Madden vs. NCAA Football

by Tom Diedrichs

As most of my friends would say, "Sports games are pointless; it's the same game every year with an updated roster." While I agree with this to an extent, I still find myself enjoying playing matches, building my dynasty, and managing my players. Most enjoyable though, is getting into career mode where my character can be a money grubbing scum bag who treats his team like crap (But no one can argue with the fact that he can put up stats and has five super bowl rings). Myself being an avid sports fan, I am going to explain some of my pros and cons of sports games. I will go over which games I feel bring something new to the table each year, and which ones you should just ignore. In this week's edition, I will expand on Madden vs. NCAA Football.

Obviously Madden is the god of football for all current consoles. It has the big budget, and extensive marketing campaigns. When I was younger, I loved Madden, because I idolized these professional football players. This is where I feel madden draws most of its sales. Any kid who loves football from ages 7-18 will usually have at least one copy of Madden at his house. It feels great to be in control of a game and make your team win the Superbowl. Lets face it, there is no way the Cleveland Browns or Buffalo Bills are winning a Superbowl anytime soon. It's insanely fun in the off season to make crazy trades like Tom Brady for Arron Rodgers and first round draft pick, just to mix thing up in your league.

Now let's get everyone to take a step back from the Pros for a bit let me enlighten you on why every year I buy NCAA Football over Madden.

Recruiting, to me, is the most fun part of NCAA football. With its newly introduced online dynasty mode, which I believe came out in NCAA Football 12, you have to compete to recruit players to your University. You and your friends will be going after the same players sometimes. Maybe you both need a pocket passing quarterback, but there is only really one who stands out to both of you; he is six foot five inches and has incredible throwing power. The way it works is that every university has different things that make them stand out, so it depends what the computer generated player likes. Maybe he is all about academics and becoming a pro, or maybe it is all about the campus life style, and history of the University. For example: Michigan vs Ohio State. Michigan has an excellent education program. That gives them an A+ in that category, where Ohio State is only a B+. This contrasts with the potential to become a NFL player from Ohio State is an A+, where Michigan is a B. The wonderful thing about these ratings are that it doesn't matter if you are Fresno State, or Nevada, and you have a D+ for National Exposure. The more games you win, the better your University becomes, and the more your coach gets noticed. 

So let's say after a while, you have been coaching a lesser known team. Tired of not getting the players you want, and you don't feel like coaching at Miami of Ohio University anymore? Well, there may be an Offensive Coordinator position open at Texas A&M, which let's you take that job and work your way up to be the head coach there. Or maybe the bright lights and crazy fans are to much for you, and you'd rather quit your Defensive Coordinator position at Georgia, and take the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic. I feel that NCAA Football gives you so many more options then Madden does. Plus, if you play a dynasty mode, you don't have to worry about money! Granted, you only have a player for a minimum of three years (You could leave early for the pros, but much like recruiting, you can try to convince them to stay and play for you again). They can stay for a maximum of five years if you red shirt them, meaning they will sit on the bench for a year. This is good if you have an abundance of players for the same position.

In the game, certain characteristics are especially fun as well. I love running the option. This is where the quarter back runs along side. The running back then has the ability to pitch it to him. This is one feature that is not available in Madden. Seeing the mascots dance around, and hearing your University fight song play in the background every time you score a touchdown is another features that adds to the experience. If you have no loyalty to a specific college, there is always the ability to create your own. Though this is fun for some, for me I personally like taking over a small school and building them up into a championship winning team. Nothing like taking Idaho State and knocking off #1 ranked team, Alabama for the opening game of the season. Plus, with both Madden and NCAA, they have fake twitter feeds and news reels, so it makes it feel a lot more like you are actually playing a real season and not just going through the motions of a sports game. I hope you all will take this into consideration whether you are a NFL fan, or a College fan. Both games every now and then can still bring an interesting experience to your video game collection. I would recommend what I do, only buy one football game a year. There is no need for both Madden and NCAA, that's just silly. 

If you have any input, sound off in the comment section.