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.