The Blog for the Sports Gamer

Rankings:
…2007 Start…..2007 End*………….Conference Champs
1. Notre Dame…..Ohio State….12-0…ACC - Florida St.
2. Florida……..Florida St….13-0…Big 10 - Ohio St.
3. Penn St……..Oklahoma……13-0…Big 12 - Oklahoma
4. USC…………Notre Dame….11-1…Big East - W. Virginia
5. Michigan…….Houston…….13-0…ConfUSA - Houston
6. W. Virginia….W. Virginia…12-0…MAC - Miami (OH)
7. Georgia……..Georgia…….11-1…MntnWest - Utah
8. Oklahoma…….USC………..11-1…PAC 10 - USC
9. Ohio State…..Auburn……..10-2…SEC - Georgia
10. Louisville….LSU………..11-2…Sun Belt - Arkansas St.
11. LSU………..Louisville….10-2…WAC - Fresno St.
12. Texas………Oregon……..10-2
13. Oregon……..Memphis…….12-1
14. Auburn……..Michigan…….9-3
15. Miami………Florida…….10-3
16. Iowa……….Arizona St….10-2
17. Tennessee…..Wisconsin…..11-1
18. Nebraska……Utah……….11-1
19. Arizona St….Penn St……..9-3
20. Colorado……Okla. St……10-2
*The final records and rankings for slots #3 through #6 may be off a game or rank each. I accidentally overwrote these results and couldn’t undo the changes for the whole list and had to go from memory… oops.

Awards (I left off the kicker and kick return awards):
Heisman: West Virginia QB #5 (back-to-back)
Maxwell: Georgia HB #6
Bednarik: N. Carolina MLB #50
Best QB: West Virginia QB #5
Walker: Georgia HB #6
Best WR: Houston WR #2
Best TE: Oklahoma TE #19
Best OL: Wisconsin T #71
Rimington: Florida St. C #58
Lombardi: USC DE #54
Best LB: N. Carolina MLB #50
Thorpe: Florida SS #3

Top Bowl Games:
BCS Title Game: Florida St. vs. Ohio St.
Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Notre Dame
Orange: Houston vs. West Virginia
Rose: Georgia vs. USC
Sugar: LSU vs. Oregon
Capital One: Florida vs. Wisconsin
Gator: Nebraska vs. N. Carolina
Cotton: Auburn vs. Oklahoma St.
Outback: S. Carolina vs. Michigan

2007 Post-Season Recruiting Classes:
School………5-star..4-star
1. Ohio State…..5…..7
2. Notre Dame…..5…..5
3. US*…..…….1….14
4. Louisville…..3…..9
5. Oklahoma…….0….15
6. Penn St……..1….10
7. LSU…..…….2…..7
8. Florida St…..1….11
9. W. Virginia….2…..6
10. Florida…….1…..9
11. Arizona St….0…..8
12. Georgia…….3…..4
13. Texas A&M…..1…..8
14. Nebraska……2…..6
15. Okla. St……1…..7
16. Colorado……1…..5
17. Iowa……….2…..4
18. Minnesota…..1…..4
19. Wisconsin…..0…..6
20. Virg. Tech….0…..7
*I have no idea what I was trying to write when I wrote down “US”.

Note: Apologies for the Courier font. I needed to use one that kept character consistent spacing.

Okay, I’ve spent most of the day running and recording data from a 5-season sim in the 360 version of NCAA. Below I’ll post results for top 20 rankings (pre-season and regular season results), top bowl matchups, award winners, conference champs, and top recruiting classes. I’m not going to comment much on them as I think most of you can draw your own conclusions. I will say I wasn’t disillusioned with the results, despite some bizarre occurences (far too many teams go undefeated). Here we go.

