As the month rolls into July, College Football 27 is hitting shelves on Thursday, July 9. For some that are enrolled with EA Sports Membership Plus or have pre-orders ready, the game became available at 2 p.m. EST on July 2. Naturally, the first thing I did was simulate a season for Michigan State football to see how EA Sports thinks Spartan football will do this season.
Safe to say, results were not good.
Of note, to ensure a lack of messing with the CFB27 sim, I utilized Kennesaw State, a team that does not play the Spartans.
How does Michigan State Football Play in the Simulation?
The results were discouraging, to say the least. The Spartans limp to an awful 1-11 season, going 1-8 in Big Ten play. That means that yes, the simulation Spartans fall to both MAC squads of Toledo and Eastern Michigan.
While the spread for the real life Toledo game is not exactly encouraging at 11.5 points in MSU’s favor, this is not the shock. Toledo has been among the better Group of Six programs in recent years, although they lost their head coach this season to UConn.
The shock comes from losing to Eastern Michigan. Worse yet, the simulation had the Spartans being embarrassed by 13 points to the Eagles after a narrow 2-point defeat to the Rockets.
After that, things did not get much better, with a 45-7 loss to Notre Dame. The Spartans continued to struggle through the season, but in a homecoming matchup against Illinois, Michigan State football came to play. The Spartans blew past the Fighting Illini 45-27 in their only victory of the season.
Against Michigan, the Spartans kept it close but lost 20-17. The rest of the season saw the Spartans falter, with every other game being at least a ten point Spartan loss.
How do the Season Stats Look?
The stats show the struggles of the season, frankly. Alessio Milivojevic’s simulation numbers have the Illinois native only throwing ten touchdowns all season while adding eight interceptions. This is on top of only completing 46% of his passes, along with throwing for 2,387 yards, or less than 200 yards per game. In addition, the quarterback was sacked 34 times, or three times per game. Cam Fancher was the only other quarterback to see action, playing in five games with one touchdown and 129 yards on an even 50% completion mark.
The run game looked slightly better, as Cam Edwards was the feature back for the Spartans, rushing for nearly 100 yards per game, finishing with 1,196 yards in 12 contests. He added in nine touchdowns, with both his yardage and touchdowns in the simulation being the best Spartan numbers since Kenneth Walker III’s 2021 season. Jaziun Patterson and Zion Gist added in a trio of touchdowns, with Gist being the second leading rusher at 107 yards.
Chrishon McCray was the leading receiver for the Spartans in the 2026 simulation, with 63 catches for 847 yards and four touchdowns. Fredrick Moore was right behind McCray’s numbers, with 46 catches for 756 yards and three touchdowns. KK Smith added in seven catches for 142 yards and a touchdown.
Tight end Carson Gulker added 428 yards and one touchdown in his 36 catches. Kai Rios added two catches for 12 yards and a score.
Defensively, the Spartans were led by Jordan Hall (90 tackles) and Caleb Wheatland (85 tackles). Hall also led the team with an astounding 14 pass breakups at linebacker, while Wheatland recorded an interception.
Kenny Soares Jr., Derrick Simmons, and Isaac Smith led the team in generating pressure. Soares recorded nine sacks, Simmons added five more, and Smith had 3.5 sacks. Meanwhile, the rest of the defensive line combined for four sacks on the year.
Interceptions was another brutal stat, as the Spartans had five interceptions across the entire campaign. Nikai Martinez was the only Spartan with multiple picks, with two. Chuck Brantley and Tre Bell joined Wheatland with one interception on the year.
Ben Roberts led the team with two forced fumbles, while Derrick Simmons, Jordan Hall, and Devin Vaught all added one each.
On special teams, there was a bright spot for the Spartans, with Liam Boyd going 15-for-16 on field goals (long of 48) and a perfect 24-of-24 on point after attempts. Rhys Dakin averaged 42.8 yards per punt on his 81 punts, with 23 landing inside the 20 compared to his 11 touchbacks.
What Went Wrong For Michigan State Football in the Sim?
Obviously, a 1-11 record was not ideal for Michigan State football. The Spartans got swept by MAC schools and had a lower season than any Jonathan Smith or Mel Tucker season ever was.
Looking at the stats and snap counts, two things went wrong for the Spartans. First, the offense line was battered, severely. The Spartans had 839 snaps on offense in the 2026 season on the sim, and only two players played in over 460 snaps. Nick Sharpe (833 snaps) and Luka Vincic (801) held the line together. Meanwhile, the next player in snaps was Robert Wright Jr.’s 459 snaps, with the transfer tackle only playing in seven games.
There were six other lineman alongside Wright in the 300-400 snap range. Only three linemen played in all 12 games, as Sharpe and Vincic were joined by reserve guard AJ Dennis (114 snaps).
That led to pass game struggles for Alessio Milivojevic, and him being sacked nearly three times per game.
The other issue was how the sim ran Michigan State football. Based on box scores and stat lines, the Spartans appeared to be pass-heavy, with no rotation at running back. The sim Spartans, in their loss to EMU, had Alessio Milivojevic attempt 36 passes, only completing 11 of his throws.
The lack of rotation at running back was concerning, but explainable in a way. Marvis Parrish and Jace Clarizio each are not in the game. However, Zion Gist and Jaziun Patterson each had a handful of carries per game, as the Spartans had Edwards as their bell cow back, with a diet of 20 carries per game.
Based on roster construction, I would estimate the real life Spartans to attempt closer to 35 carries per game, but that is merely an opinion.
Last time there was a Pat Fitzgerald-led team in a college football game, it would be NCAA 14. There is not a ton of recent data for the developers to work off for Coach Fitz’s offense.
We will revisit CFB27 and the sim engine after either a roster update, or in advance of week one’s Toledo matchup.
