What is your personal NCAA "ritual"

[ODogg]

I try to get the game early, on Friday, so I don't have to request any time off of work. Here is my plan this year:

1. Get some NCAA magazines the week before launch.
2. A few days before Friday before release clean the house, stock the food and beer up to the max.
3. On Friday start calling the two places near me where it comes in early to find out where I can get it early at. If it's local then I'll go get it Friday at lunchtime and take off the rest of the day. If it's further away then go pick up my g/f for a road trip about 3pm and head up there....
4. Get back with the game, put it in, play a random game with some decent or good team (me) vs. some terrible team. Usually I just roll with some random matchup for getting the controls, then restart in 2nd quarter with the Buckeyes (me) vs. someone I dislike (Michigan State) at OSU.
5. Since this is the first year I've had a g/f in...well..forever it seems..LOL...I will probably play until about 9pm (if I got it at noon) and then we'll go somewhere to eat before I get back to it. Or if we got it on the long road trip we can go to dinner on the way back then I'll drop her off when we get back to Columubus and play starting later until I can't stay up any longer.
6. The next day type in the names of the Buckeyes at least, start fiddling with all the different modes and start answering questions on OS. Play all day.
7. Sunday I usually spend more time on OS giving impressions, then after I do that for a while play a little more before going to bed.
8. Monday is avoid the forums day due to all the pessimism and negativism, LOL.
9. Wait for rosters.
10. Wait some more for rosters.....

[Bruce Wayne Jr]

Quote: Originally Posted by SwampStomper90

My ritual is actually changing this year. Buy Phil Steele about 2 weeks before the game comes out, then get on YouTube and watch the ESPN College Football Images of the Decade. Then play until my eyes bleed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i will try the phil steele this year. never tried it before

[TripleCrown9]

Oh yeah dude it's freaking awesome. Two pages for every team, including position breakdowns, predictions for the season, even a list of recruits. The greatest part is the numbered rosters. Before I started downloading rosters, I used PS to name my rosters. 7 bucks is fairly reasonable for 300+ pages, if I do say so myself. I say go for it. It's a college football bible.

[cowboy_kmoney]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bruce Wayne Jr

for me i always get my early ncaa release fix by buying the Athlon Sports college football annual/magazine. it usually comes out in june. when i see that i know it's time for ea football.

This is my yearly thing to do because before I knew anything bout being able to get a roster file I use to put in the names myself and have so much fun. But yes it took forever to put the names in so I would name my whole Baylor team and all the big 12 as of other teams I my play.

[kindella2]

Used to grab Athlon every year i think it hits stands the 1st week in July. Would use Athlon to do rosters but then i started DLing them from here and other places so i no longer even get Athlon.

[BDawg35]

It used to be that I would start hitting the college Web sites for rosters, then print them out so I had a stack of rosters available when the game hit. Then I'd go in and name my own rosters, at least a decent chunk of them. First roster is always Michigan. First player is always the starting quarterback for Michigan, so Chad Henne was the first player named for two or three years.

Always get the game at midnight release. Since the local EB Games or Game Stops don't always show NCAA enough love to have a midnight release, I just go to Wal Mart.

Head home, name a few teams, then hop online to play Yragha, one of my boyz from way back in NCAA 2004. Get in a couple of online games, then go to sleep. Get up the next day and it's just an online orgy against long-time rivals like Yragha, Roadhouse and a few other peeps from the former MaddenMania.

I always do an extensive dynasty, so in the weeks leading up to release, I'll start getting graphics and preview stuff together for my 'nasty.

Oh, and I've always taken a couple weeks of vacation to coincide with NCAA's release, so I can just indulge. I usually have a couple seasons of dynasty mode done by the time I get back to work.

[ODogg]

I know yragha, boy that's a blast from the past. I used to be in his league in the PS2 days but he booted me for putting up 724 yards receiving with Chad Owens of Hawai'i, LOL. Now before you scream cheese...The idiot i was playing never double covered him so I just kept going to him. Most of it was YAC btw. And I ended up winning the game 52-50 or something so it wasn't running it up either. I didn't fight him kicking me out, it was pretty ridiculous. But the guy I played never doubled him so I felt he deserved it.

Anyways, may want to recheck your local gamestops as most of them do midnight launches now.

[Eski33]

Usually I am too busy playing baseball games through June. When NCAA releases, I will pick it up after work (work at 2 a.m. so midnight releases do zero for me).

Typically, I will play a few exhibition games with different teams so I can check out uniforms, stadiums, weather effects, etc.

With team-specific entrances back this year, I will definitely open with Notre Dame then try out Miami, FSU, Georgia Tech, Michigan (although I hate'em -- maybe I will just play against them on the road).

Then I usually put the game on the shelf for a month until some solid rosters are available.

This year's game is looking fantastic...Can't wait to see it first hand. The graphics look sweet...