HOW, specifically, do you enjoy NCAA?

[bronko3]

I was playing an online dynasty on 2009 NCAA and I was Michigan. Not a Michigan fan, an Indiana fan of course but I loved playing as Michigan simply because I had all their stadium sounds downloaded and it just made playing the games sound so darn authentic.

Well, anyways I recruit this QB in my first year Patrick Morrison. Kid was rated #1 or #2 in his class. Had great numbers, was mobile along with having great passing ability. I was absolutely thrilled to get to plug him in at starting QB for year 2 of my online dynasty. So of course he gets injured for the season in the 2nd game of that next season. Just awful. I honestly did feel bad about it. So that next 3rd season online rolls around, Patrick is back healthy again and man oh man I played that 3rd season like my hair was on fire. I was going to make that season Patrick's season. And I came pretty close, lost the championship bowl game to my buddy who was UCLA. Oh well. But it does at least help me understand how people keep the game interesting over time.

[speedkills]

Recruit a special player and get invested in him. In NCAA 08 I made it through a 5 year Hawaii dynasty after Colt Brennan and Co. graduated. I recruited a 4 star QB with a cannon for an arm - literally. He had a 99 THP and I outfitted him with long black sleeves, black elbow pads, black wrist braces and black gloves. Combined with Hawaii's all black unis and his tinted visor he looked like Darth Vader. In the heat of Hawaii I justified all this extra gear because he was hiding his bionically engineered arm hence the 99 THP.

My continued winning ways got me an invite to join the Pac 10 and the next year I played in my first Rose Bowl beating Penn State with Robo-QB leading the way.
So that kept me interested for 5 seasons.

[kingkilla56]

yeah I dont play with stock rosters. I recruit only for 4 to 5 years where every player on my team chose to be here and we are together striving for the goal. And it's very easy to get attached to players when you fought to et them in the first place.

I just got a running back out of texas, im USC, and fought with Texas all year long for the guy. He is 5'6" with 97 speed and 97 acc, hes becoming one of my favorite recruits ever coming in on shotgun spread formations. You spread em out and might mouse shuts em DOWN!

My all time favorite recruit was wr #6 Mike Avery at lousiville. It was my first year and the kid was 3 star recruit. He won the heisman twice and left his red-shirt junior year. It was hard for me to let him go (tried 7 times to keep him but he did it all in college)

[JMBOO]

Basically, I always try and recruit a guy on defense that I make into myself. That makes it all good for 4 years at a time.

[adembroski]

I think Madden and NCAA could take a lesson from NFL Head Coach in this.

One of the things that helped alleviate the "mythical roster" problem was the stories you'd hear of the players going into the next draft. All season long, you'd get monthly updates on the college season. You'd hear about players breaking records, big match ups, the performance of key players who'd be available in the upcoming draft. You'd hear about players skipping out on the combine, who was working hard at the all star games, and who impressed during their pro days. Then, when you drafted a key player, you'd get a breakdown of how good this player may actually be.

It gave the players personality. You could picture the SportsCenter highlights of Jack English dominating at Stanford. Somehow, these players became real, and when you landed a future Hall of Famer in the 5th round, like a LaRon James, you could develop a connection to that player, and the team went from being "mythical" to being "yours". It's a big difference.

[goalie]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

I think Madden and NCAA could take a lesson from NFL Head Coach in this. One of the things that helped alleviate the "mythical roster" problem was the stories you'd hear of the players going into the next draft. All season long, you'd get monthly updates on the college season. You'd hear about players breaking records, big match ups, the performance of key players who'd be available in the upcoming draft. You'd hear about players skipping out on the combine, who was working hard at the all star games, and who impressed during their pro days. Then, when you drafted a key player, you'd get a breakdown of how good this player may actually be. It gave the players personality. You could picture the SportsCenter highlights of Jack English dominating at Stanford. Somehow, these players became real, and when you landed a future Hall of Famer in the 5th round, like a LaRon James, you could develop a connection to that player, and the team went from being "mythical" to being "yours". It's a big difference.

good points - but all the discussion about "progression problems" on this board - and all the teams regressing (or progressing) to B/B+ level has me a little anxious about going further -

but, i take it, those on this thread are NOT experiencing those problems in this year's game (or at least the "progression problem" doesn't take away too much from the experience)

[CWSapp757]

Well, I am 25 and can't put the time in to the game everyday like I used to years ago. My weekdays are consumed by work but when the weekends come, I really dive into this game. Here's what I've done to somewhat remedy the rating issue in dynasty and keep the game interesting (it really takes a long time but its worth it to keep the game fun for me).

At the beginning of each season I create a ton of prospects between 84 - 86 overall. I create 7 kickers and 5 punters (to help with the lack of quality kickers as the years go on). I then create one guard, one center and one tackle (because it seems that there are more quality offensive linemen than any other other position in the game imo). After that I create three prospects at each position. When I do this though, I always try to create very different types of players. For example, when I create my QB's I may make one in the mold of Vick, one like Peyton Manning and one who can do a little a both ala Steve Young (not that good obviously but I think you get the point, lol).

I also run through the states and randomly stop on one to determine where the prospect is from. I enjoy doing it this way because some years the 5 star talent will be evenly spread out and sometimes a state will be stacked. For example, the first year of the dynasty, North Carolina had 9 of my created players so they racked up that year.

Lastly, when I create the players I occasionally create a fictional "son" or "cousin" of an real life player. My first dynasty, (I quit it last week because I didn't feel I was making enough prospects) I created David Crouch, son of ex Heisman trophy winner Eric Crouch. Kid had 95 speed, 92 agilty and 96 acceleration along with decent throwing ratings. He signed with tOSU (pissed me off) and had a great start to his career until his junior year where he got injured in the second game and was gone for the rest of the season. I quit before he got to play his senior season but it was just really cool following him. I know, it may sound a little corny but this is what keeps the game exciting for me.

Not to mention that it helps a ton with the big issues everyone has had with the super low ratings. Its not where it should be but it's definitely no where near as bad. I actually played Kent State in my dynasty five years down the line and they had 6 players over a 70 overall. Nothing to really jump up and down about but that does make me happy when people are saying teams like that don't even have a player over a 60 overall in their dynasty.

But anyway, that's how I enjoy my offline dynasty. You guys should try it out if you have the time like that.

[rwk2009]

I am in an online dynasty with 6 other friends. It's so much better the further we get because we all are looking at the same recruits, so even if that top quarterback doesn't go to any of us, we are all excited to see how his career plays out at Alabama etc.

In 2009 we had an online dynasty with the same core of people and we played 18 seasons and didn't finally quit playing until the middle of May.

It's easy for us to figure out who is going to last in the dynasty because if a guy joins and never recruits because he just like's playing the game you can tell he will get bored with it. Right now 5 or 6 of the 7 of us are really into the recruiting, more excited to advance it see if we can get that top corner than to play our next game. Once you get a guy that you fought tooth and nail with USC to get, playing with him is infinitely more fun than playing with that freshman quarterback that started on the roster when the dynasty started up.

In every NCAA we all get some recruits that everyone remembers, in NCAA 08 I had a TE at Wyoming and every one of my friend's remember that his name was Brian Leslie, even though it was an offline dynasty that none of them ever played a game in.

If you care about recruiting, you will recruit guys that you will like even more than most of the guys that were on your original roster. We are all having a blast with the online dynasty this year, and the way recruiting works makes it even more fun.