Rankings:
…2006 Start…..2006 End………….Conference Champs
1. Ohio State…..West Virginia.12-0…ACC - Miami
2. Texas……….Notre Dame….11-1…Big 10 - Penn St.
3. Notre Dame…..Penn St…….11-1…Big 12 - Colorado
4. USC…………USC………..11-1…Big East - W. Virginia
5. LSU…………Louisville….11-1…ConfUSA - S. Miss
6. Florida……..Florida…….10-2…MAC - W. Michigan
7. Auburn………Michigan……10-2…MntnWest - Utah
8. Oklahoma…….LSU………..11-2…PAC 10 - USC
9. West Virginia..Ohio State….10-2…SEC - LSU
10. Louisville….Oklahoma……11-2…Sun Belt - N. Texas
11. Miami………Georgia……..9-3…WAC - Nevada
12. Florida St….Texas……….9-3
13. Penn St…….Oregon……..10-2
14. Michigan……Tennesee……10-3
15. Cal………..Auburn………9-3
16. Georgia…….Colorado……11-2
17. Iowa……….Wake Forest….9-3
18. Tennessee…..Iowa………..9-3
19. Arizona St….Miami………10-3
20. Nebraska……Arizona St…..8-4

Awards (I left off the kicker and kick return awards):
Heisman: West Virginia QB #5
Maxwell: Okahoma HB #28
Bednarik: New Mexico OLB #11
Best QB: West Virginia QB #5
Walker: Oklahoma HB #28
Best WR: Nevada WR #87
Best TE: Nevada TE #83
Best OL: Ohio St. T #74
Rimington: West Virginia C #76
Lombardi: Texas A&M DT #85
Best LB: New Mexico #11
Thorpe: Stanford SS #23

Top Bowl Games*:
BCS Title Game**: Notre Dame vs. West Virginia
Fiesta: Florida vs. Colorado
Orange: Louisville vs. Miami
Rose: Penn St. vs. USC
Sugar: LSU vs. Michigan
Capital One: Georgia vs. Ohio State
Gator: OK State vs. Clemson
Cotton: Oklahoma vs. Tennessee
Outback: Iowa vs. Arkansas
* - In no bowl game across any of my sims did a team qualify with a losing record. There were a *ton* 6-6 teams, but nothing worse than that.
** - Did I miss a change in BCS format? Every bowl season lists the national championship game, as just that. The title game. The Fiesta, Rose, Orange and Sugar Bowls are never listed as hosts for the national championship game.

2006 Post-Season Recruiting Classes:
School………5-star..4-star
1. Notre Dame…..4…..8
2. LSU….….….1….12
3. Michigan…….4…..6
4. Louisville…..1…..9
5. Penn State…..3…..5
6. Florida……..1….10
7. Texas A&M……1….10
8. West Virginia..1…..6
9. USC…………1…..7
10. Oregon……..1…..8
11. Arizona St….0….12
12. Illinois……1…..7
13. Clemson…….0…..8
14. Alabama…….3…..2
15. Auburn……..1…..6
16. Wisconsin…..0…..8
17. Tennessee…..0…..7
18. Iowa……….1…..7
19. Florida St….0…..7
20. Oklahoma……1…..6

I’ve about 6 games into my Colorado State dynasty, which I am playing for my GShark review. I’ll start up an OSU Dynasty as soon as rosters are ready. I have actually went back to AA level for now; not because I think Heisman is unplayable — I think it’s just because I’m getting humbled and don’t want to finish 2-10.

The CPU, at least on the Xbox, plays a much better offensive game this year. It’s such an enormous improvement. There are games when things are clicking for me, and then there are games that are just plain ugly. I think I’m 3-3 right now. I got hammered by Nevada last night. They have a 90 rated QB who simply did not miss. I can really see a difference this year in the players — the ratings really do seem to matter more than before. Plus, the fact that the sliders make a big, big, difference in how the game plays makes NCAA a must own game in my book. This is easily the best NCAA game since 2004 and is arguably better. I want to play more before saying that, but yeah..it’s damn fun.

Anyway, I am curious about the 360 version. My buddy Dave has a nice 50″ Samsung and an Xbox 360. He grabbed NCAA last night and wants to start a multi-user Dynasty with me. I’m all for it because this is, by far, the best way to play an NCAA game. Recruiting against another person who is using a team in the same conference is just a blast. It’s so far and away better than playing against the CPU and XBL games are nice and all but college football without recruiting isn’t for me.

