How do you enjoy top teams?

[solmon]

TLDR - How can I enjoy using top teams?

I love going 10-20 seasons deep in a dynasty. The top team I ever start with is A&M, and even then sometimes it was too simple on Heisman to build a juggernaut. I win 5-6 championships in a row and I’m so bored.

So, I’d typically start with a crappy school and build to that.

I do think it will be more difficult to quickly build a top tier program in this new iteration which is exciting, but my main Q is:

How do you *enjoy starting a dynasty with Ohio State or Bama and run the dynasty for 10+ years?

[falcor1234]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

I usually start as the DC for Ohio State sim the first year maybe play the big games. Then I’ll look for a head coaching job at a small school. Like you if i start to big to early it gets boring. I usually just stay at small schools until i win a couple conference championships then leave. Slowly working my way back to Ohio State


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[noarmsduck]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

I usually buff a bunch of teams at the start of every year or every couple seasons to make them challenging. I like to keep teams like Alabama, LSU, OSU, Michigan, USC, Oregon, Clemson, Florida very good, and I'll pick one to make into a juggernaut every few years. Those are the main ones but I make at least minor buffs to probably 20+ teams.

It was more of a journey for me back in the day. I'd either use Notre Dame or a Teambuilder school that had great prestige and recruiting pitches across the board but a mid roster. But yeah in the Weis years ND's starting roster was nothing special and even in most of the early Kelly years. I think in NCAAF 14 I had them in position to contend in year 2 as there were a lot of good young players on that roster.

So I had the tools to get good recruits but not elite starting rosters. But like if you start with Bama or OSU yeah you're going to start off competing for a title and do so every year likely. It can get boring if that's the case. I remember playing NCAA 2005 and like there was no editing or anything so I couldn't buff the other teams or my own players, at some point even starting with Notre Dame I'd end up winning 4 titles in a row undefeated and would end up starting over like 8 years in.

[cookies00]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

This is something I struggle with too. I've always enjoyed the atmosphere and the attention to detail that the big name schools get, but the game gets too easy, too quickly. I try to find teams that have faced recent struggles from smaller towns – it's limiting, but usually works out better than starting with UMass or Wyoming...

[KSUowls]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

TLDR - How can I enjoy using top teams?

I love going 10-20 seasons deep in a dynasty. The top team I ever start with is A&M, and even then sometimes it was too simple on Heisman to build a juggernaut. I win 5-6 championships in a row and I’m so bored.

So, I’d typically start with a crappy school and build to that.

I do think it will be more difficult to quickly build a top tier program in this new iteration which is exciting, but my main Q is:

How do you *enjoy starting a dynasty with Ohio State or Bama and run the dynasty for 10+ years?

This problem is going to be very personal in nature and likely dependent on what you value in a game.

This has never been a problem for me because I don't play sports games solely for the challenge. Which is a good thing because I like to play with my favorite team in any sports video game, and my favorite team is UGA who has always had a strong starting position in this series.

That being said, the lack of a challenge with a high rated team can be a problem because no one wants to just have a cakewalk. So, what I do here is try to find a good set of sliders/house rules that are still fun for me but also punishing enough to balance out the competition against top notch AI teams (you're going to roll over cupcakes, but that is college football).

Aside from the above, what works for me is viewing the game through the lens of it being my own little game world. So, if I go on a 28 game win streak as UGA, then I'm "writing" (figuratively) story lines for my world.

[georgiafan]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

For me the easiest answer is I'm a diehard UGA fan and that's the team I have a attachment to even the 3rd string true freshman. Since I'll be able to recruit elite talent right away it will be easy for me to get attached to those guys. I won't have a drop-off in year 5 from the attachment to players. I'm not going to get as excited about a 2* recruit like I' would a 4 or 5*

I'm not a expert on the sticks so I'm not automatically guaranteed to win every game. Your not going to see me abusing 4 verts like so many people on YouTube that love to build up small schools. I'll use this site for the correct sliders and settings and put in max and cooldowns for plays.

I'll come up with in house rules like you can't talk anyone into not entering the draft unless they are projected round 4 or better. I'll correctly use the force transfer button if a guy isn't going to start for me.

