One Big 12 Team Made a Run to the Title in ESPN’s 2025 Simulation

ESPN’s Max Olson went full experimental this week, simulating the 2025 college football season 25 times using EA Sports College Football 26. One scenario stood out: Texas Tech goes a nearly-perfect 15-1, punches through the bracket, and wins the national title over Nebraska in a dominant finish.

In that simulation, let’s call it Season O, the Red Raiders turned heads. They beat Indiana in the semifinal, then routed Nebraska in the championship game behind their revamped offense and deep roster. That run came in a field where 52 different programs earned at least one playoff spot across the simulations; that’s the measure of turbulence in Olson’s virtual 2025.

It is a wild image: Texas Tech cutting through the bracket as a virtual armchair national champion. But for a team that has invested heavily in portal talent and brought in higher-caliber transfers, the notion isn’t completely out of orbit. It reinforces what real-world hype has suggested, that the Red Raiders have quietly constructed a contender.

Simulations are not predictions. They reflect assumptions baked into game programming. But when you’re trying to spot who can emerge in the chaos of the Big 12, a media-driven sliver of virtual validation can still turn heads.

And for Texas Tech fans, seeing a virtual red wave roll all the way to a title is the kind of confidence boost that fuels early-season belief.