In reviewing the game I simmed five seasons just to check the stats, rankings, AI, etc. Things looked decent enough. I am hearing a lot of odd reports about the 360 version. Blog buddy Joel Hulsey even said in the comments section that:

Maryland went to a bowl with a 4-8 record , I’ve had Kent State win the national title. Kent freaking State. Another title winner was Houston and in 25 seasons, Oregon State has won the title 12 times.

I assume he is using the 360. Now, I’m not about to simulate 25 seasons. The most that Dave and I will get in is around 10 or so max. So can you guys help us out here? Has anyone seen a non-bowl eligible team make a bowl? On the Xbox the top 25 rankings aren’t exactly perfect, but no college game has ever nailed this down IMO — even the real BCS is a big bucket of wrong, so it’s fine with me.

But has anyone else seen the Houstons and the Kent States of the world rack up national titles? Not that this would stop us from playing — I’m just curious.

This isn’t one I was looking forward to as much as, say, Transformers, but there’s now a great Quicktime teaser trailer for the upcoming animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. (And it’s in HD!) And unlike the Tranformers trailer, which shows you precisely nothing, you get to see our heroes in action in this one. Turtle power, indeed.

Thank god I read this earlier today, I was contemplating buying NCAA for the PSP, until I found out that there’s a minor bug in the game:

Specifically if you run the ball, the ball is spotted whereever you were TOUCHED — not tackled. Who missed that one?

Well, IGN for one. They review final code, but not retail code. Final is a burned disc rushed out to press to get the game’s review out on release day. The slight problem with this is that it’s not final retail code..99.9% of the time it’s the same thing, and this time it wasn’t. IGN originally gave the game an 8.3 keeping up the love….but oops, the retail game was different and then they went back and changed their review to a 6.9!

SO, let it be known that a game killing fault where a ball is spotted where someone touches you instead of where you are tackled is only a 1.4 deduction. I’ll have to remember that for my review.

I will give IGN credit for posting the issue and re-grading the review, as well they should have. Maybe if all sites were like Consumer Reports and bought the games themselves and didn’t accept advertising, we wouldn’t have stuff like this happen, no?

In my bock , that game gets a big fat 1.0, if that…

Damn that South Park “Trapped In The Closet” is Hysterical!

In other TV news, I think Rome is awesome. However, with a historical piece, you can’t do a whole lot and everyone knows the ending. Et Tu Brute? All that being said, HBO can’t seem to make many hits. I never really followed the Wire (even though it was in Baltimore), but not much left for $13.95/month or whatever. Even HBO on Demand kinda blows.

I haven’t played much football lately. Too tired….still waiting for the 360 version.

The Subtitle for this one should be Anatomy of a Murder. I’ve been playing this series since the PC version (98?) and never experienced anything like it. Whether or not that’s a good thing is up for debate. I’m too demoralized to summarize my notes, so I’ll just paste them in. By all means, enjoy yourselves…

