We all have our favorite versions of our favorite video games. Like many who are reading this right now if I had to take one video game to a deserted island it would definitely be NCAA Football. But, which version was the best?
Bill Walsh College Football kicked the series off in June 1993, who among us played that on the Sega Genesis? A few years later, the newly re-named College Football 96 introduced all (for the time) 108 D-1 teams and featured the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, and Rose Bowls. There was another breakthrough in the yet again newly re-named NCAA Football 98 when dynasty mode was introduced (for only 4 seasons!) and the NCAA rights finally brought an official type of branding that made the game more realistic.
NCAA Football 99 introduced editable player names, the Heisman trophy, and an optional playoff system. NCAA Football 2001 brought us create-a-player and create-a-school with custom leagues. NCAA Football 2006 introduced in-season recruiting which was a game-changer.
For me, NCAA College Football 2002 will always be the gold standard, if not my favorite version of the game. Was it the game I played the most? That’s tough to say. We put together a massive months-long tournament in my freshman year college dorm that got played through sobriety and drunkenness alike. But it’s difficult to compare those times with obscene (and I truly mean obscene) dynasty mode hours logged in the 2005-09 range.
The 2002 game really did seem like when the series as a whole took off, though. As the years past of course the graphics became better and many aspects to the series made it a more complete game. Still, 2002 was a wonderful breakthrough.
The Madden Engine
NCAA Football 2002 was released on July 23, 2001 with 64-year old Chris Weinke on the cover and for a month it was the greatest football game ever created–until the newest Madden (a game with 250% better sales) took the throne back. That’s speaking for the general public at large, yet NCAA Football 02 with a souped-up Madden engine felt like it finally kicked the door down for college football fans.
This was the first edition on the PlayStation 2 which added increased graphics, too. The uniforms took a big step up in authenticity as did the stadiums. Every version of the game had its own flaws–the 2002 edition was criticized for being too easy on offense, corners dropping passes, and defensive linemen being swallowed up too easily in the run game–but this game looked and felt great.
Deep Stats
NCAA Football 2002 went incredibly deep on stats in a way that seemed impossible up until this point. If you’re a dynasty lover like me then you know how stats make the game a million times better.
This was the edition that opened the door to such an immersive experience controlling a school and becoming obsessed with the smallest and meaningless stats. They tracked pancake blocks for offensive linemen, turnover differential, and the top 25 coaches for goodness sake!
2002 also introduced “Campus Challenge” which further increased the emphasis on obtaining certain statistics to unlock things like All-American teams and classic teams from the past.
End-of-Season Recruiting
As mentioned above, we were still a few years from more realistic in-season recruiting and yet part of me really enjoyed the end-of-season expanded recruiting offered in 2002.
For me, in-season recruiting provided one of the downfalls of dynasty mode–it feels great at first and then once you’re into year 4, 5, 6, and 7 the amount of time you’re expending to recruit and slog through a season really starts to wear you down. How many of you played every game and controlled everything regarding recruiting in those late 2000’s games? Do you remember how it took seemingly 70 hours to get through one season?
I found a sense of charm and efficiency with the end-of-season recruiting. Not as realistic of course, but I think it fits better into the college football video game model.
Florida Power
It’s important to remember that the preceding season set up a lot of the new college football games. And this was an era when Rivals was barely on the scene and the national recruiting scene was still a number of years away from really taking off.
Where were we after 2000?
USC was a mess out west. The Big Ten had a depressingly down year. Boise State and their blue turf were beginning to make some noise. Oklahoma were defending champions and loaded, but breaking in a new quarterback. Virginia Tech had a great season but were losing Michael Vick.
The state of Florida kind of owned the game. Weinke was on the cover, Florida was included heavily in all the promotions, and of course this was the game that featured the soon-to-be Miami Hurricanes team that would win the title and go down as one of the best college teams in history.
Your average fan would probably pick Miami back in the day if they wanted to beat you. Although, Ken Dorsey’s lack of mobility could be taken advantage of with the right defense.
Woodrow
I don’t have a deep recollection of Woodrow “Woody” Dantzler playing in real life. Following 2000, Clemson was coming off a 9-3 record but lost 3 out of their last 4 games after an initial climb to No. 5 in the polls. Dantzler would get banged up in both 2000 and 2001 (in which Clemson slumped to a 7-5 record) and the Tigers never could get over the hump in the ACC.
However, Woody was a cheat code in NCAA Football 2002.
