EA Sports has released its anticipated College Football video game, and there are some surprises with the player rankings. Not a single Kansas football player received a player rating of 90 or higher. Only nine players received ratings of 80 or over.
This is a lot of disrespect from the game developers at EA Sports. As a team, KU is one of only three teams that didn’t receive a ranking of 80. The Jayhawks are tied with UCF at 78 and ahead of only Oklahoma State at 74.
The game assigns grades of 82 to the offense, 78 to the defense, and 81 to special teams. This is not great math by EA Sports. Those numbers average out to 80.3. Even rounding down, that’s 80. The defense’s number, in particular, looks low.
What Kansas football players rank the highest on the EA CFB 26 video game
Unsurprisingly, center Bryce Foster is the top-rated Kansas football player. He is KU’s only player voted to the Big 12 2025 All-Conference team. Given that honor, Foster should have a rating over 90.
Defensive end Dean Miller (87), quarterback Jalon Daniels (87), running back LeShon Williams (85), right guard Kobe Baines (83), cornerback DJ Graham II (83), defensive tackle DJ Withers (82), kicker Laith Marjan (82), and Tommy Dunn Jr. (80) are the other with a rating of at least 80.
The most obvious players who deserved better ratings are Foster, Jalon Daniels, and Daniel Hishaw Jr. Foster should be higher because of his status as the best center in the conference. Two years ago, Daniels was the preseason pick to be the conference Player of the Year. Injuries in 2023 and a poor start to the 2024 season have dampened his reputation, but he remains an electrifying player.
Daniel Hishaw Jr. isn’t even listed, even though he could be the starting running back and has averaged 5.3 yards per carry over his career at Kansas. The EA techies are also unimpressed with the Kansas wide receivers.
The handful of receivers EA bothered to rate received low marks: Jackson Cook (73), Bryson Hayes (70), Doug Emilien (67), Keaton Kubecks (66), and Myron Bunker (64). Emmanuel Henderson Jr., Cam Pickett, Levi Wentz, Bryson Canty, Bryce Cohoon, Mack Moeller, Israel Moses V, Jaden Nickens, Tate Nagy, and Donald Collier didn’t even get ratings.
With so many players left out of the ratings, it's difficult to understand how EA even came up with a team offensive ratings of 82.
These ratings, or the lack thereof in many cases, highlight the challenges of creating a game that encompasses numerous teams and players. This isn’t like the NFL, where there are 32 teams, with 53 players. There are 134 FBS schools, many of which have rosters of 80 or more players. That is a gigantic task to rate all of those players accurately.
The Kansas football ratings are a mess. One of the top running backs isn’t listed, and several wide receivers that should be high on the depth chart didn’t make the EA cut.
These ratings also indicate a lack of confidence in Lance Leipold and his staff's ability to recruit top players or coach them effectively. These ratings are a massive disappointment for Kansas football fans. For those of you who will play it, prove the techies wrong!