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Via Tradition Sports Online, a bunch of player and team ratings from NCAA Football 13 have leaked, giving us the ever-popular way to over-analyze the Syracuse Orange football expectations based on what some programmers in Texas think of last year's team.
According to this, Syracuse is an 81 overall, 83 on offense and 78 on defense. Discuss.
To give you some framework, Alabama is a 97 overall, Louisville is an 87, Rutgers is an 87, Boston College is an 85(!), Toledo is an 83, South Florida is an 81 and so is Temple. In other words, the folks over at EA Sports aren't too bullish on Syracuse this season.
Don't go too nuts trying to read into these. Clearly, there are some head-scratchers across the board:
West Virginia an 87, but Clemson a 97 -- and Clemson's defense rated the same as WVU's offense? LSU's defense (No. 2 in yards per play) rated the same as Oregon's (No. 35) and Wisconsin's (No. 44), which scored 83 points against each other? Wisconsin a 99 in general, even though the Badgers lost three games with Russell Wilson? Boise State gets better recruiting and coaching salary resources (since that's what the "Prestige" rating essentially equates to) than Georgia and Penn State?
As for the player profiles that leaked, no Syracuse players popped up (obviously) but USC QB Matt Barkley is the requisite 98 overall that you expect him to be in the game and in real life.