He was so incredibly fast and unstoppable running the option or scrambling for yardage. He absolutely belongs in the conversation with 1991 Tecmo Super Bowl Bo Jackson, 2004 Madden Michael Vick, 2006 NCAA Football Vince Young and Reggie Bush, and 2010 NCAA Football Tim Tebow as one of the best video game football players of all-time.
2002 was also the first game to really use the option as a devastating weapon, in tandem with the linemen mentioned above who couldn’t get off blocks. Nearly any snap, Danztler could get the edge for an easy 10 yards or more. It was too easy.
By the way, Dantzler would finish 2001 as the first player in NCAA history with 1,000 rushing yards and 2,000 passing yards in the same season. Not too bad!
Irrelevant Notre Dame
This was a tough game if you were a Notre Dame fan. An okay defense supported by an offense with few pieces to scare most Power 5 schools. The game was fairly realistic in this final season of Bob Davie.
Carlyle Holiday wasn’t very good at quarterback and what were you going to do, insert Matt LoVecchio? Julius Jones was in the backfield but this was a year before his suspension when he was more of a special teams threat and above average running back.
At least it made Notre Dame fun to rebuild in dynasty mode.
The 5 weeks of post-season recruiting was the best! In-season recruiting was so cool at first, but quickly turned into a slog. I always wanted them to give an option to go back to the old ways.
Man, exactly.
You guys mean to tell me you don’t enjoy making 5 minute phone calls to a punter from Utah 12-13 times before he commits to Clemson anyway?
“Maybe a few more assistant coach calls will work….”
For me the GOAT was NCAA 2004. I played that game for about a gazillion hours and it felt like the right mix of fun but not too easy. My first NCAA game was 03, which I bought immediately after my PS2. I saved all my birthday and Christmas and whatever other money I got as a kid for over a year so that I could buy it, which to this day is probably my biggest financial accomplishment.
The addition of custom conferences, I believe in NCAA 12, was a game-changer as it allowed to play a dynasty mode that reflected what was actually going on, which was important for continuity nerds like myself. I’m in 2019 in my NCAA 14 dynasty now, and it’s been interesting to move teams around as they move in reality. (A downer, though, is that without the ability to add FCS teams to the FBS, the Sun Belt Conference is essentially the old WAC with like 6 teams in it.)
My roommate and I had an NCAA 08 dynasty going – he was a Purdue fan – and it’s sort of amusing how relatively easy it was to have a good Notre Dame team in that game given what actually happened in the season it was built for.
Maybe 03 or 04 for me as a “heyday” type of game to have a big group dorm multiplayer dynasty going. We had some intense competitions. I was never a super-competitve type but one of my suitemates was a tennis player for our school and was considered the top NCAA football player in our crew too.
It ended up being me and him in the championship one season. I was Kansas, I forget who he was (we all picked low-end teams to make it fun). I had built up my team around like an old-school Nebraska pure option offense. It was so unlike everyone he ever played, so he couldn’t defend it. He then had a few bad luck turnovers and the game was like 42-0 or 49-0 and the whole room (once abuzz with excitement) was that awkward, intense quiet where everyone knows someone is so pissed off but isn’t saying much. I forget the final score but obviously I won easily and barely got a quiet “good game” before it was all said and done.
The fun stuff you remember! NCAA games were always so great, it would be wonderful if one day they can return (and not be Madden-ized).
“NCAA games were always so great, it would be wonderful if one day they can return (and not be Madden-ized).”
Agreed, I got Madden ’19 and played it maybe 3 times – wayyyyyyyyyyyy to complicated for someone who isn’t trying to be an e-sports professional. Additionally, you now have to buy/collect shit to keep up. Much less fun of an experience than say, Madden ’05.
I went from Madden 14 and a long, long drought without playing, to Madden 19 and even on Pro level or whatever I was the worst player in the world. Made no sense.
I absolutely loved the slog of in season recruiting. There was something magical about working a blue chip recruit all season long and getting hm to finally take a visit/commit to you.
My first game was 03 with Joey Harrington on the cover. I was hooked from the first quick game I played. I couldn’t believe how much fun the NCAA games would be. I like to think we all don’t just look back romanticizing the series, because I want it back so bad.
Those were the days — as you noted, hours upon hours of dynasty mode with an option offense, recruiting, creating players, and building your own team (if like me, you did not want to deal with the Holiday / LoVecchio choice with ND).
hello fellow millennials-now-in-our-30s
Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this Eric! GO SOUTH BEND ’88!!!
WHERE IS PART II?? AND III AND IV??? I need more content while I pretend to “work” from home
Coming soon!!!!