One MW school makes EA Sports College Football 25’s list of toughest place to play

EA Sports College Football 25 offered its latest teaser Wednesday with a 3-minute, 10-second “sights and sounds deep dive” video released on social media.

The game, which will be released July 19, has an overview of a number of FBS schools, big and small, their traditions, mascots and stadium specialties. In the video, I didn’t see any cuts of Nevada, and our public-records request a couple of months ago asking the Wolf Pack for the images it shared with EA Sports for this game was never fulfilled. But Nevada will be a playable team in the game.

In the new video released today, there was a cut of Damonte Ranch High alum Cade McNamara running onto the field as a member of Iowa. A couple Mountain West schools have been highlighted in these video teasers, too. You can watch the latest below.

EA Sports also released its list of the 25 toughest places to play in college football, which will be built into the game with specialized crowd noises taken from ESPN broadcasts. Of the 25 schools, 12 are in the SEC, including the top three and nine of the top 15. There was only one non-power conference school on the list, that being Boise State’s Albertsons Stadium at No. 24.

Of the 25 schools on the list, Nevada has played in seven of those venues since joining the FBS in 1992, including No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 9 Florida State, No. 11 Oregon, No. 20 Iowa, No. 21 Notre Dame and No. 24 Boise State. I’ve covered games at five of those school (all but Wisconsin and Florida State), and I’d rate Oregon louder than Texas A&M, although Texas A&M’s venue was the coolest since it holds more than 100,000 people.

Nevada has future non-conference games with No. 4 Ohio State and No. 6 Penn State and was scheduled to play at No. 23 Arkansas in 2020 before COVID canceled that game. The full list is of EA Sports’ toughest venues is on the tweet below.

That’s a cool distinction for Boise State, but do the Broncos have the strongest home-field advantage in the MW? Since EA Sports says home winning percentage, home game attendance, active home winning streaks and team prestige were among other factors in determining the top home-field advantages, let’s look at the numbers. Here is each MW school’s home record since the league’s current membership formed in 2013.

Boise State — 56-12 (82.4 percent)

Air Force — 48-16 (75 percent)

San Diego State — 51-20 (71.8 percent)

Fresno State — 43-20 (68.3 percent)

Wyoming — 44-21 (67.7 percent)

Utah State — 42-22 (65.6 percent)

Nevada — 37-27 (57.8 percent)

Colorado State — 34-27 (55.7 percent)

San Jose State — 33-28 (54.1 percent)

Hawaii — 37-35 (51.4 percent)

UNLV — 30-42 (41.7 percent)

New Mexico — 25-37 (40.3 percent)

So, Boise State’s blue turf has been the biggest home-field advantage in the MW over the last 11 seasons since the league went to its current membership, and given the notoriety with the color of the playing surface, the Broncos have earned the distinction awarded by EA Sports College Football 25.