Faced with the news that there may never be another college football game, I had to finally purchase NCAA 14 about 7 days ago. Truth is, I've been through the video game ringer with NCAA over the years. From 1996 to roughly 2005 I was a franchise/dynasty posting fanatic, just doing my single player thing happily. Once the NCAA games started coming out one after the other I ditched Madden. The turnover and shorter seasons just really lend themselves to the reporting process. Then online came to be in the next few years and I was in an online dynasty known as The Tradition over at Tradition Sports Online. Eventually I was the commish of the flagship dynasty on that site. I had a great deal of fun with that. However, as time went on, and I moved further from my office and had a child, time diminished, and it started to wear on me scheduling 6 (bad year) to 8 (good year) dynasty games per month or so that all seemed to be right around dinner time and usually on weekdays. Long story short I had to quit that and haven't been doing much football game playing. But like I said, the end of the college football game run seems nigh. Might as well saddle up for one more ride.
The setup
This is a three player online dynasty. I fully realize that EA might shut down the servers at some point but I had to take the opportunity to have a couple of friends in this with me, Twister18 and jfosh from over at Tradition. These are two of the most fun to play guys, straight players who recruit like hell. Neither one of them will likely be going for realism in the recruiting dept. like me so they will have superior teams. Anytime we play I expect to get crushed, but for now this dynasty won't be about user vs. user, stick skills, etc. We all have 1-star teams and might play a user game once every 2-3 seasons or so.
Difficulty: AA (offense) Heisman (Defense)
Sliders: No (not yet)
Quarters: 9 minutes
Player Speed Threshold: 25%
Dynasty Details
I generally post a very free-flowing style. I am not as structured as some of the guys whose dynasties I admire most. Not as good at record keeping, in particular. Sometimes things will look nice, other times not so much, but I'm just going to be trying to keep up at times. I'm no less busy than I was back when I had to quit the Tradition, so who knows how far I'll get or whether I'll fall behind. I have always had a true love of the NCAA football series, so I'm GUTTED this is all we've got from here on out. To the greedy athletes who filed lawsuits a few years after (likely) bragging and showing off that they were in a video game once they realized they wouldn't make money in the pros: I dislike you.
Posting info: Like I said I'm massively busy, and I'm posting this for my record and just to keep track. Seeing some familiar faces over here is cool and I will be reading/following what I can but as I'm sure most know, not everybody can trade comments and that sort of thing.. Sorry in advance. No pressure to comment/reply.
My Fake Coach and Made-Up Storyline
Rusty Reid
Age: 38
Height: 6-0
Weight: 321
Hometown: Los Gatos, CA
A cousin of NFL coach Andy Reid, Rusty shares a similar penchant for offensive creativity. He coached his way up through the Los Angeles area high school ranks and winning three section titles (that means something right?) before impressing Idaho athletic director Rob Spear in an interview. The NFL family pedigree is probably why he got the job, and was able to skip the coordinator gig entirely. Only time will tell if he has the pure coaching acumen of his namesake in Kansas City, but he privately believes he is a better dad and manager of the game clock than Cousin Andy.
The Kibbie Dome
According to a recent story on ESPN, "The Kibbie Dome is like no other venue in college football.
It sits like an enormous barrel half-buried into the University of Idaho campus and, in fact, once was referred to as "a Campbell's Soup can cut in half" by a visiting coach.
It ranks as both an architectural marvel and the smallest home field in the Football Bowl Subdivision, holding about 16,500 fans.
Inside, the roof of laminated wooden beams arches over a field sunken below ground level, and new translucent panels over the end zones allow a flood of natural light. Goalposts are attached to the walls about 5 yards behind the end zone -- rather than from a post in the ground -- with those walls padded for players' protection.
The Dome has been called too small and outdated by some, yet embraced by others who've seen (and heard) it at its packed-to-full-volume glory.
At its best, it's a cozy, home-field advantage for the Vandals, a venue that prompts some teams to send scouts to take photos for coaches and players to study.
At its worst, it's a facility that holds so few people that Idaho projects only about $440,000 in ticket revenue this season -- or about 1.2 percent of the estimated $36 million generated by University of Texas football in 2011. "
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Personal Feelings about the Dome - I think it's awesome. I attended WSU, which is 8 miles from the campus of Idaho. In fact, for most students at WSU Moscow, ID is the primary place you'd go to shop or possibly (on rare occasions) dine out. I went to the Kibbie Dome on a number of occasions and always loved the atmosphere. It's like a huge fieldhouse and doubles as their basketball arena. I'd love to see them keep expanding this thing in the future instead of building a new stadium, using architectural genius to expand the seating area to around 25,000 as has been proposed.