Best NCAA Football Sim Engine?

[JHamilton9]

Quote: Originally Posted by Purk1981

Does anyone else play both NCAA / Madden & import draft classes? I never played much NCAA football until recently, NFL guy more so but I’ve always been intrigued with creating a player in NCAA then importing the draft class into Madden and continuing his career.

It was the biggest reason I bought Madden.

There was something great about watching the guys you recruit get drafted into Madden. I'd follow their careers and it was always interesting to see how they would turn out. Some of my All-Americans would turn out to be busts or never even drafted, while some of my great players would get drafted and turn into All-Pros.

The biggest negative was I started to notice a trend where the left tackles would gradually build up and become the dominant position in the league. I went through 2 seasons where just about all the offensive tackles would be gone by the end of the second round. And most were rated high enough that they started right away.

[Purk1981]

Quote: Originally Posted by JHamilton9

It was the biggest reason I bought Madden. There was something great about watching the guys you recruit get drafted into Madden. I'd follow their careers and it was always interesting to see how they would turn out. Some of my All-Americans would turn out to be busts or never even drafted, while some of my great players would get drafted and turn into All-Pros. The biggest negative was I started to notice a trend where the left tackles would gradually build up and become the dominant position in the league. I went through 2 seasons where just about all the offensive tackles would be gone by the end of the second round. And most were rated high enough that they started right away.

Very cool! Interesting trend. I’ll watch for anything similar. What year / console do you play?

I’d also be interested in playing a good NCAA / Madden combo on PS2 / Xbox. Madden 2005 on OG Xbox is one of my favorites. Know if NCAA 05 is any good? Hear great things about NCAA 06 but Madden 06 isn’t worth replaying.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

Thanks!

[JHamilton9]

Quote: Originally Posted by Purk1981

Very cool! Interesting trend. I’ll watch for anything similar. What year / console do you play? I’d also be interested in playing a good NCAA / Madden combo on PS2 / Xbox. Madden 2005 on OG Xbox is one of my favorites. Know if NCAA 05 is any good? Hear great things about NCAA 06 but Madden 06 isn’t worth replaying. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks!

I've done all the NCAA/Madden combos since 2006, sans Madden 13 since I couldn't export the NCAA draft class.

The latest one is the NCAA 12 / Madden 12 combo. I didn't have any players drafted or make the roster in the first 10+ years of the NCAA Dynasty, so I pretty much simmed those seasons in Madden.

I did enjoy the NCAA 14 / Madden 25 combo, but I liked the tougher recruiting aspect of NCAA 12.

My longest one was the NCAA 06 / Madden 06 combo. I did over 20 seasons with a dynasty. The one thing I loved about the PS2 combo was the Create-A-Team feature. I created the CFL and would manually adjust ratings (based on dice rolls and performance), incorporate new rookies, and would create seasons using the tournament(?) mode. But with Madden 06, I ended up with monster running attacks with backs frequently rushing for over 200 yards a game. In that series, Adrian Peterson was drafted by the Browns and ended up crushing the NFL rushing record.

My 06 Dynasty was back in the day when I had a lot more time.