Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

[NDFan1029]

NCAA Football 06 was my favorite one. It was the most polished of all the last-gen games, it had every FCS school in the game, and it's the only one that didn't have the boring fight song soundtrack.

[DJ]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

05 was the one plagued with the dropped pass issue--killed that game for me.

I also seem to remember a ton of holding calls in that game, especially if you hit a big play.

[DJ]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

1. NCAA 04
2. NCAA 06
3. NCAA 11
4. Bill Walsh College Football
5. NCAA 03

[DJ]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

Guys, what was the name of the game on the Genesis that wasn't made by EA? I remember really enjoying that game but the title escapes me.

[TexasFan2005]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

Just picked up NCAA 06 (PS2) for .99 and NCAA 08 (ps2) for a couple bucks. Not a bad deal at all.

Since I'm diving straight into NCAA 06 because of the reviews on this board, can anyone tell me if they remember if NCAA 08 last gen was any good? Or did they take out the good features from 06..

Anyways, this is all in preparation for NCAA 12!! I can't wait!!

[RustyBlue]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

NCAA 06 was my favorite, but then again, I never played NCAA 04

[Shakedowncapo]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

NCAA '04...My Miami dynasty was so much fun. The one thing that sucked was I only got one year with Sean Taylor after I set an NCAA record for picks because he didn't want to stay! I took it personally to lock down the passing game with him.

[kingsofthevalley]

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.

Agreed. The new games look better, but they still have a loooong road ahead of em. The actual gameplay feel was leagues better on the PS2. Oh, and my fav is NCAA/MADDEN 11 PS2. Those are currently both getting rotation in the cd deck.

If I could get the gameplay of last gen with the look of this gen I'd be in heaven.

[cdawg44]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

Guys, what was the name of the game on the Genesis that wasn't made by EA? I remember really enjoying that game but the title escapes me.

You mean College Football's National Championship? I loved that one because it ran on the Joe Montana engine.
My list
1.) NCAA 2004- I played 20 years in that dynasty
2.) NCAA 2000- Division 1-AA dynasty, ability to schedule neutral site games, 16 team tourament where you could use bowl games
3.) NCAA 06- this game was so polished and great. It fixed the drops issues, fixed the player discipline glitch where almost every team was on probation. Also you had mini-games added and real home-field advantage that you could feel. I swear going to Oregon, Texas A&M or to most stadiums in the SEC was amazing because of the athmosphere and sound.
4.) NCAA 11
5.) Bill Walsh College Football- the original was a great game

[TallyBoi7]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

NCAA 05 was so frustrating with the dropped passes...but that was the game I ran the longest dynasty on...I had Mississippi State, built them into a contender in the SEC...I also replaced all the BCS teams with FCS teams.

I never owned NCAA 04 or 06...I did own NCAA 2003, which was actually pretty fun.

I really enjoyed NCAA 2000...I was finally able to run a dynasty with MEAC and SWAC teams. I also owned Bill Walsh 95 as a kid.

[jamie1981]

My vote for the best is the original 1996! I love that game! It is amazing to see how the PS2 versions of 06 and 04 pale in graphical comparison to 11 and now 12. But those were great as well.

[GeneralMike]

Re: Top Five EA NCAA Football Games of All Time

2004 was my favorite on PS2, then it was 2002. Maybe because it was the first on that generation, but it was just such a huge leap from NCAA 2001 to 2002 IMO. The leap between PS2 and PS3 wasn't as big so my first PS3 version doesn't stand out. I played NCAA 10 a lot with a WMU dynasty so that would probably be 3rd on my list.

[rudyjuly2]

I never got into NCAA gaming until NCAA '06 so I can't really comment on three of them. I LOVED '06 though. NCAA 11 has easily been the best on the PS3 although it still has significant room for improvement.

[DaReapa]

For the most part, I can agree with this list. I have to be honest - when I saw the title, I thought the list was going to be cluttered with games from the last two gens. Good to see they were actually from "all time". But on a personal note, I would've had the first Bill Walsh College Football as number 1. Good list nonetheless.

[Wolfpack44]

This is how I would rank it