Texas enters the season as the betting favorite to win the national championship. The Longhorns earned the top spot in the Preseason AP Poll with quarterback Arch Manning leading the way.
But EA Sports’ College Football 26 simulations tell a different story.
FOX Sports ran 50 simulations using the video game’s logic. The results don’t match the preseason expectations.
Clemson, Georgia, and Penn State each won eight championships in the simulations. That ties them for the most frequent winners.
Texas won just one championship out of 50 simulations.
The Longhorns tied with Duke, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Alabama, Indiana, and Florida at one title each. It’s not the company Texas expected to keep heading into the season.
Other teams fared better in the simulations. Oregon and Miami each won four championships. Texas Tech also captured four titles. Oklahoma won three times.
Texas A&M and Michigan each won twice in the simulations.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was Ohio State. The defending national champions didn’t win a single title in any of the 50 simulations.
The video game’s algorithm doesn’t account for Manning’s potential or Texas’s preseason hype. College Football 26 bases its simulations on player ratings and team statistics from the previous season.
Manning wasn’t rated among the top quarterbacks in the game despite his five-star recruiting status.