- 2nd play, the corner failed to guard the wideout and 68-yards later Purdue took a 7-0 lead. (Was 4-3 over, Cover 1 Defense - CB had man to man and blew the assignment.) 7-0 Purdue
- Can you force a fair catch in this game without bombing the punt?
- I ran out of time to call a D play on first play of Purdue’s fourth possession and the D came out in punt formation (last play called). Huh? Is there a reason it won’t default to a Corso’s Pick or at least put out a base defense. I mean Punt Return on first down?
- Do QBs put enough air under ball? (Lots of deflections on ball’s only halfway to target receiver.)
- QB throws timing pick, returned for Michigan TD. Score 7-7
- If you call Cover 1 D and your CB bites on a play fake, you’re absolutely toast.
- Saw my first clipping penalty on a INT return in 2nd Qtr.
- Purdue punted on 4th and 16 at Michigan 46. Would this have happened last year?
- A defensive player got a sack and fumble without actually reaching the QB. What. The. FUCK!?!?
- Phantom fumble results in Purdue TD. 14-7 Purdue.
- The Dline Jump feature is a gall-darn license to sack the QB.
- Secondary players away from the play are reacting too quickly to thrown passes. It’s routine for a defending LB or DB to move 2-3 yards at warp speed in order to deflect/intercept a pass. Need to see if lowering deflections slider helps.
- There are booth reviews in the game, but you don’t get to see the replay, either during the review or after it’s over. The Replay button gets grayed out. This is as dumb as there being only one camera angle in the game.
- Got nailed on a punt return, fumbled, Purdue returns it for TD. (Punt Block D, and I should’ve called for fair catch). Purdue 21-7.
- Fumbled on kick return, recovered by Purdue. Is this getting ridiculous? First Purdue play taken for TD. Purdue 28-7. I was writing down notes and let CPU call play. It called my last defensive play, which was FG block D. Bloody hell!
- First play from scrimmage. QB sack and fumble. (Mich recovers.)
- Halftime 28-7 Purdue
- First Purdue possession results in TD. 35-7 Purdue.
- 75-yard TD pass for Michigan (WR wide open after a CB and Safety blitz). 35-14 Purdue.
- Michigan INT return for TD (about 30 yards). 35-21 Purdue. Maybe I can make a game of this?
- Kicked off and was finally able to force a touchback.
- Purdue fumbles after reception. Michigan recovers.
- Turnover on downs from Purdue 27. Probably should’ve kicked the FG, but I wanted to get within seven and I don’t trust my kicking from 40+ yet.
- They’re killing me and Purdue won’t run the ball.
- End of 3rd Qtr. 35-21 Purdue.
- Blocked Purdue FG attempt! (Ball had phantom deflection off player’s helmet. Player just stands there.)
- Michigan picked off. My bad. I forced that pass.
- Purdue breaks a run for 40 yard TD. 42-21 Purdue. I’m so disgusted I don’t even look at the replay.
- Pass play to open WR who just stands on his spot while the ball klonks him on the head. The WR never reacts to the ball until it’s about to hit the ground. Seriously, what the hell? (It was 3rd and 10 after several successful pass plays got me to the Purdue 27, to boot.)
- Turnover on downs. At this point, what the hell, right?
- Purdue with 80-yard pass play for TD. 49-21 Purdue. I just don’t even know whether I’m playing this bad or if the game is screwing me with my pajamas still on. (Yes, I wear pajamas.)
- Another goddam QB fumble while attempting to pass. This one, at least, looked legit on replay.
- Why is Purdue still passing the goddam football?!?!?!?
- Purdue runs from the goalline for a TD. 56-21 Purdue. At least it was a frigg’n run. I think maybe now it’s time for me to just impale myself on a steak knife. It’s what the samurai would do.
- Lee Corso: “I expect to see some good clock management here.” You know, because I’m still in this game with four whole minutes left. I hate him so much.
- Great Jump by Purdue D equals yet another sack (that’s five on the day). I hate this feature.
- 4th and 17 from my own 20. Like it matters. I go for it with a Hail Mary. Turnover on downs. What a shock.
- Purdue’s 1st and 10 play is a pass to the end zone. Surprisingly, it’s incomplete. Why are these frakking jackals still throwing the ball? Is there any meat left on my bones worth picking?
- 4th and inches from the 8 and Purdue goes for the FG. Now they feel generous? Maybe not, kick is blocked, recovered by Purdue. Three Wolverines in pursuit he shrugs off one, to the 5-yard line, breaks off the second tackler, to the three yard line… You have got to be kidding me. Oh, for joy. The third guy makes the tackle at the three. But guess what… They got the first down. Maybe if I gave the controller over to my 2-year old daughter she could do a better job.
- Kirk Herbstreet is literally laughing at me. Well, it was a clear giggle anyway. He just made my list.
- Purdue passes the ball on 1st and Goal from the 3. I am no longer surprised by anything in this contest.
- Purdue runs the option for the TD. 63-21 Purdue.
- I want to stress that I quit taking this game seriously at 42-21.
- My QB misses a wide open fullback on the sideline. What the hell must I do to buy a completion? What does the game want? Money? I’ll give it money. I’ll give it my son’s college savings account if it means a completion and a first down, at this point.
- Hey, a 20 yard completion. Does this mean my son must go to community college?
- Two more passing first downs. Wow. Where has this been?
- I run for another first down, get tackled and fumble. Thankfully it went out of bounds. 1st and goal at the 5.
- 4th and Goal and I get a touchdown pass. Gee. I’m so happy. 63-27 Purdue.
- I go for two. What the hell, right? My TE drops the pass in the end zone. I guess you can’t get too much of a good thing. The game wouldn’t want me to get spoiled, right?
- 30 seconds to play and Purdue will not take a knee.
- 5 seconds to play and Purdue will not take a knee.
- Game finally ends. What’s left of my manhood and self respect has departed. There’s an Amber Alert out for it, but police fear it may have crossed state lines.
- Herbstreet emphasizes that, “They just got their butts kicked out there.” The thought of running him down with a school bus full of giggling Catholic school girls suddenly seems quite appealing. I, myself, giggle at the thought. The cat is giving me a strange look and backing away slowly. The sentence, “No TV and no beer make Homer something something,” is repeating over and over in my head.

