HuskerMax to Simulate Nebraska Football’s 2025 Season

The real season doesn't start for six more weeks, but that isn't stopping us from a deep dive on the virtual Huskers.

HuskerMax will be breaking down a full season simulation of Nebraska's season via EA Sports' NCAA College Football '26. | HuskerMax

The countdown to the 2025 college football season is officially on in Lincoln, but for the most diehard fans of the Big Red, Nebraska's likely already won the 2025 National Championship...and the 2026, 2027 and possibly 2028 championships for a 4-peat.

That's the beauty of the July release of EA Sports College Football 26.

Nebraska fans release red balloons in Memorial Stadium after a touchdown in EA Sports College Football 26. | EA Sports

It's the second year of the reinvigorated video game after EA Sports initially ceased production of the game due to multiple lawsuits from players who argued that the games used their likenesses without compensation — even though NCAA rules prohibited paying players at the time. Thanks to the new world of NIL in major college sports, the game is back and as popular as ever.

It gives fans football...before football. Most fans will slap the difficulty levels on easy (at least to start) and beat their most bitter rivals 77-3. Others will eventually challenge themselves by upping the difficulty or playing online in the various forms offered by the game.

What not many fans take the time to do is fully simulate the season and simply watch. How well does your team perform when you're not in control of the play calling or defensive adjustments? A simulation is the closest thing to taking an educated guess at how the actual team will perform this season. It's EA Sports' ratings and metrics heading into the year, playing out in a CPU vs. CPU showdown.

How will the Huskers fare in a full season simulation on EA Sports College Football 26? | EA Sports

It's an inexact science that can definitely be wrong. Most simulations don't take into account the unexpected. Imagine how the "real" Texas football team will do if quarterback Arch Manning suffers a season-ending injury. The same can be said for any team in the nation when it comes to their marquee playmakers. Injuries inevitably will happen, and season trajectories will change for the impacted teams.

As we embark on the "simulated" 2025 Nebraska football season, we're taking a best-case scenario approach. We've turned injuries off, but left all other settings as neutral. We aren't making the teams more pass-happy or run-oriented. We're leaving the teams as EA Sports designed them. The simulations will feature only 10-minute quarters because, in sim mode, the game doesn't run any time between plays. After that, we're simply hitting simulate and seeing how EA Sports thinks the season will play out.

Will Nebraska struggle to make a bowl game, or are they a surprise College Football Playoff contender? Will Dylan Raiola see a sophomore slump, or will he pick up where he left off near the tail end of last season with new offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen? If you're interested, I explored that exact storyline just a few weeks ago here.

Can Dylan Raiola pick up where he left off last season? | Nebraska Athletics

Every Friday starting on July 18, we will break up the regular season simulation into six parts:

1. Season Opener (July 18)

The Huskers square off with Cincinnati in a highly-anticipated showdown to start the 2025 season. | HuskerMax

2. Nonconference Foes (July 25)

How will Nebraska fare against both Akron and Houston Christian to kick off the home schedule in 2025? | HuskerMax

3. Michigan Schools (August 1)

Nebraska stays at home for back-to-back games against the "Michigan Schools." First up, it's the Michigan Wolverines, and they are followed by the Michigan State Spartans. | HuskerMax

4. October Finish (August 8)

Road games at Maryland and Minnesota precede a home game against Northwestern to end the month of October. | HuskerMax

5. California Two-Step (August 15)

After playing the Michigan schools in back-to-back games earlier in the year, the Huskers shift their focus west with both USC (home game) and UCLA (road game) to kick off November. | HuskerMax

6. Regular-Season Finish (August 22)

The Huskers hope to leave Happy Valley with an upset win over Penn State. They'll then close the year with their annual Black Friday showdown with border rival Iowa. | HuskerMax

As we all know, the actual season kicks off on Thursday, August 28, so in the event EA Sports has Nebraska perform well enough for a bowl game or even a spot in this year's College Football Playoff, we'll have that installment run in the days before kickoff.

We look forward to breaking down the virtual season before the season. Only time will tell if EA Sports' prediction of how the Husker season will go stands up to how the real team performs. Nebraska's season opener against Cincinnati kicks off Friday, July 18, here at HuskerMax, and let's just say there is a reason we gave this game its own part of the simulation series. Stay tuned!

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