What has your experience been for those who dropped from All American to Varsity?

[moTIGS]

Out of the box, I was playing on All-American, but I've been on Varsity for most of the time since the first couple weeks. Absolutely love it.

I very rarely lose games (in part because I'm playing in the Mountain West, and I'm a good 8 or 9 points better in team overall than the next-best team—I'm going to take control over a few other teams once I hit the offseason, though, to build up a few quality conference opponents). I end up with a ton of blowouts. But as someone else mentioned earlier, that's kinda realistic for college football. If I wanted to be in a tight game every week, I would've picked an SEC or Big 10 team. Or played Madden. But the experience I want is building up an elite team in a non-power conference, steamrolling a bunch of scrubs, then hitting the playoff and suddenly having to try harder in close games against better opposition. So it works for that.

One thing I've experienced that I enjoy: Even when I blow teams out, *how* I blow them out changes game to game. Two games ago, I beat San Jose State 66-24. My quarterback threw nine passes in that game. But my running backs carried the ball a combined 30 times for 482 yards. I think I had five carries go 40+ yards. San Jose State is the worst team in the conference by a good bit, so I expected a blowout. But I didn't exactly expect to walk to the end zone seemingly every time.

Then in my next game against Hawaii, my top running back "only" averaged 5.6 yards per carry (which is excellent in this game relative to what backs get in the sim results but is pretty typical of a "good" running back in real life). That number was heavily inflated late, though. For most of the game, I was averaging about 4 yards per carry. (I've been trying to feed my back a bit extra lately to see if I can get him in the Heisman conversation.)

Some games it feels like my quarterback can do no wrong. In others, he struggles but my backs have a field day. Occasionally everything aligns. And a few times nothing seems to go right. Most games are easy, as they should be given the talent disparity, but they're rarely easy in exactly the same way.

And they're also never so easy that I can just ignore what the defense is doing and run whatever. I still have to try at least a little bit if I want a blowout. Against Hawaii, there was one play where I recognized they were probably in a coverage that would put a linebacker on my back in single coverage. (I guessed cover 2 man, but it was actually a single deep safety.) I was in a four-wide shotgun set with my running back running a route into the flat, but I realized given the coverage, he'd likely have a slower defender on him, so I sent him on a wheel. Based on my Cover 2 man read, I was watching the deep safety, expecting him to first cover my receivers running deep ins. Turns out they were in some kind of zone blitz that had a defensive end trying to cover the back, but because I was already keying on that safety and hoping to hit the back deep, I was prepared for it. I calmly slid my QB away from the pressure and lofted a pass downfield to my back, who had run right past the coverage. Easiest 29-yard touchdown I've ever had. And it felt like I kinda earned it (or at least earned the ease of it). One thing I suspect a lot of people fear about dropping down to Varsity is that they can just run whatever and win without a challenge. Which often you can, especially against weaker teams. But that doesn't mean you can't still have fun with pre-snap reads and feeling like success is actually earned.

I probably need to tweak a few sliders a bit more. I'm getting a bit too many interceptions on both sides of the ball (more so for my defense). I'd like it to be a bit harder to get those 400-yard rushing games. But overall, if feels like a realistic version of a really good team playing pretty bad ones. And on the rare occasion when I do face equal or better competition, the games are far from guaranteed wins.

[Collegefbfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by ZekeRoberts

You play enough games and you start to see everything... My 5-1 Wolverines were ranked 10th, hosting a 1-5 Maryland team whose only win was FCS. 95/96/95 VS 82/82/82. I got destroyed. 45-7 at halftime. I missed a few tackles in the rain and my QB threw his usual picks. I have no other logical explanation. It just happens sometimes. I beat two top 10 teams at the start of the season to climb back to the top of the polls after my down years on AA. All three of those games on the same Varsity sliders (A&S tweaked). Varsity is the truth. I went to bed angry. Apologies to my family and my vocal cords 😅

I know the feeling. I kept the default schedule for my SDSU in season 1. I think I played a scrub team for the first game. Then, I was worried about Washington State and Oregon State. Laid waste to both of them. Then some below mediocre Mountain West team arrives on the schedule, and we lose pretty badly. Then, I started using some good sliders.

[Collegefbfan]

Yes, and I 100% agree that Varsity is like All American LITE. You guys that can play on All American and Heisman, and build up a 1* or 2* program, you guys rule. I am happy at this level for now.

[moTIGS]

Following up on my previous post, where I basically described games that had been incredibly easy.

I just finished the postseason today. I got UNLV in the playoffs as the 4 seed, and I was finally facing teams that had actual talent.

