NCAA Football 13 Simulates the Season

Feature Article

Submitted on: 08/30/2012 by Bo McCready

The college football season is upon us, and as we get ready for the first weekend of action, it’s time to run another season simulation using NCAA Football 13. After simulating a year into Dynasty Mode with no human intervention, who finished at the top of the pile? USC? Alabama? Oregon? Oklahoma?

In a season where no team ran the table, the national championship game was again a rematch of a game that happened earlier in the year between two teams from the same conference. This time, though, it was an all-Pac 12 affair, as the Oregon Ducks met… the Washington Huskies? Yes, the Ducks and Huskies both finished the year with one loss – Washington’s against USC and Oregon’s against Washington. Surprisingly, the Huskies outgunned the Ducks in the title game, 31-17.

The top 10 teams:

1. Washington
2. Georgia
3. South Carolina
4. Alabama
5. Oregon
6. Michigan
7. Oklahoma
8. Wisconsin
9. Ohio State
10. Notre Dame

Aside from Washington winning the national title, this seems like a pretty reasonable end-of-year top 10 given what we know about the upcoming season. Do any of these rankings (outside of Washington) seem particularly out of line?

Washington was the only team in the nation to finish with fewer than two losses. In fact, the parity across the nation was remarkable, as three of the top 10 teams had four losses - #4 Alabama, #9 Ohio State, and #10 Notre Dame.

...your 2012 National Champions? Probably not, but if NCAA's right we'll all bow down.

The BCS Bowl winners were Georgia (Rose), South Carolina (Sugar), Maryland (Orange), and Michigan (Fiesta). The major conference champions were Washington, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Maryland (an 8-6 team who limped into the ACC championship game and pulled a shock upset over Georgia Tech), Oklahoma, and Louisville.

The Heisman went to Wisconsin HB James White, who took full advantage of an early season injury to Montee Ball and racked up more than 2000 rushing yards. Preseason Heisman favorite Matt Barkley threw for 3417 yards and 29 touchdowns but tossed a surprising 14 interceptions and completely only 59% of his passes for a disappointing USC team that finished 10-4.

Wisconsin and Michigan had the most first team All Americans, with 7 and 4, respectively.

Washington QB Keith Price had an extremely efficient season in leading the Huskies to the national title. He had the nation’s best quarterback rating and threw 30 touchdowns against only five interceptions. In what must have been an unusually windy football season, only nine quarterbacks completed at least 60% of their passes. For reference, at least 64 accomplished that feat in real life last year.

Oregon tackle Nick Cody led the nation in pancake blocks with 54. Meanwhile, the nation’s best turnstile was SMU center Taylor Lasecki, who was responsible for 18 sacks.

On defense, Connecticut CB Dwayne Gratz shined, intercepting 12 passes and recovering three fumbles as the nation’s premier turnover machine.

All in all, it was a pretty straightforward season apart from Washington’s improbable championship run and low completion percentages across the board. But this was just one simulation of the upcoming season, and we know that OS readers have seen some truly strange results so far.

Who are the most unlikely national champions you’ve seen (that you didn’t control yourself)? Have you seen any impossible statistics?

NCAA Football 13 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 Scott @ 08/30/12 05:03 PM

But was this with all the players who were properly dismissed excluded?

# 2 speedy43 @ 08/30/12 05:09 PM

I bet every team in CUSA and the WAC had at least 1 win against a top 5 team at some point as well. Upsets in this game are just ridiculous.

Quote:


	Washington was the only team in the nation to finish with fewer than two losses. In fact, the parity across the nation was remarkable, as three of the top 10 teams had four losses - #4 Alabama, #9 Ohio State, and #10 Notre Dame.

# 3 HitThatRowdy96 @ 08/30/12 07:12 PM

I was playing with North Texas in Road to Glory and ended up facing Tulsa in the national title game.

# 4 jj06 @ 08/30/12 07:14 PM

how many dumb-*** upsets happened?

# 5 100% Texan @ 08/30/12 07:20 PM

no utah in the top 10?

# 6 malky @ 08/30/12 07:30 PM

Did it freeze up when you ran the simulation? Lol just kidding. All the teams seem about right but the Washington championship baffles the mibd

# 7 Equinox831 @ 08/30/12 09:07 PM

That doesn't surprise me. If I simulated the 2012 season 10 times I bet Washington would win at least 3 of them and Kansas State would probably win 5. I hate it... I really do hate it.

# 8 Aggies7 @ 08/31/12 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HitThatRowdy96


	I was playing with North Texas in Road to Glory and ended up facing Tulsa in the national title game.

Haha let's e honest in real life the BCS wouldn't allow that to happen. They would put a two 3 loss teams in over both of those. All about the money.

# 9 skinsfan0123 @ 08/31/12 02:33 AM

In my dynasty, It had Idaho beating LSU 34-17! In Baton Rouge! And the previous week it had LSU beating Washington 41-10. There is no way that can be realistic. And i checked out the stat line and Idaho put up over 500 yards on LSU's defense.

# 10 Fredonia @ 08/31/12 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skinsfan0123


	In my dynasty, It had Idaho beating LSU 34-17! In Baton Rouge! And the previous week it had LSU beating Washington 41-10. There is no way that can be realistic. And i checked out the stat line and Idaho put up over 500 yards on LSU's defense.

What makes this hilarious is that Idaho got beat 20-3 by FCS Eastern Washington tonight.

# 11 JoeMimic @ 08/31/12 06:56 AM

Yeah it's insane how much some of the bigger schools lose. SEC is so bad off by year 4 in my dynasty that Auburn, Florida, LSU, and Alabama all have new coaches. They were losing 4-5 times a year on average every year.

# 12 Proof21 @ 08/31/12 08:42 AM

Surprised FIU wasn't in the top 10. When I simmed a few seasons they were always up in that range.

# 13 THE YAMA @ 08/31/12 11:05 AM

I've played 4 seasons, and every year, Georgia is either 1 or 2 to end the year.

# 14 cts @ 08/31/12 12:08 PM

We can dream

# 15 teebee @ 08/31/12 12:42 PM

Wash winning the title, lollerskates

# 16 Jimbo614 @ 08/31/12 10:00 PM

Said it last year; The Player Ratings do not have enough value assigned to them. Thats why everybody had 4 losses and Maryland can win the ACC. It's called a lack of realism once again.

# 17 RoundingThird @ 08/31/12 10:17 PM

Let's go from one Husky (Washington) to another Husky (UConn) next season!

# 18 ngw411 @ 09/01/12 02:23 PM

Is the Uniform Store working yet?

# 19 j_wag10 @ 01/29/13 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 100% Texan


	no utah in the top 10?

ya, usually when i do a dynasty its always utah and nebraska in the top 5 at the end of the season....and for some reason tennessee is always good too..

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