The Game Stats are as follows:
Mich | Purdue
194 | 434 yards of offense
12-19 | 20-54 Rushing
12-41 | 19-34 Passing
175 | 380 Yards passing
6 (5 fumbles) | 4 (3 INTs) Turnovers
63 | 27 Final Score

Is it okay for a grown man to cry?

The latest patch progress update is available. It’s another huge list of fixes and additions, so instead of pasting it here I’ll just lead you to the forum thread. Enjoy. I’ll try to post some post patch impressions as soon as I get a chance to play the new version. Lots of work to do right now with NCAA (sliders coming soon btw) and a late review of Titan Quest.

HBO’s Rome is a truly wonderful show. Easily one of the best on TV. So, of course, HBO is killing it after Season 2.

Deadwood, one of the best shows in TV history IMO, is also dead after this season and a special “movie wrap up” show.

The Sopranos has a handful of episodes left.

Big Love sucks.

So…why am I paying DirecTV a nice monthly fee for HBO? Entourage (which is great) and the occassional episode of Cathouse? Sheesh.

In no particular order, here some more notes from another game last night and another simmed season (current season, not a season 2):

Game 2: Rice (AI) at Michigan; 7min Quarters, All-American
- I saw multiple (4, I think) defensive pass-interference calls and on replay a grand total of zero of them made the least bit of sense. On one play the linebacker was ahead of the receiver (a TE), with his back turned and made no contact with him at all. If they’re going to make this little sense, I may just turn penalties off.

- On a pitch play, the QB pitched the ball off the FB’s back instead of getting it to the RB. On the ensuing fumble the ball landed near the QB’s feet and he just stood there while the defense rushed in to pick it up. Uh, oops. (I was not able to replicate this a second time, so I’m hoping it was an isolated thing.)

- The defense is routinely in the backfield before I can complete a hand-off. Against OSU I might buy into it, but not against Rice. It may be slider time here.

- Michigan’s kicker is completley incapable of kicking a field goal past 40 yards. He may not be great (I have no idea), but that’s too weak. I’m fairly certain at this point I’ll adjust the slider that affects field goal kick power.

- Drops are shown for the season, but not for individual games (at least, that I can see). Who wants to bet EA was sick of people counting the number of dropped passes in a game?

- After a 34-0 shutout, says Corso, “For this defense, anything less than a shutout would be below par.” Seriously, what genius came up with that line of dialog? Name for me the team that won a game 34-3 or 34-7 and considered it a failure because it was “below par.”

Here’s some end-game stats:
Michigan | Rice
182 | 108 Total Yards
20-47 | 25-18 Rushes/Rush Yards
12-22-2 | 8-23-0 Completions/Attempts/Passing TDs
1 | 5 Turnovers (Rice’s were all INTs)
12:52 | 15:12 TOP

Relative to my first game (Michigan vs. OSU), I was happy with most of these stats. I think run-blocking may be an issue for human and AI (although I may just suck). But the play distribution was great and I liked seeing the drop off in AI pass completion percentage going from the #1 ranked team to a cupcake. All-in-all, a pretty enjoyable game and my hopes for this edition of NCAA remain very high.

