My rankings usually begin around the time the new video game drops. I skipped a lot of summer scouting between EA NCAA 14 and the return 11 years later. But EA Sports College Football 27 is officially set to kick off on July 9 bringing the revived college franchise to PC (thank god!) for the first time alongside PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. This year’s headliner is the new MVP+ Membership: a $150, 12‑month subscription that bundles the Deluxe Editions of both College Football 27 and Madden NFL 27 with seven days of early access, beta access, all mascots unlocked in Mascot Mashup, monthly Ultimate Team packs, and extra Dynasty Coach Points and Road to Glory skill points. For players who just want the college side, standard and Deluxe editions are still available à la carte, but MVP+ is clearly aimed at the diehards (like me) who plan to live in both games all season long.

On the field and in the front office, College Football 27 leans even harder into the “modern era” with a revamped Dynasty Blueprint system, school‑specific budgets, and a full NIL layer where overall rating, position, class, awards, and Team Prestige drive how much your roster expects to be paid and how aggressively you have to bid to keep stars from hitting the portal or leaving early.

I factor a player’s EA CFB video game ranking into my final evaluation. Fernando Mendoza was the only 99 overall player in the final EA College Football 26 update. Right behind Mendoza was 98 overall Jeremiah Smith, who will be talked about the most this season from both an NFL-prospect evaluation and fantasy football perspective. He really seems like the real deal. He moves different and possesses tremendous size (pause). Here’s the top-12 returning player rankings from last game:

98 - WR Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State

96 - OT Carter Smith, Indiana

96 - CB Leonard Moore, Notre Dame

95 - RB Ahmad Hardy, Missouri

95 - RB Mark Fletcher Jr, Miami

94 - OT Cayden Green, Missouri

94 - EDGE Colin Simmons, Texas

94 - RB Isaac Brown, Louisville

94 - RB Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss

93 - QB Dante Moore, Oregon

93 - WR Malachi Toney, Miami

93 - S KJ Bolden, Georgia

We’ve seen it so many times across the NFL. Wide receivers having literal meltdowns on the sidelines. From Antonio Brown to Odell Beckham Jr., receivers end up in the spotlight and are known for wild player crash outs. Imagine being the best in the league at your position, but your position is almost 100% dependent on other players giving you the ball. The crash outs might be crazy but like… I lowkey get it.

We’re seeing it again as the San Francisco 49ers & Brandin Aiyuk are at a continuous standstill. Now Aiyuk is taking to social media to address the situation, calling the 49ers scared to let him go because they know he’ll succeed elsewhere. Meanwhile he freaking signed a deal to play with the 49ers and is being a massive diva about the entire situation. But the 49ers are going to do him no favors so this will likely end horribly.

There are six couples across the NFL (the villa) between quarterbacks and franchises that could go down in league history as massive turning points. Inspired from last night’s Love Island episode, here are the 6 QB/franchise relationships with the most to lose as new bombshells (the 2027 QB Draft class) enter the villa. We’ll be introducing the bombshells throughout the upcoming college football season, whom are highlighted by a player with Hall of Fame NFL-lineage dating back decades.

CJ Stroud and the Houston Texans

We all saw what happened at the end of the season last year. Stroud melted down in the playoffs and the Texans #1 ranked defense wasn’t enough to overcome his poor play. His overall playoff stats aren’t much better.

I have to assume he’s on the hot seat despite his coach and organization denying that publicly. You just can’t simply be that bad and not showing much, if any, improvement after a pretty damn good rookie year.

Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens

Jackson is entering the final year of his contract with a new head coach. This might be a natural point to cut ties and entertain a new bombshell. With 6 winnable games to start the season, they could be poised for an NFC North title. But they need to start strong to have a better chance at keeping the 2-time Most Valuable Player (that’s like 1st place in a beauty pageant type shii.) I personally would pay Lamar Jackson damn near any amount of money he wanted. We’ll see what happens but I think this is a sneaky 2027 QB landing spot.

Malik Willis and the Miami Dolphins

Willis just signed a 3-year contract to unite with his former Green Bay Packer executives in Miami. But the truth of it is, Willis has been a backup his entire career after being drafted by the Titans in the third round. This pairing could go south quickly. It’s not the best roster in the league I’ll just say that. Another sneaky bombshell implosion.

Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

It’s pretty clear everything in Tampa is about to go up in flames if they don’t handle this QB transition correctly. Mayfield seems to be asking for more than Tampa is willing to pay at this stage of his career. A younger (most likely not hotter) bombshell could be enticing.

Daniel Jones and the Indianapolis Colts

This one is somewhat obvious to NFL regulars but there’s some 4D Chess the Colts could pull off here. Jones’ new contract is really just a glorified one year deal almost entirely reliant upon incentives. But it looks big on paper with a $100M total. If things go poorly in the AFC South this season, the Colts could find themselves all over a new bombshell. And the belle of the ball is the nephew of Peyton and Eli Manning. Peyton played for the Colts for the majority of his career but notably distanced himself after the 2012 “Suck for Luck” campaign that sent Peyton to the Denver Broncos on bad terms with Indy. We’ve already seen Eli dictate to the NFL that he wouldn’t play for the San Diego Chargers, forcing a trade to the New York Giants on draft night. Arch Manning might not want to play for the Colts after what happened to his Uncle.

Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers

There aren’t many 5’9 NFL quarterbacks that have sustained success. It’s been no walk in the park for former #1 overall pick Bryce Young. Unlike Stroud, Young has shown improvement year over year which should give Panthers fans hope. But this is still a pairing to watch even after Carolina’s surprising playoff appearance last year.

Notable Bombshells

Arch Manning, Texas QB #16

Dante Moore, Oregon QB #5

LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina QB #16

Jayden Maiava, USC QB #14

Brendan Sorsby, Texas Tech QB #2 (problematic baddie)

Drake Lindsey, Minnesota QB #5

Nico Iamaleava, UCLA QB #9

CJ Carr, Notre Dame QB #13

Julian Sayin, Ohio State QB #10

Darian Mensah, Miami QB #10

The race for these bombshells is going to be hot and heavy during the college football season. Bust out some Drake Lindsey highlights in front of your friends to guarantee them you know ball.

And remember, what happens on Love Island stays on Love Island.