers are irrelevant when it comes to K-State), while just about everybody got bumped down a little bit.

For Prestige, I took a look at recent recruiting rankings, revenue, coaching salaries and so forth. Teams were more likely to go up in the Prestige column than in the others. Yep, Boise State's takes a big hit, but that just means you'll have to be as great a video game coach as Chris Petersen is a real-life coach.

That's pretty much the whole story. Side by side for each category, recommended rankings and the rankings NCAA 13 uses -- click any column to re-order it:

Team	Conf.	Rec. Overall	NCAA 13 Overall	Rec. Offense	NCAA 13 Offense	Rec. Defense	NCAA 13 Defense	Rec. Prestige	NCAA 13 Prestige
LSU	SEC	97	99	92	92	96	95	6	6
Alabama	SEC	96	97	93	92	97	95	6	6
Oklahoma	Big 12	95	97	94	95	90	93	6	6
Oregon	Pac-12	94	99	93	94	86	95	5	6
Florida State	ACC	93	97	80	92	94	95	6	5
Georgia	SEC	93	97	87	95	87	91	6	5
Ohio State	Big Ten	93	95	81	89	93	95	6	6
USC	Pac-12	93	99	95	99	76	91	6	6
Florida	SEC	92	91	76	84	93	93	6	6
Oklahoma State	Big 12	92	95	87	92	87	91	5	5
Stanford	Pac-12	92	93	94	91	76	89	5	5
TCU	Big 12	92	93	88	94	82	87	4	5
Texas	Big 12	92	99	74	91	95	99	6	6
Notre Dame	Ind.	91	97	83	94	83	95	6	6
Arkansas	SEC	90	95	91	95	74	87	4	5
Michigan	Big Ten	91	97	88	94	80	91	6	6
South Carolina	SEC	90	95	80	92	85	91	5	4
Virginia Tech	ACC	90	95	74	88	89	99	4	5
West Virginia	Big 12	89	87	92	91	70	76	4	4
Wisconsin	Big Ten	89	99	94	97	68	95	5	5
Auburn	SEC	88	93	79	89	81	91	6	6
Clemson	ACC	88	97	89	95	70	91	5	5
Michigan State	Big Ten	88	93	73	89	85	89	5	4
Nebraska	Big Ten	88	91	81	91	78	87	5	5
Texas A&M	SEC	88	93	84	92	75	87	5	4
Boise State	MWC	87	89	85	89	72	82	3	6
Tennessee	SEC	87	89	77	88	79	84	5	4
Missouri	SEC	86	89	83	89	72	84	4	4
South Florida	Big East	86	81	72	80	82	80	3	3
Georgia Tech	ACC	85	87	85	86	68	84	4	4
North Carolina	ACC	85	91	83	89	70	87	4	4
Penn State	Big Ten	85	89	70	86	83	89	6	5
Texas Tech	Big 12	85	87	86	89	66	82	3	3
Iowa	Big Ten	84	91	78	89	73	89	5	4
Utah	Pac-12	84	95	61	92	91	91	4	4
Miami (FL)	ACC	83	91	86	88	64	89	5	6
Rutgers	Big East	83	87	68	83	80	87	3	3
BYU	Ind.	82	89	69	89	77	84	4	4
Pittsburgh	Big East	82	85	68	89	79	76	3	3
California	Pac-12	81	85	69	89	77	76	4	3
Cincinnati	Big East	81	89	70	84	74	87	3	3
Houston	CUSA	81	87	86	84	61	86	3	3
Louisville	Big East	81	87	74	84	71	86	4	3
Mississippi State	SEC	81	87	63	84	83	86	3	3
Baylor	Big 12	80	87	86	88	60	84	3	3
Boston College	ACC	80	85	64	83	81	86	3	3
Kansas State	Big 12	79	91	77	92	65	86	4	3
Southern Miss	CUSA	79	83	66	81	76	80	2	2
UCF	CUSA	79	85	68	84	74	82	2	3
Vanderbilt	SEC	79	77	66	80	74	74	3	2
Illinois	Big Ten	78	83	57	81	89	82	4	3
N.C. State	ACC	77	91	70	89	67	87	3	3
Tulsa	CUSA	77	91	66	89	71	86	2	2