First game was against Cinci, which was an 82 overall to my 89. They put a genuine scare into my team. My offense struggled to accomplish anything. My quarterback threw three picks, and I averaged only 3.8 yards per rush. Managed to pull away late, though, after a kickoff return for a touchdown. Won 34-21.

Next game against Texas, similar story. It was a 14-13 game at half. I trailed 16-14 heading into the fourth quarter. I once again threw multiple interceptions and was held under 4.0 yards per rush. I pulled this one out purely because I had a 98-speed receiver get behind the secondary twice for long touchdowns (he finished with 5 catches/173 yards/3 touchdowns. Won 28-16, but I genuinely thought I was going to lose until the final few minutes of the game.

Then in the title against Florida, it was a romp. Won this one 41-20. But it felt like a justified 41-20, not a cheesy one.

For one, Florida had the Heisman winner (Cameron Coleman, who I guess transferred from Auburn) and runner up (DJ Lagway). To be fair, Coleman and Lagway both had ridiculous seasons, by my running back, Devin Green, had something like 1,900 yards and 19 touchdowns before the playoffs started and wasn't even a finalist. And my team apparently took that personally.

Florida was pretty stacked everywhere except DT, where they only had two players, and both were rated below an 80 overall. So I decided to just run it up the gut all game long. Green finished with 295 yards on 37 carries and 3 touchdowns (striking the Heisman pose after every score). Lagway threw three picks, and Coleman was essentially invisible. By the end of the game, Green's arm was about to fall off from wear and tear, but there was no way he was coming out of the game.

This was my third-straight CFP appearance but my first title. I lost one a couple years earlier on a pick six in a tie game as time expired. Got bounced in the semifinal the other time. Finally winning felt pretty damn good, and it didn't feel like less of an accomplishment on Varsity.

Next goal: Taking manual control over a few Mountain West rivals and building them up so I'm playing teams with this much talent more often.

[Limasbravo]

Quote: Originally Posted by BadAssHskr

How are the ints on straight varsity?

Quote: Originally Posted by Ghost Of The Year

I've said it before but this game doesn't have a true ''Varsity'' level. Its more of an All-American level part two, or an All-Conference level. The difference between Varsity and All-American is much much closer than that of between Varsity and Freshman.

Yes. I'm saying this is 100%. There seems to very little difference between Varsity and All-American but huge gap between Varsity and Freshman.

I'm pretty darn happy with gameplay on Varsity with no slider changes but a little annoyed at interceptions. I'm getting 2-3 per game. Which I don't know if that's "normal" for football. Still, makes my QB not have a good season.

I'm not good at the game, so maybe that's it.

Guess maybe I'll just try fiddling with the interceptions/pass coverage sliders to figure it out. I'm not versed in figuring out my own sliders though.

[ehh]

I played my first game on Playmaker's Varsity sliders (Penn St vs Kentucky) and won 63-13. It felt great, though obviously it was a bit easy. WR could get separation and zone defense wasn't flawless with insane reaction times.

I could run the option game again, I could run the ball better, I could run all sorts of routes on the route tree, some plays I had a long time to throw the ball. All good stuff.

Now on to the age-old task of trying to make the CPU's offense good enough on lower difficulties.

[NoleFan]

Quote: Originally Posted by Limasbravo

Yes. I'm saying this is 100%. There seems to very little difference between Varsity and All-American but huge gap between Varsity and Freshman. I'm pretty darn happy with gameplay on Varsity with no slider changes but a little annoyed at interceptions. I'm getting 2-3 per game. Which I don't know if that's "normal" for football. Still, makes my QB not have a good season. I'm not good at the game, so maybe that's it. Guess maybe I'll just try fiddling with the interceptions/pass coverage sliders to figure it out. I'm not versed in figuring out my own sliders though.

This is where I call in teamrankings.com and their stats section. In 2023, the average int/game across all of FBS was .8 (just took the average of the averages lol). But then I also looked to see who had the highest int thrown/game and that was GA Southern and it was only 1.6/game which is essentially 2. So if I can stay there for the season I'll take it. Now when I have those games where I throw upward of that it ticks me off but I'll go stretches where I don't throw any and it balances out.

[Limasbravo]

Quote: Originally Posted by NoleFan

This is where I call in teamrankings.com and their stats section. In 2023, the average int/game across all of FBS was .8 (just took the average of the averages lol). But then I also looked to see who had the highest int thrown/game and that was GA Southern and it was only 1.6/game which is essentially 2. So if I can stay there for the season I'll take it. Now when I have those games where I throw upward of that it ticks me off but I'll go stretches where I don't throw any and it balances out.

Thanks for the info Nole! I know your expectations on playing are in line with me, so I'll look at that.

I think I've never had a game with 0 and maybe only a couple with 1, but could be not remembering right and could be my quality vs their school quality.