Season 1 - Sim 2 Notes:

- The AI’s logic in setting recruiting targets may need work. Michigan needed to target 2 OLB, a SS, a FB and a TE with 12 available scholarships. The AI targeted 1 HB, 2 WR, 2 TE, 1 OT, 2 DE, 3 MLB and a FS and none of those guys had interest levels in Michigan above about 40% (and only two were that high; the others looke like about 10%).

- It looks like pipeline states are reset with each dynasty. Michigan’s changed from Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and California in my first sim to Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and California in my second.

- A TE and HB once again lead the nation in yards per catch (20 and 17, respectively), but this time there were more wideouts after that.

- The bulk of the top 30 RB’s in the league (in terms of yards per game) averaged better than 6 yards per carry. That seems, by far, to be the most out of whack sim stat in the game. (I consider that a remarkable improvement over last year.)

Here was the top 10:
1. Ohio State (12-0)
2. Notre Dame (12-0)
3. Auburn (12-1)
4. West Virginia (11-1)
5. Louisville (11-1)
6. Nebraska (10-2)
7. USC (10-2)
8. Tennessee (11-2)
9. Arizona (10-2)
10. Western Michigan (13-0)

Yes, you read that right. My alma mater, Western Michigan University (MAC), went 13-0 and made a BCS bowl (where I think they lost to Auburn). Now, I love my old collegiate stomping grounds as much as the next guy, but the day the mighy Broncos have an undefeated football season is the day I pledge a $1000 donation to the school. (And I absolutely do not have a cool grand to spare, thank you very much.)

Anyway, I’m actually good with these results, despite my two most hated teams going undefeated and meeting in the National Championship Game (this would be my worst nightmare had it been real life). (Notre Dame won the title game, for what it’s worth.) There were a few rankings I found way off kilter. Wisconsin and Cal were both 10-2 and finished 23rd and 14th in the rankings, which I think is way low (Wisconsin in particular). And Oklahoma and Navy were both 11-1 and finished 18th and 19th.

Obviously, Navy going 11-1 doesn’t have a toe hold on reality, but I have a bigger problem with Oklahoma being ranked that low in a one-loss season. That’s just looney-bin crazy. But again, no college game I’ve seen hasn’t included oddities like this so it doesn’t bother me that much. I think it’s more funny than anything.

Right now I’m still quite pleased with the game. There are definitely going to be some things that annoy the piss out of me, but compared to NCAA 2005 and 2006, I’m quite pleased at this point. We’ll see where things are after the traditional honeymoon period.

I took Dynasty mode for a spin last night to see how the new stuff worked as well as to browse the stats. During the year 3 sim Todd called to discuss the 360 version and how it compared to what I was playing on the old Xbox. I’ll let him hash over that stuff but here’s some notes on a 3-year dynasty sim via the Xbox.

* The use of the ESPN license remains piss poor. If you’re going to buy the license, use it. (Todd had mentioned that on the 360 you’d never even know it was an “ESPN” game because of the lack of the magazine covers..oh, yeah..I was going to let him hash over that wasn’t I?)

* The new Spring Game. Well, I know this is not in the 360 version but I highly doubt 360 users will miss it. It’s a glorified scrimmage where each team gets a number of possessions per half. There is no kicking game and walk-ons fill out the rosters as needed. You don’t even get to draft your squad, which is a spring game ritual. Neat idea to add this, but I can already tell that I will simply simulate it to get to the training results.

* The 3 National Title winners were: West Virginia (beating Michigan); Maryland (beating USC), and Tennessee (beating Florida State).

* Recruiting Notes: On Scout.Com there are currently 51 5-Star prospects for 2007. There were 33 5-star chippers in the 2007 NCAA 07 class. Quite a big difference. On the whole there is definitely fewer blue chippers in the game.

