Miami football fans will like Yahoo EA Sports College Football 25' simulation

Despite not winning the ACC in any of the three simulations, the Miami football program won a virtual National Championship in the "'EA Sports College Football 25' predicts the 2024 season" run by Yahoo. Clemson, Florida State and Louisville won the ACC in the three seasons Yahoo ran simulations.

In the simulation where they won the National Championship, Miami earned a three-seed and a bye in the first round. Oddly no Southeastern Conference teams were one of the 12 selected for the College Football Playoff. Miami played the winner of sixth seeded Michigan and 11th-seed Clemson in the quarterfinals.

Clemson pulled a 45-37 upset at Michigan. The Tigers defeating the Wolverines in Ann Arbor during December in a high-scoring game would be a shock. Clemson's victory set up an all-ACC quarterfinal at Hard Rock Stadium. North Carolina State hosted Florida State in the other game with ACC representatives.

Florida State pulled a 28-17 upset in Raleigh to advance to play Kansas State in the quarterfinals. Fourth-seeded Boise State hosted fifth-seed Oklahoma State and second-seeded Oregon hosted seventh-seeded Central Florida in the other quarterfinal. The three Florida teams in the final eight are reminiscent of the eighties and nineties.

In the three quarterfinals other than Miami, number-one seed Kansas State beat FSU 31-24, fourth-seeded Boise State beat Oklahoma State 34-28 and Oregon eliminated UCF 31-17. Miami theoretically earned its second consecutive win over Clemson 24-16, following the Hurricanes 28-20 double-overtime win in 2023.

That set up the semifinals of Boise State versus Kansas State in the Orange Bowl and Miami against Oregon in the Cotton Bowl. Kansas State beat Boise State 42-31 at Hard Rock Stadium. Miami earned a 21-19 upset over Oregon at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

In the National Championship Game at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Miami outlasted Kansas State 31-30 in overtime to earn its second consecutive upset. Yahoo set a few parameters and outlined how they decided to simulate seasons in an article by Anthony Sulla-Heffinger. The Yahoo parameters are below.

• We simulated Year 1 of Dynasty Mode three separate times, immediately jumping to the “End of Season Recap” after selecting the random user-controlled team (Toledo, Nevada and Georgia).
• Quarters were set to 15 minutes.
• Recruiting and other variables were set to “simple,” allowing for automated results.
• There are no actual coaches in this game, so you won’t see any information about (even more fictional) hirings and firings.

Yahoo acknowledged that the SEC missing out on the CFP in their first simulation is impossible in reality with the conference guaranteed of one four spots as a power conference champion. The other two national championship simulations were Oregon 35 Clemson 27 and Oklahoma State 48, Florida 35.

The national title run was the only time Miami made the CFP in the three Yahoo simulations. Yahoo also examined which players nationally had big seasons and who won the simulated Heisman Trophy and other big awards. No players from Miami are mentioned among players who had big seasons or in the awards conversation.

Miami enters the 2024 season with high expectations. Led by quarterback Cam Ward, running back Damien Martinez and wide receiver Xavier Restrepo, Miami should have an elite offense that will be fun to use in the EA Sports College Football '25 video game.