Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

[Mike Smoove]

06 was my favorite, me and friends would play that all night. We each would take control of a team and do a dynasty.

[xITSxDAWKINSx]

06 for me hands down

[BeaverBeliever97267]

Yeah, it was a a real drag when many of the features in 06 were removed for the "next-gen" consoles. I remember feeling real disappoint when I got the first NCAA game for the 360...

[LouPickney]

Good list -- some of the late-run titles for the PS2 were fantastic. Obviously the PS3/XBox 360 games look better graphically, but it has taken some time for them to catch up to the PS2 engine as far as some of the most subtle (but nonetheless important) things go.

My only major beef with NCAA Football 11 is the redoing of the playcalling screen; I preferred what they had in NCAA 10 over 11 considerably in that regard. Though, to be sure, that's more than a fair trade for the removal of Lee Corso from color commentary along with his inane comments that repeated themselves year after year in the series.

It's a shame that EA Sports was strong-armed into removing the 16 team playoff system from the game; that was a great perk for the circa late '90s college football titles. Perhaps someday it will be a reality for both real college football and (again) for its video game counterpart.

[scottyo60]

the best is reading 108 D1(A) teams from 1996 lol can we please send the MAC, Sun Belt and half the C-USA back to 1-AA or the FCS as it's now called... Yes sadly I'm looking at my Marshall U. while saying this statement.

Great list overall loved 06!

[MFarrer74]

NCAA Football 06 for Xbox was the best one for me personally. I still can picture the Desmond Howard Heisman pose on the cover.

[gator3guy]

2004 was great! Definitely no complaints with it being #1 on the list. My fondest memory of 04 was being ranked #2 online 51-4 after the first month behind a guy who was 58-0. This was long before random online play was a worthless waste of time due to all the glitchery and cheese. You could play almost anyone randomly and get a good game in. That alone, led to countless hours of online play.
(Sidenote: I remember the guy who was ranked #1, got caught by EA for having 2 PS2's...lol)

The old NCAA's had great online gameplay...mainly because the exploits were no where near what they are today. The interface was also better IMO. They had a messenger, you can show your favorite team...little things but they were great. I lost hours of daylight with those games. Hoping someday NCAA can get back to what they once were....a solid foundation that was built on each year, instead of what we have on "next gen."

[Eski33]

The perfect list. However I would have also included NCAA 2002 on the PS2 as honorable mention. It was the first NCAA game on the newer generation of consoles and it didnt disappoint. I played the hell out that game.

2004 and 2006 were interchangeable and 2011 could move up because of the awesome OD.

[IndianBird]

the best is reading 108 D1(A) teams from 1996 lol can we please send the MAC, Sun Belt and half the C-USA back to 1-AA or the FCS as it's now called... Yes sadly I'm looking at my Marshall U. while saying this statement.

Great list overall loved 06!

Not all the teams in those conferences were 1-AA in 96.

Arkansas State to name one.

[CWSapp757]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

Congrats on the birth of your son my man.

[jyoung]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

'96 on the Genesis still plays surprisingly well.

I fired it up the other day. The sound is terrible in-game, but other than that, it's still a blast!

I dare say I enjoyed it more than I am enjoying the NCAA 12 demo. At the option works right in '96.

[osubeavs721]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

I loved 2004. I had an **** Hawaii dynasty in 04 AND i loved the SI covers. Man that game was good

[DGMikeBarker]

'06 was my favorite personally. My wish I could find one for the Xbox.

[scottyo60]

Not all the teams in those conferences were 1-AA in 96.

Arkansas State to name one.

I didn't necessarily mean it like all teams in those conferences, because the MAC was all D1 at the time minus Buffalo if I'm not mistaken... but it would make a lot less clutter in big time athletics to remove a lot of teams

[Rls22jr]

I love you side note on #4. College Football USA 96 (Genesis), about Michigan St being the best team in the game. To bad Nebraska completely trashed them 50-10 in E. Lansing. Just had to say it sorry.

I played Madden 2004 for 3+ years straight on the computer cause I didn't have a console. That was a complete game and EA only went backwards after that. I wish I could have played NCAA 2004. I'm sure it would have kept me busy 10 hrs a day.