* The regional stuff is also a bit off. Ohio, for example, is not the recruiting hot bed that it should be. Ohio is only slightly behind states like California and Florida in terms of top 100 talent year in and year out. Texas is in there, too. In the game that’s not the case. I have seen the number of kids from Ohio (on OSU’s roster) drop every year from 34, to 28, and then to 21. There was one year where there was not even one 2-star HB in Ohio. Yikes. Now, this isn’t a crushing blow to the game or anything but it does hurt an Ohio team, because they have to spend more points to go out of state and for some reason OSU’s “pipeline” states are Ohio and Pennsylvania. Penn? Weird.

* Here’s a rundown of where the kids in the Top 100 signed after the 2nd year of the Dynasty:
o LSU - 7
o USC - 5
o Iowa - 5
o Colorado - 5
o Texas -5
o FSU - 5
o Wisky - 4 (#1 overall player signed)
o WVU - 4
o Oklahoma - 4
o Ohio State - 3
o Tennessee - 3
o Arizona State - 3
o Penn State - 3
o Maryland - 3
o Auburn - 3
o Miami - 3
o South Carolina - 3
o Georgia - 3
o GTech - 2
o Alabama - 2
o Okie State - 2
o Michigan - 2
o Boise State - 2
o Oregon State - 2
o VTech - 1
o Purdue - 1
o Air Force - 1
o Fresno State - 1
o Arizona - 1
o Michigan State - 1
o Ole Miss - 1
o Texas Tech - 1
o Minnesota - 1
o Miami (OH) - 1
o Houston - 1
o Nebraska - 1
o Bowling Green - 1
o Eastern Michigan - 1
o UTEP - 1
o Colorado State - 1

* Notice anything about that list? I’ll give you a second….

* OK. Air Force, EMU, CSU, Houston, Miami (OH), and Bowling Green all have one thing in common: They all signed more Top 100 players than Notre Dame or Florida. This is something else that I really don’t mind, I just thought it was interesting. I guess I’d mind if I played with Florida or the Domers, though. That’s brutal. Here’s how the 2006 class looked in real life on Scout.Com

* OK, finally, stats. Last year we all know how the QB stats were other-worldly. This year it’s a lot better. There are two areas that are sorta out of whack and as always with stats your mileage is going to vary as to how much it annoys you. On the Xbox version (Todd says it’s different on the 360) running backds Yards Per Carry is way too high (a ton of guys average over 7.0 YPC (as is over 10). If your average 5.5 a pop…you’re not doing very well. Still, college running stats are different than the pros, so it’s not a big deal.

* Another stat oddity is is yards per catch. You should see lots of guys well over 15 yards per catch. In all my simmed seasons the leader in the entire NCAA was around 14.5. Tedd Ginn played two seasons averaging 10.4 and 10.2 respectively. So, that’s a trifle bit off. How much does that matter? Your call. I am enjoying the game too much to let that bother me too much even though it’s obvious the stats from the simmed games are fudged all to hell. I’d feel bad bitching about that when I am still surprised that I actually like the game as much as I do.

All in all, recruiting is a lot like it has been over the past couple of editions. It could use further tweaking and EA needs to hire someone with a lot of experience with how all of this really works, but nothing seems to bne blatantly broke — just don’t expect all of the good players to go to the traditionally strong teams.

I was going to post this long winded 3 year test sim report but I noticed that Dan and Todd posted their own long winded reports this morning. They are worth reading, especially Todd’s, Dan just hates IGN. I don’t want those posts to get lost in the front page shuffle so I’ll hold off on posting mine until this afternoon.

Bill Harris has posted some excellent impressions at Dubious Quality that touch on a lot of things I failed to mention (improved playbooks, some of the more annoying interface issues, etc.). It’s mandatory reading.

This is almost all you need to know about the IGN review that Dan mentioned to know it’s suspect:

Last year, the franchise surpassed everything we could have hoped for with NCAA 06.

Okay, so that’s just crazy, but one could let it go as part of the usual review schtick. But from there it goes on to say (about NCAA 2006):

The tight gameplay, addictive Race for the Heisman mode and immersive college football atmosphere pushed the franchise so far ahead that it already bordered on next-gen…

From this point on, it’s hard to take anything the guy has to say at face value. The addictive Race for the Heisman mode? So advanced it already bordered on next-gen? Seriously, what kind of drugs do you have to be on?

