NCAA Football 12 Team Ratings Give No Love To WSU

by Brian Floyd on Jun 12, 2011 1:44 PM PDT in 2011 WSU Football News

The team rating for NCAA Football 12 are slowly starting to leak out, and the news is about what you'd expect for WSU. Last week, overall ratings for offense, defense, special teams and the big one, prestige, were leaked to the masses, and the debate has already begun. Oregon a six-star prestige and Stanford a four-star? The Ducks with better individual rankings by a nose, yet Stanford is ranked two spots higher? Feign outrage!

If you missed the team ratings, you can find the Pac-12 list here and all 120 teams here. Of note, here's Washington State's (from left to right: overall rank, team, overall grade, offense, defense, special teams, prestige.

Washington State

C+

Yeouch. But, then again, it's about what you'd expect. As fans, we always hold an amazing amount of optimism in the offseason and a skewed view of our own team. A C+ for the offense? But what about Jeff Tuel and Marquess Wilson? A D for special teams? But we were one of the best kick coverage teams in the land!*

Prestige is clearly a look at the team's recent success. WSU has been terrible for the last half-decade and it shows in the rankings. And it makes sense. What recruit cares about a Rose Bowl almost a decade ago when facilities are poor and success on the field has been hard to come by? And for a school like Washington State, the base-line is lower. Where Washington will sit around three-stars no matter what -- the Huskies have a history of success and are located in Seattle, putting them amongst the more established programs -- any drop-off at WSU will cause the perception of the program to fall.

And remember, these are all based on last year. It's impossible to accurately project all 120 teams. WSU improved in 2010, but was still at the bottom of the conference and a two-win team. Expecting the Cougs to be world-beaters all of a sudden, at least in the video game world, is unrealistic.

Besides, you can always just control the Cougs and kick the snot out of everyone.

*Reid Forrest is gone, accounting for at least a three-letter-grade drop in that ranking.

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The worst part about it

Is that the low prestige rating makes it really hard to attract recruits and win at the game in dynasty mode, unless you want to cheat or buy boosters. Takes a lot of the fun out of it. I might just save my money. We’ll see.

CougCenter | SB Nation Seattle | @NussCoug

by Jeff Nusser on Jun 12, 2011 2:12 PM PDT reply actions

On the other hand, it makes it more rewarding to build something.

CougCenter

by Brian Floyd on Jun 12, 2011 2:14 PM PDT up reply actions 4 recs

What's most annoying is year 2 of your dynasty has 20 or so true freshmen you recruited starting

Because the existing player ratings are so low.

Sorry Tuel, you’re benched for your senior year in favor of a three star recruit we pulled from Potlatch….

Witches of Eastman

by BigWood! on Jun 12, 2011 8:42 PM PDT up reply actions

I always hated the prestige rankings

Because we know that Notre Dame is more prestigious program than let’s say Idaho. I don’t have a problem with the overall rating of the team, it’s almost expected to get no love because we are WSU. Yeah it will be quite rewarding to make the Cougs return to greatness!

"If anyone epitomized Cougar grit and courage, Jason Gesser did that." - Bob Robertson

by Cougz4Life509 on Jun 12, 2011 5:03 PM PDT reply actions

I'm still hopeful

You can have a couple of really good players on a squad and still have a low overall rating, like a good QB and WR, but a low overall offensive rating. Also, they could make Galvin have really good stats for a user, but low awareness which causes his overall rating to drop. In fact, that may be the case with alot of the WSU players. They are all pretty young or unproven so they could have good speeds and such, but low awareness. Play through a season, and when they get the bump during offseason you could potentially jump from a C+ off to a B or B+. The thing I am really hoping for is a more accurate playbook for the Cougs. Mostly Shotgun, with flex formations, and some Pistol. I would love to see that three wide Pistol formation with the H back set off the QB. They used that alot against the Beavs’, I loved it.

by Louhawk on Jun 12, 2011 5:57 PM PDT reply actions

Did the Oregon AD pay for that extra star or two?

maybe it was Knight. Everyone at EA has a short memory, and little to no knowledge of the West Coast outside of the P12 champ. They’ve got 8 SEC teams in the top 27. It gets even goofier…only 7 teams have less returning starters than UCF and they sit at #30. Arizona at #56 plus BYU and their 18 returning starters at #64.

Perhaps the most egregious is UW coming in at 49!? Are you serious, we deserve at least 47, and athlon has us at 44. What a joke.

by B Money on Jun 12, 2011 7:19 PM PDT reply actions

I guess

I won’t use the Cougs when I play against my friends, it’s kind of funny how intense those games get. Definitley need to hide the children, swearing matches ensue along with some epic trash talking! HA! They always USC or Oregon, uggggh. On another subject I hope Road to Glory mode is better this year…

"If anyone epitomized Cougar grit and courage, Jason Gesser did that." - Bob Robertson

by Cougz4Life509 on Jun 12, 2011 7:31 PM PDT reply actions