Skip to main content

NCAA '07: Who Do You believe?

It's less and less of a surprise every year that EA Sports chooses not to include Patriot League schools in the only NCAA Football video game title on the market. But I always check: and this year, yet again Patriot League fans are skunked.

Maybe it's been the hopes of too many summers unrealized, but the gleam in my eye when EA Sports used to release a new version of their college football game has been replaced with cold cynicism. In years past I used to race out to the store to try to play-test the game. Finding out the changes in gameplay and possibilities about dynasty mode were something that interested me. I never got what I really wanted, but usually there was something interesting to take the edge off. Maybe dynasty mode was expanded, or more I-AA teams, or a Heisman mode. I'd look at some of the versions and say, "Maybe I could work with this".

As '07 hit store shelves this year, the neglect to I-AA teams in general was pretty apparent. No I-AA playoffs. No I-AA Dynasty mode, to allow for recruiting over multiple seasons. Even the rosters were in many (if not all) cases carbon-copies of last year's rosters. For I-AA fans, it's hard to recommend the game since so little has changed from last year for our teams. Yes, gameplay has changed a little, but you have to ask yourself the question - if EA Sports doesn't want to take care to get my school right, why should I buy the game?

Curiously, if you do a quick Google search you'll find out that the "game review websites" give the game super-high marks -- suspiciously so, in my mind. (Check out metacritic: no other game gets a higher review.) Look at these snippets:

Not surprisingly, NCAA Football 07 is a no-brainer buy for the college football fans and is well worth a look from even the most casual of sports gamers.

By once again capturing that electric atmosphere in NCAA 07, and combining it with an ever-evolving set of control tweaks and gameplay modes, EA Sports has created a game that no fan of football video games--be they college or pro--will want to be without.

Which ad agency wrote these? First of all, if it's a no-brainer buy for college football fans it's because it's the ONLY college football game out there. It could be a repackage of Atari 2600 football, but if you want to play college football, tough - it's the only game in town. Second, it may be an electric atmosphere if you're a fan of a I-A school like Notre Dame or USC, but if you're a Delaware or Montana fan, you're still in Skunk City.

When you talk to real fans, especially I-AA fans, you get a different story than the "ad agencies". It's not a slam-dunk either way - a very mixed bag. Some like the new gameplay, others think they should have done much better. Specific to I-AA, folks are upset that the Big Sky conference is incomplete since someone forgot to notice that Northern Colorado was joining them this year. Also, no new I-AA teams. No I-AA dynasty. No I-AA playoffs.

It's your call as to who you believe, but read the links and judge for yourself. My money's with the I-AA fans.

To be fair, there is a very positive development I'd like to mention before leaving on such a sour note. First, there is hope in the future that I-AA coverage will be expanded, based on this interview of EA programmers Larry Richart and Anthony White. Here's the snippet:

GS: If there's one thing you could add to the NCAA Football series, what would it be and why?

AW: I'd add an I-AA dynasty mode option that allows you to play in the actual conferences, and at the end of the season if your team is good enough, compete in the I-AA playoffs. As for my reasons, I enjoy watching I-AA football, especially when it's playoff time.


Let's hope for '08 Mr. White's suggestion gets implemented - of course, complete with Patriot League teams. In all seriousness, it is very encouraging that folks at EA Sports are finally getting the fact that people want these features.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Maybe the combination of football, video games, and a league where the scholar-athletes actually know how to sign their own names is beyond the comprehension of the programmers ;-)

GCW - Lehigh '72

Popular posts from this blog

How The Ivy League Is Able To Break the NCAA's Scholarship Limits and Still Consider Themselves FCS

By now you've seen the results.  In 2018, the Ivy League has taken the FCS by storm. Perhaps it was Penn's 30-10 defeat of Lehigh a couple of weeks ago .  Or maybe it was Princeton's 50-9 drubbing of another team that made the FCS Playoffs last year, Monmouth.  Or maybe it was Yale's shockingly dominant 35-14 win over nationally-ranked Maine last weekend. The Ivy League has gone an astounding 12-4 so far in out-of-conference play, many of those wins coming against the Patriot League. But it's not just against the Patriot League where the Ivy League has excelled.  Every Ivy League school has at least one out-of-conference victory, which is remarkable since it is only three games into their football season.  The four losses - Rhode Island over Harvard, Holy Cross over Yale, Delaware over Cornell, and Cal Poly over Brown - were either close losses that could have gone either way or expected blowouts of teams picked to be at the bottom of the Ivy League. W

Made-Up Midseason Grades for Lehigh Football

 We are now officially midway through the 2023 Lehigh football season.  The Mountain Hawks sit at 1-5 overall, and 0-1 in the Patriot League. I thought I'd go ahead and make up some midseason grades, and set some "fan goals" for the second half. The 2023 Mountain Hawks were picked to finish fifth in the seven team Patriot League.  In order to meet or exceed that expectation, they'll probably have to go at least 3-2 the rest of the way in conference play.  Their remaining games are vs. Georgetown, at Bucknell, vs. Holy Cross, at Colgate, and vs. Lafayette in The Rivalry. Can they do it? Culture Changing: B+ .  I was there in the Bronx last week after the tough 38-35 defeat to Fordham, and there wasn't a single player emerging from the locker room that looked like they didn't care.  Every face was glum.  They didn't even seem sad.  More frustrated and angry. That may seem normal, considering the agonizing way the Mountain Hawks lost, but it was a marked chan

Fifteen Guys Who Might be Lehigh's Next Football Coach (and Five More)

If you've been following my Twitter account, you might have caught some "possibilities" as Lehigh's next head football coach like Lou Holtz, Brett Favre and Bo Pelini .  The chance that any of those three guys actually are offered and accept the Lehigh head coaching position are somewhere between zero and zero.  (The full list of my Twitter "possibilities" are all on this thread on the Lehigh Sports Forum .) However the actual Lehigh head football coaching search is well underway, with real names and real possibilities. I've come up with a list of fifteen possible names, some which I've heard whispered as candidates, others which might be good fits at Lehigh for a variety of reasons. UPDATE: I have found five more names of possible head coaches that I am adding to this list below. Who are the twenty people?  Here they are, in alphabetical order.