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Iamaleava's Rating Among QBs in College Football 26 Revealed
Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava (8) looks for an open receiver during the NCAA college football playoff game against Ohio State on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

It's officially College Football 26 season as the latest edition of the EA Sports product is set to release on July 10 -- July 7 for deluxe edition buyers -- which means ratings are rolling out and UCLA's new star quarterback Nico Iamaleava is ranked amongst his peers.

EA Sports released it's top 10 ratings at each position (which didn't feature a single Bruin), but On3 was able to get its hands on top 20 ratings and Iamaleava found his name around some of the sport's biggest names ahead of his redshirt sophomore year.

The transfer signal-caller has a 88 overall rating and is the 16th highest-rated quarterback in the nation, according to College Football 26.

The full top 20 rated quarterbacks list includes:

1. Cade Klubnik (Clemson) - 92
2. Garrett Nussimeier (LSU) - 92
3. Drew Allar (Penn State) - 92
4. Sam Leavitt (ASU) - 91
5. LaNorris Sellers (South Carolina) - 91
6. John Mateer (Oklahoma) - 91
7. Carson Beck (Miami) - 91
8. Blake Horvath (Navy) - 90
9. Arch Manning (Texas) - 90
10. DJ Lagway (Florida) - 90
11. Avery Johnson (Kansas State) - 89
12. Kevin Jennings (SMU) - 89
13. Darian Mensah (Duke) - 89
14. Luke Altmyer (Illinois) - 89
15. Kaidon Salter (Colorado) - 88
16. Nico Iamaleava (UCLA) - 88
17. Diego Pavia (Vanderbilt) - 88
18. Rocco Becht (Iowa State) - 88
19. Jake Retzlaff - 88
20. Sawyer Robertson (Baylor) - 88

Iamaleava is seemingly garnering more respect from EA Sports than he has from national pundits ahead of the season. The redshirt sophomore made his way to the Bruins after a public dispute with the Volunteers over his name, image and likeness resulted in his departure. Iamaleava was at the wrong end of negative public discourse and is now one of the most polarizing college football talents ahead of the next season.

To amplify things, Iamaleava joins a revamped UCLA culture under DeShaun Foster ahead of their second season in the Big Ten Conference. Foster finished his debut coaching season with a 5-7 record but has since changed the trajectory of the program in his first full offseason, conjuring up UCLA's best recruiting class in over a decade.

College Football 26 releases everywhere on July 10, 2025 and diehard Bruins fans can get the game three days earlier by pre-ordering the Deluxe Edition or MVP Bundle for that early access on July 7.

This article first appeared on UCLA Bruins on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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