NCAA Football 12 is finally upon us, and unless if you're a big a nerd as some of us this is the first time you're looking at team and player ratings. Thus, you're probably about to start complaining about dozens of things.
The most common grievance levied about last year's ratings was the nearly perfect set of numbers given the Alabama Crimson Tide. The team was stacked on both sides of the ball, Mark Ingram was the ultimate weapon and three or four years into a dynasty Bama was the only team able to remain in the upper-90s. In our dynasty, nobody was allowed to play as Alabama; they actually functioned as more of an end-level boss than a competing football team.
This year's edition isn't quite as bad, but Alabama's still an all-star team. Pretty much literally. If you put together an All-SEC roster minus Tide players and took it against Alabama, you wouldn't really have an advantage on either side of the ball. Here are the ratings given Bama's starters, compared to the top SEC player at each position (plus backup QBs, to illustrate Alabama's depth):
In Trent Richardson and Dont'a Hightower, Alabama has two of the conference's four best players, plus most of its best defensive starters. Neither of those are outrageous, but making Alabama that great across the board is kind of hilarious.
The SEC side's average offensive starter is rated 92. Alabama's is an 88.3. On defense, however, the SEC team rates a 90.1 per player, just short of Alabama's 90.5. Thus, the average Alabama starter is rated fewer than two points worse than his All-SEC counterpart, and without TE Michael Williams' 81 dragging down the whole operation would be about one point shy.
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