Virginia	ACC	77	89	69	88	68	84	4	3
Washington	Pac-12	77	93	79	92	61	86	4	4
UCLA	Pac-12	76	87	70	88	66	82	4	2
Arizona State	Pac-12	75	85	71	84	63	80	3	3
Connecticut	Big East	75	83	60	83	80	80	3	3
Ole Miss	SEC	75	83	58	81	82	84	3	2
Oregon State	Pac-12	75	79	62	81	74	76	3	2
Louisiana Tech	WAC	74	81	62	81	73	78	2	1
Arizona	Pac-12	73	83	77	81	58	84	3	3
Kentucky	SEC	72	83	55	83	82	80	3	2
Navy	Ind.	72	77	73	77	59	76	2	3
Nevada	MWC	72	83	67	83	62	80	2	3
Maryland	ACC	71	85	60	80	69	87	3	3
Northern Illinois	MAC	71	79	65	78	63	76	3	2
Northwestern	Big Ten	71	87	73	86	58	84	3	3
Ohio	MAC	71	81	65	81	62	80	2	2
Purdue	Big Ten	71	87	62	84	66	84	3	3
Toledo	MAC	71	83	65	81	62	80	2	2
Western Michigan	MAC	71	77	70	78	59	74	2	1
Duke	ACC	70	83	68	84	60	78	2	2
FIU	Sun Belt	70	85	57	83	75	82	2	1
SMU	CUSA	70	89	57	89	73	84	2	3
Air Force	MWC	69	75	68	75	59	74	2	3
Temple	Big East	69	81	59	83	69	84	2	2
Arkansas State	Sun Belt	68	81	59	86	66	74	2	2
Bowling Green	MAC	68	75	61	75	63	76	1	2
East Carolina	CUSA	68	83	62	80	63	82	2	2
Iowa State	Big 12	68	83	60	81	65	82	3	2
Syracuse	Big East	68	81	62	83	62	78	3	3
Wake Forest	ACC	68	81	62	84	62	76	2	2
Minnesota	Big Ten	67	77	61	75	62	76	3	2
Central Michigan	MAC	66	73	63	77	59	69	2	2
Fresno State	MWC	66	87	67	89	57	78	2	2
Marshall	CUSA	66	73	59	75	63	71	2	2
Miami (OH)	MAC	66	79	61	80	61	74	2	2
San Diego State	MWC	66	83	60	84	62	76	2	3
Kansas	Big 12	65	79	60	80	61	76	3	2
Utah State	WAC	65	75	62	78	59	73	2	1
Indiana	Big Ten	64	77	60	77	61	76	2	2
Hawai'i	MWC	63	79	60	78	59	80	2	2
Troy	Sun Belt	63	73	58	74	61	73	2	2
Western Kentucky	Sun Belt	63	73	57	74	63	73	1	1
Ball State	MAC	62	73	60	77	59	71	1	2
Colorado	Pac-12	62	83	59	80	60	82	3	2
Kent State	MAC	62	71	45	69	82	74	1	1
UL-Monroe	Sun Belt	62	69	58	74	61	65	1	1
UL-Lafayette	Sun Belt	61	77	63	81	54	71	2	1
Washington State	Pac-12	61	79	62	83	56	74	3	1
Army	Ind.	60	73	56	75	60	71	2	1
Colorado State	MWC	60	83	54	81	62	80	2	2
Eastern Michigan	MAC	60	77	54	78	62	73	1	1
UTEP	CUSA	60	75	60	74	57	76	1	2
Wyoming	MWC	60	79	56	78	60	80	2	2
Buffalo	MAC	59	71	55	75	60	69	1	1
Rice	CUSA	58	73	53	75	61	73	2	2
North Texas	Sun Belt	57	69	53	70	61	69	1	1
Middle Tennessee	Sun Belt	56	65	53	70	59	61	2	1
San Jose State	WAC	56	73	53	75	59	73	2	1
Tulane	CUSA	56	65	51	69	61	63	2	1
UAB	CUSA	56	65	59	69	54	65	1	1
Florida Atlantic	Sun Belt	54	60	43	60	69	63	1	1
Memphis	CUSA	54	61	50	66	61	60	1	1
Idaho	WAC	53	65	47	64	61	67	1	1
UMass	MAC	53	63	52	67	55	61	1	1
Akron	MAC	52	63	44	67	62	61	1	1
UNLV	MWC	52	63	48	67	59	61	2	2
New Mexico	MWC	50	65	47	64	58	69	1	1
New Mexico State	WAC	50	65	52	70	52	60	1	1
UTSA	WAC	48	63	52	66	52	63	1	1
South Alabama	Sun Belt	47	N/A	50	N/A	52	N/A	1	N/A
Texas State	WAC	46	65	49	67	51	65	1	1