I had a policy of only buying the game every other year. Minor changes from year to year didn't seem to justify shelling out $60 every single year, but after 2 years there were generally enough new features and updates to justify another purchase. That and I didn't enjoy having to restart my dynasty after just one year. So it was just through dumb luck that my personal policy happened to align with me buying the very last game in the series.
For years there had been rumblings about the series being cancelled or at least being put on hiatus for a few years. But it never really felt like it would actually happen. I figured EA would reach settlements with those suing them over likeness issues and at worst maybe they would have to start producing games with completely fictional players.
But in August 2013, one month after the release of NCAA Football 14, the bomb was indeed dropped and nothing has been the same since.
While not flawless, NCAA Football 14 was at least a very good game for the series to go out on. The game-play was the best it's ever been. The visuals were phenomenal for a 7th gen game and the dynasty mode was packed with depth. The new recruiting system which had you assign points instead of calling recruits was really the only thing I didn't like.
But the best part of the game, and the best part of the entire series, was the unbelievable attention to detail that really made the unique feel of college football come to life. This series wasn't nearly as big of a seller as its older brother Madden, but it was clearly made by people with a deep love for college football.
Growing up as a die-hard Nebraska fan I knew Nebraska football, both the current players and the history of the program, like the back of my hand. But as a kid I didn't know much of anything about college football outside of the Huskers. I knew the teams we played regularly, but not much about them other than if they were currently good or not.
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| Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso in NCAA Football 06 |
The NCAA games were my introduction to college football as a whole. It opened my eyes to the incredibly vast world and deep lore of the sport. The teams, the traditions, the history and the unique culture of each individual program was captured in these games. So much of what I know about college football today is directly because of these games. I learned who Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit were because they were the ones providing commentary for every single game. When watching real-life Nebraska on TV, my curiosity of the other teams was minimal. When I started playing NCAA games around the age of 10, the hunger to learn everything I could about these other programs could never be satisfied.
In my Nebraska dynasty I'd constantly schedule non-conference games against teams I'd never heard of just out of curiosity of who they were, what they looked like, who their mascot was and what their stadium looked like. When Nebraska played Clemson in the 2009 Gator Bowl, I already knew all of this about them despite never seeing Clemson play in real life before.
I'd start dynasties as other teams in other conferences. Trying to build up a crappy team from scratch taught me about many of the different bowl games out there. (In my Nebraska dynasty I pretty much played for the national title or a BCS bowl every single year). The recruiting mode educated me on what distinct challenges, or lack thereof, different programs faced.
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| The Golden Boot, the trophy of the LSU/Arkansas rivalry, as it appears in NCAA Football 13 |
And rivalry trophies. Boy did I learn about rivalry trophies. Playing as different programs, it was a blast to play for a bucket, an old rusty spittoon or some old Civil War cannon. I loved looking at all the rivalry trophies and reading through the indexes the games had on each one. It made me wish Nebraska played for a rivalry trophy.
But alas they did! According the games, Nebraska and Missouri played for the Missouri/Nebraska Bell. It was a church bell that was taken from an old church in Seward, Nebraska and the only reason I even know of its existence today is because of seeing it and reading about it in these games.
The Missouri/Nebraska bell was never really talked about in real life. It was weird. I'd never seen it or heard of it mentioned anywhere outside of these games until Nebraska beat Missouri in 2010. It was a surreal experience when I saw, for just a split second, Nebraska players carrying the bell off the field after beating Missouri in real life.
My first thought was "Holy crap! That's the trophy from the NCAA games!"
I knew what the Heisman Trophy was as a kid, but seeing my recruited players in the game win the Bednarik Award, the Jim Thorpe Award, the Lombardi and Outland trophies, etc. taught me about the other prestigious awards in college football.
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| Lee Corso donning the Florida Gator mascot head of Albert Alligator during an NCAA 06 cut-scene |
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| The incredible attention to college football's pageantry & atmosphere in these games was breathtaking |
I watch tons of college football today. Games between teams all around the country. I know a vast amount of the histories and traditions of these teams and I'm still constantly learning more. But this initial desire to learn more about college football beyond just Nebraska was undoubtedly sparked by the NCAA football video games.
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