Another thing I always do is make a really tough out of conference schedule. This year if the HFA works as it looks like I can make those games on the road. I'm also planning on changing playbooks after a few years when I lose a OC to freshen things up. It's also fun staying at a school 10 years and seeing how the records stack up and for UGA if I can beat Walker's rushing records which is hard to even in a video game.

[bradtheag]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

I went to A&M. Winning with them doesn't get old.

[canes21]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

I make sliders that are difficult enough to keep the game challenging to a realistic degree that make even 10-2 or 11-1 seasons feel like major accomplishments.

Most fun dynasty I ever had in NCAA 14 was not one where I played as a lower level team. It was one where I started with Miami, made a very difficult slider set, and couldn't even win my division until year 3 because I always got upset at least once each season and never could pull off any upsets myself.

Think it took me 6 or 7 years before I made the title and another year or 2 before I won it. And the teams that made it and the that eventually won it were actually some stacked rosters with elite talent at very key positions that didn't turn pro(had house rules to not talk anyone from leaving early).

Eventually, playing 14 enough I got to the point where no sliders really offered that challenge anymore, but I am hopeful that CFB25 will allow me to get the game difficult enough given all the improvements to defense and the new RTC.

I feel like many people that get bored with winning too much either don't invest in sliders or can't handle losing enough to make their sliders difficult enough.

[Funkycorm]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

Play with them for the length of your coach contract (assuming it is similar to 14) and don't renew it. Once the contract is done, you have to play elsewhere. And you can only return to the school if they have an opening and offer you the job (again assuming there is some similarity to 14). You will get a break in the middle for a new challenge and when you return, you get an all new roster to work with and subsequently another new challenge.

[BallinVol]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

I am hopeful that this iteration of the game will provide a challenge, even at the top levels. It feels as if ratings are going to matter more than ever with what has been released. With that said, I'm cautiously optimistic. I'll be using Tennessee of course for my main dynasty, so I hope the challenge is there of bringing them back to an elite status. Even when I'm the top team, I still want to be challenged and I am hopeful for this.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

Just pretend as head coach, your school president has decided to toughen academic standards and those 3 , 4 and 5 star recruits are now off limits to you. You can only sign brainy 2 star recruits. Maybe Alabama wants Notre Dames prestige as a scholarly powerhouse, and is trying to get out of a now-too-difficult SEC. Alabama applying for admission to the Ivy League's first foray into the south. Or some such nonsense.

[Dawgfan1]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

For me making things tough is two-fold:

1. Tough sliders/settings that make the game challenging but still fun to play against the CPU. We'll see on release how easily that can be done.

2. House rules. Personally I don't like to go too hard or restrictive with house rules, I usually set rules that put me at a more level playing field with AI teams and force me to operate the way they do. For NCAA 14 that included not going after recruits that AI teams ignored, not being able to cut scholarship players, etc. Beyond that I might restrict who I can recruit, but not too much. It remains to be seen how AI teams will recuit and manage their rosters this year, hopefully they're somewhat smart and the recruiting is as tough compared to 14 as the articles last week made it sound.

[TuffJuff]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

Admittedly I don’t really ever play with good teams. Usually a team builder team that I take years to make good. I need a challenge. That being said I could see it being fun to play as a good team this year. When you play as a good team in like the SEC you are also playing a bunch of other good teams all the time. With the new ai and sliders it could be a big challenge. Plus in college it is realistic to have good team blow out people. There are also tons of good teams who hasn’t actually won anything recently that could be fun to try to restore. USC, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio State, etc

[solmon]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

I went to A&M. Winning with them doesn't get old.

Ha like…I feel you…and I want to actually worry if I’m gonna lose the Natty

I have a feeling this iteration will be more challenging

[solmon]

Re: How do you enjoy top teams?

I usually start as the DC for Ohio State sim the first year maybe play the big games. Then I’ll look for a head coaching job at a small school. Like you if i start to big to early it gets boring. I usually just stay at small schools until i win a couple conference championships then leave. Slowly working my way back to Ohio State


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I like this idea - I think I want to roll with GJ Kinne from TXST eventually and see how epic of a career he can have. I’d love to get him as HC of TAMU eventually.