I’m not going to slam the entire review, at least not yet. Basically, the guy is upset with all the features being gone from the game. It’s a valid complaint, but it just doesn’t read like the football is the mot important thing on his priority list, and the man-love expressed for NCAA ’06 is just all sorts of crazy. I do think the cutback on features is inexcusable, but at the same time, the features that were cut from the game really just aren’t all that important to me. Sure, I’d like to try the whole Campus Legend thing, but unless it’s dramatically better than Race for the Heisman, then the feature is still a joke.

That said, he does have some gripes with the on-field gameplay that, if accurate, are an issue. I don’t so much care if the snow and rain effects leave a lot to be desired (but it is bad that they’re anything but breathaking; it’s the 360 for god’s sake), but if there are guys consistently running the wrong way on plays or blowing coverages, then it’s an issue. (Only if it’s rampant. I think it’s overlooked that players do in fact miss assignments or follow the wrong routes on plays, so this may not really be a bad thing.)

Either way, unless features like discipline, campus legend, create a school, and ESPN Magazine covers are your primary reason for playing NCAA 2007, take the review with a grain of salt. Also keep in mind that a 7.5 rating at IGN is considered “Good,” so the rating –in my opinion- is in the ballpark, even if the tone of the review is not.

After playing my first game, I spent the rest of the evening (what was left of it) simming a single dynasty season. I was talking with Bill on the phone at the time and we were mostly going through stats, comparing the Xbox results to the 360’s. Consequently, I didn’t even bother to check on how teams finished. I know Michigan was 8-4, with losses to Notre Dame, Penn State, Iowa and Ohio State. I find that completely believable (and more than a little depressing). The player season stats were largely pretty good, or at least in the realm of plausibility:

- The leading RB had about 2100 yards of rushing. He was the only one to breach 2,000, though about 10-15 others were over 1,500.

- Rushing yards per carry stuck me as totally whack (in a not so good way). Probably 30+ backs averaged better than 6 yards per carry, and about a dozen were over 7 (although a lot of these guys only had 40-80 carries). That strikes me as incredibly high.

- The top three players in yards per catch were not wide receivers. Two TEs and a RB owned the top three spots. That seems bizarre, but whatever. The distribution into the wide receiver ranks was better after that. The leading players averaged better than 16 yards per catch, which sounds like a plus compared to the Xbox version. (From talking to Bill, the Xbox yards per catch leaders are much lower).

- Defensive sack leaders were in the low teens.

The other numbers I don’t remember clearly enough to specify here (I should’ve written it all down). However, I know the QB numbers seemed much more reasonable than last year in terms of passing yardage, TDs, etc. The numbers might have been a little high, but certainly not out of the ballpark like they were last year. The only really whacky stat was the whole RB yards per carry thing. So, all-in-all, that’s very promising.

Now, as for the 360 feature set. Yes, it’s bare-bones. You have Quick Play, Practice mode and Dynasty mode and that’s basically it. Dynasty has the in-season recruiting, and state-by-state pipelines (Michigan has pipelines to Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and California), Heisman Watch, Top 25 Polls, Conference Outlook and Bowl rankings. However, unless I’m missing something, there are no magazine covers (how do you pay so much for the ESPN license and make almost no use of it?), no campus legend mode, and no discipline system. Obviously, this last point I consider a huge notch in the 360 version’s favor. Frankly, I’m surprised Bill didn’t just hang up on me when I told him that, so he could run out and buy a 360 in the middle of the night. I’m pretty sure, however, I heard him giggle like a schoolgirl at one point. But then, he does that a lot.

Anyway, don’t take all this as an endorsement or indictment of the game. It’s basically just what I saw in my first few hours with it. There’s certainly a ton of promise here, and I actually do like the notion of cutting out all the other feature bloat garbage and just getting back to the football. It’s refreshing. As long as the on-the-field and sim play don’t wash out as I put in more time this thing might be worth the price of admission (if you can find it for $50; no game is worth $60 to me).