The top 5 small schools to make a Cinderella story out of on College Football 25

EA Sports will be releasing College Football 25 in July and I can't wait to do one, thing. It's something that I used to do on the college games all the time and I know I'm not the only one to do it. That's take a small school and make them a powerhouse national champion program. That's the goal this year. That and play in the Pop-Tart Bowl. 

After much deliberation with my family and my friends, I've narrowed my search down to five schools that could become college football's next Cinderella story. Do me a favor and pretend I'm in my high school gym and I'm sitting at a table with my parents and there's five hats in front of me and I'm about to make my decision on the local news. 

Here's the teams on the those five hats in front of me:

Louisiana-Monroe  

I was immediately drawn to UL-Monroe for a few different reasons. The first is the chance to play top schools out of the gate. You get Auburn and Texas in 2024 and then Alabama in 2025. 

The other big thing is that this team has been around since 1931 and they've only played one bowl game. That was a 45-14 loss to Ohio in the 2012 Independence Bowl. 

The last is that they're the Warhawks. I mean come on, that's a cool name right there. 

Eastern Michigan

Being from area, this was a chance to stay closed to home. Michigan has a lot of football teams and they've all seemingly got way more attention than Eastern Michigan. There's the obvious Michigan and Michigan State.

But then there's Central Michigan that always does well in the MAC and Western Michigan that was a super hot a team with P.J. Fleck just a few years ago. Even D-2 schools like Grand Valley State and Ferris State seem to get looked at more than Eastern Michigan. 

No more! This team that's been around since 1891 and has a 2-6 bowl record is about to rise up and be the preeminent college football team in the state of Michigan. They're going to do it by beating all those other teams. 

Ball State

Come with me to Muncie, Indiana where a football program that's been around since 1921 resides. Ball State has struggled for years. They have an all time .511 winning percentage. That's rough.

What's rougher is that 1-8 bowl record they have. Their one win came in 2020 when they beat San Jose State in the Arizona bowl. 

The only real concern with being Ball State is that you're not really going to get a chance to beat the top teams because they're not really on the schedule. They do play Ohio State in 2026 though. So there's that. 

San Jose State

I went to college in the area and I remember San Jose State being pretty cool while I was there. But they weren't very good. Their all time winning percentage is .490. That's real bad. 

They've been making it to bowl games recently though. They've been in three in the last four years, but they haven't won a bowl game since they beat Georgia State in the Cure Bowl in 2015. 

They have good slate of future opponents to beat too. You get Texas and Stanford in 2025. Beat those two teams and we're talking rankings in San Jose. 

Western Kentucky

It's time for the Hilltoppers to get to the hill top for once. This is the one team I'm selecting that's been pretty good in the last few years. They've churned out NFL players and they've won three bowl games in the last three years. To me that seems like and easy start. 

It might be easier to recruit at Western Kentucky than it is at the other schools. Maybe it's the chance to play against the big schools. They'll play Alabama in 2024, LSU in 2025 and Georgia in 2026. Beat all three of those teams and you're well on your way to dominance.