Losing the National Championship Game

[CM1847]

Quote: Originally Posted by nymets3000

What sliders are you using?

I'm using my own. After buying NCAA on release day for the past 4 or 5 years I've come to realize the easiest and most effective way for me to do sliders is to start my Dynasty immediately and adjust on the fly. By the end of the first season I have a base set that I usually run with for the entire second season. After that I make changes as I see fit. My last major change was 3 games into my 3rd season which resulted in the set I have now which I really like, it had me losing to NC State(B or B+) but beating USC(A or A+) with a few close calls against various B-/B/B+ teams as well. And then of course the NC game blowout.

There are a lot of people on this board who put a lot of work into making some very good sliders, but at the end of the day it is all based around how YOU play the game. I've spent many hours with previous versions of this game testing out other people's sliders, but everybody plays the game so differently that I can't imagine going back to testing out other people's sliders once I started making my own.

[CM1847]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mizzou23

I'm having a great time with this game too. I feel like I have earned basically every win I've gotten in my dynasty mode. I was rolling along undefeated in my first year with Mizzou and K-State smoked me in the 2nd to last game of the season. I thought I would be able to walk all over them, but I couldn't do anything right. Then in the first game of my second season, I stomped Illinois pretty good only to get upset at South Carolina the following week. I was stunned. Anyway, you always have to be on your toes with this game. You can't take any opponents lightly. Even Akron gave me a game for two quarters recently. I finally wore them down with my running game and ran away with the game in the 2nd half.

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I agree. I'm trying to do the 1* to 6* thing and have upset some pretty good teams (no ranked teams) and then i got beat by winless Arkansas State. My D-Line is bad and ASU just abused me with the running game. It was impressive to see the computer actually take advantage of a glaring weakness on my team.

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I agree completely. In my Colorado dynasty, I lose 2 of my first 4 non-con games (losses to Florida State and Arizona State and wins against Miami (OH) and Colorado State) then come back to trounce #6 Oklahoma. Nothing is completely predictable

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A-FREAKING-men lol. I play on Heisman with sliders that balance out the game really well, and I'm trying to do the same thing, 1* to 6 with Ball State. I lost my first game of the season to Miami of Ohio, then proceeded to win my next 4, including a HUGE road win at Nebraska to go 4-1. Then last night I play Central Michigan at home, and it was TOTAL let-down city. I got absolutely DESTROYED 51-24, probably the worst beating I have ever taken in NCAA Football lol. I mean I seriously don't know what happened but I got absolutely mauled. So now we go to 4-2, and pick up the pieces.

I love hearing stuff like this. College football, well sports in general, are so unpredictable and it is very rare that a game actually walks the thin line of having upsets but not being way too easy or way too hard. The game rewards you for having the more talented team, but it also makes sure not to hand you wins just because you are better than the opponant. You go into a game against an unranked team while you are top 10 expecting a blowout and then you look up and its the 4th quarter and you are down by 3 with 3 minutes left. It's very, very rare that a game can have an average team(B- or B) play you very tough but also make it possible to beat a good team(A- or A).

I can't remember the last time a playoff game in Madden or an NCAA Tournament game in College Hoops, once you are good enough to make the playoffs/tournament in those games the rest is usually a piece of cake.

[CM1847]

Quote: Originally Posted by GHUGHES

Sounds Like Real life to me ND still cant keep a bowl game close lol

I did win the Sugar Bowl in year two But I lost my first bowl(the Car Care Bowl I think) which I thought was pretty realistic, good ol' ND....

[roonoc]

wow just wow i just had the best and most realistic game on ncaa 08. the sugar bow i am #5 texasvs #7 lsu. i beat lsu 23-20 on a 30 yarder that went off the post in the final minute to tie for LSU. here are the stats:
Mccoy-16-25 195 1 td 0 int sacked twice
charles-24 carries 100 yrds 1 td (mcgee the backup had 1 fumble)
TE finley 3-38 1 td
WR cosby 3-54

Flynn 18-29 199 2 tds 1 int sacked once
Broussard 31-128 0 td's o fumbles
Doucet 8-60
LaFell 5-105 1 td
finished the year 12-1 the only loss coming to oklahoma 37-17

[plaagrat]

In the vein of "losing" the national championship... I got shafted out of even playing in it quite realistically.

Playing my second season with my CL HB at Purdue (Go Boilers!) and going undefeated, we got to play in the Rose Bowl instead of the NC. There were two other undefeated teams, USC and Oklahoma.

After a good 2007 season in which we only lost 2-3 games against ranked teams and winning our Champ Sports bowl, we came into the season ranked in the top 25. However, despite playing 5 games against ranked teams, 3 of them against top 10 opponents, 1 against a top 15, and one against the #21 team to finish the season, we were never able to get ranked higher than 3rd in ANY of the three polls. I managed to win the Rose Bowl in the last minute against #4 Texas, and USC pulled off an overtime FG win for the NC.

I checked the schedules of USC and Oklahoma and they didn't have nearly the number of ranked opponents I did at the end of the season. All in all, quite realistic I'd say. On top of that I lost some good players and only entered the 2009 season ranked 30 with a B- overall team now... going to be hard to repeat the 2008 success.

[Aggies7]

I think EA did a great job making each game during the season feel different. Usually by now I begin to get bored because each game feels the same, but this year I feel like I have to earn each victory. I actually get nervous going into week 7 undefeated with Alabama in my dynasty. I barely pulled out a win in week six and then in week 7 just got blown out. Not because of fumbles or interception, simply the CPU played great defense. 31-13 final score, but I scored at TD with :32 left on the clock, so up until then it was 31-6. Still loving the game.

[KG]

Along the same lines but a little bit different is the fact that there are some teams that I just cannot put away. In my USF dynasty I am 2-1 against West VA and Lousiville but 1-2 against Cincy. For some reason they always play me tough. The only game I beat them was a nail-biter where I won by 2 on a last second FG

[bpd115]

I agree as well. As PSU I had Morelli on a hot streak (which lasts between games now). Went into Michigan and had a tight first half, 17-7 PSU. 2nd half I score on the opening possession to go up 24 - 7 and started to steam roll them, Henne was just off, missing open guys, etc. Anyway I get up 48-21 and instead of running out the clock they throw and burn me for a TD with 20 seconds to go. I take the kickoff to the 50 and decide to just chuck one up into the endzone. DWill makes a 1 hand grab and I win 55-28.

Next game is Illinois who is undefeated at this point and a young but talented team. I wasn't too worried since Morelli hit anything that moved in the Michigan game.

With a 12mph wind I barely was able to complete a pass and the team felt like they just came off a big win vs. a no. 2 team. A classic letdown game. Illinois jumped up on me 14-0 with Juice Williams going 5-5 for 150 in the first quarter.

I returned a kickoff 90 yards and thank god Austin Scott had a big game. I ended up going 13 for 22 for ~168 yrds. Ended up winning 29-24 after being down 24-20 going into the 4th. Got pressure on Williams twice in the redzone and ended up picking him off both times, once on a 4th down and goal as they were looking to take the lead.

It was great to have to rely on my defense and running game and struggle in a game I thought I'd blow them out in.