On3’s Andy Staples loses his mind when Tennessee is left off EA’s Top 25 Offenses

Remember that time Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie didn’t get Oscar nominations for Barbie and all the Barbie fans went thermo on Twitter? Okay, you don’t… but this is like that.

After EA Sports released their Top 25 Offense rankings, On3’s Andy Staples was quick to point out that the Tennessee Volunteers were nowhere to be found. And he was having none of it.

Perhaps it’s possible that EA was basing the 2024 ranking primarily off 2023 results, when Tennessee finished a fairly pedestrian 37th in offense. But EA’s own site claims they analyze entire rosters and comb through years of game film and mountains of stats to help decide their rankings.

If that’s the case, how could EA forget that it was only in 2022 that Tennessee finished the season with the No. 1 offense in all of college football? That head coach Josh Heupel is still an offensive guru? That he’s bringing back a much hyped, dark horse Heisman hopeful quarterback in Nico Iamaleava, who only a few months back torched the Iowa Hawkeyes for four touchdowns in a 35 - 0 blowout at the Cheez-it Citrus Bowl? Surely they realize that Tennessee is currently preseason ranked in Sporting News’ preseason Top 25?

Was it a lapse? Does a Vanderbilt Commodores fan work in their data department? Is it really just engagement farming?

Cue the conspiracy theories, but at least Vols fans have one prognosticator raging on their behalf. And of course they also have an entire season of non-digital, real-life football ahead of them to prove their offensive prowess and make EA Sports eat their rankings.