EA Sports isn’t releasing a college football game this year, just as it hasn’t since NCAA Football 14 came out in 2013. Seeing as this is mid-July, this is the exact time of the year at which the game would’ve come out. Because of that and the college football season still being more than a month away, jonesing is at peak levels.

We don’t know exactly how all 130 FBS teams would’ve been rated in NCAA 18, but we can take a guess. I used Bill Connelly’s S&P+ projections for each team — which factor recruiting, returning production, and recent history — and crammed those numbers into a 60-to-99 range, like what EA used in 14, then did some fiddlin’ to account for coaching changes, transfers, and such.

On that scale, a team rated 60 is almost certainly the worst in FBS (that scale still leaves room for an FCS team to play like a 45 or so), and a 99 team is likely one of the best ever.

College football teams in ‘NCAA Football 18’ would be rated something like this Team Conference Overall Offense Defense Team Conference Overall Offense Defense Alabama SEC 94 91 96 Ohio State Big Ten 93 92 93 Florida State ACC 91 90 92 USC Pac-12 90 93 87 Clemson ACC 89 86 92 Penn State Big Ten 89 92 86 LSU SEC 89 88 89 Oklahoma Big 12 88 96 80 Auburn SEC 88 89 87 Michigan Big Ten 88 85 90 Wisconsin Big Ten 88 85 90 Louisville ACC 88 90 85 Washington Pac-12 88 91 84 Stanford Pac-12 87 85 88 Georgia SEC 87 86 87 Florida SEC 86 81 91 Oklahoma State Big 12 86 95 77 Miami ACC 86 83 88 Notre Dame Independents 86 87 84 Texas Big 12 85 89 80 Texas A&M SEC 85 86 83 NC State ACC 85 82 87 TCU Big 12 84 87 81 Oregon Pac-12 84 93 75 Tennessee SEC 84 87 80 Virginia Tech ACC 83 78 88 UCLA Pac-12 83 85 81 Baylor Big 12 83 85 81 Ole Miss SEC 82 88 76 Georgia Tech ACC 82 84 80 Boise State MWC 82 88 76 USF AAC 82 89 75 Northwestern Big Ten 82 81 83 Minnesota Big Ten 82 79 84 Arkansas SEC 82 86 77 Mississippi State SEC 82 88 75 Pitt ACC 82 89 74 South Carolina SEC 82 81 82 Indiana Big Ten 81 76 86 North Carolina ACC 81 82 80 Oregon State Pac-12 81 83 78 Kentucky SEC 81 85 76 Washington State Pac-12 81 86 75 Iowa Big Ten 81 74 87 Utah Pac-12 81 84 77 West Virginia Big 12 81 86 75 Kansas State Big 12 80 84 76 Nebraska Big Ten 80 76 84 Cal Pac-12 80 86 74 Colorado State MWC 80 87 72 BYU Independents 80 76 83 Houston AAC 80 78 81 San Diego State MWC 80 80 79 Colorado Pac-12 80 83 76 WKU C-USA 80 84 75 Missouri SEC 80 87 72 Arizona State Pac-12 80 87 72 Appalachian State Sun Belt 79 79 79 Vanderbilt SEC 79 79 79 Michigan State Big Ten 79 79 79 Duke ACC 79 81 77 Syracuse ACC 79 86 72 Iowa State Big 12 79 86 72 Toledo MAC 79 88 70 Wake Forest ACC 79 75 82 Temple AAC 79 76 81 Tulsa AAC 79 84 73 Memphis AAC 79 86 71 Texas Tech Big 12 79 92 65 Navy AAC 78 83 73 Arizona Pac-12 78 82 73 Cincinnati AAC 78 76 79 Virginia ACC 78 77 78 Maryland Big Ten 77 75 79 Utah State MWC 77 78 75 UCF AAC 76 74 78 Troy Sun Belt 76 78 74 Boston College ACC 76 67 84 Wyoming MWC 76 79 72 WMU MAC 75 73 77 Purdue Big Ten 75 77 73 SMU AAC 75 80 70 Louisiana Tech C-USA 75 83 67 Arkansas State Sun Belt 75 73 76 Illinois Big Ten 75 73 76 NIU MAC 75 77 72 Southern Miss C-USA 75 77 72 Miami (OH) MAC 74 74 74 Ball State MAC 74 79 69 MTSU C-USA 74 84 64 Rutgers Big Ten 74 69 78 Tulane AAC 74 69 78 CMU MAC 74 75 72 UTSA C-USA 74 75 72 Old Dominion C-USA 74 76 71 East Carolina AAC 74 77 70 Bowling Green MAC 74 78 69 EMU MAC 74 80 67 FAU C-USA 74 83 64 Kansas Big 12 74 78 69 Georgia Southern Sun Belt 73 71 75 Army Independents 73 71 74 Marshall C-USA 73 71 74 FIU C-USA 73 76 69 New Mexico MWC 73 84 61 Ohio MAC 72 68 76 San Jose State MWC 72 73 71 Hawaii MWC 72 78 66 UL Lafayette Sun Belt 72 67 76 South Alabama Sun Belt 72 71 72 North Texas C-USA 72 72 71 Fresno State MWC 72 73 70 UMass Independents 72 73 70 Nevada MWC 72 74 69 Georgia State Sun Belt 71 68 74 Air Force MWC 71 77 65 UNLV MWC 71 79 63 Rice C-USA 71 73 68 Idaho Sun Belt 71 75 66 Kent State MAC 70 68 72 UConn AAC 70 69 71 New Mexico State Sun Belt 70 73 66 UTEP C-USA 70 73 66 ULM Sun Belt 70 74 65 Akron MAC 70 74 65 Buffalo MAC 68 65 70 Charlotte C-USA 68 69 66 Texas State Sun Belt 67 67 66 Coastal Carolina Sun Belt 66 70 62 UAB C-USA 62 60 64

These line up roughly well with the expected preseason rankings and Vegas’ season projections.

Stock NCAA 14 rated defending champ Bama as a 99 across the board and Oregon’s offense as the only other 99. Those all felt a little high, because even Bama should have room for improvement, once you take over and start signing nothing but five-stars. So since none of 2017’s teams look likely to be in the running for greatest ever, nobody’s really close to 99.

Expect the game to return at some point, but not any time soon. You can still play any of the old games, and you can still download updated rosters. Dedicated internet communities update the game’s rosters every year. And the new Madden will include at least a couple college teams in its new story mode.

For now, that’s about all we have, until the NCAA steps out of the way of the free market.