Every Friday, the Friday Five will rank something in the world of college football -- anything and everything from the logical to the illogical. This week, we rank the five best things about the return of the NCAA Football video game series.
If you're like me, there are two types of college football you enjoy quite a bit. There's the real-life version that takes place every Saturday in the fall, and then there's the video game version that takes place whenever you want it to on your PlayStation or XBox.
Sometimes I'm not sure which version I enjoy more.
Which is why the news that the NCAA and EA Sports have come to an agreement to allow the video game company to start producing the game again had me dancing in my office when I found out. Seriously, ever since EA Sports had decided to stop making the game, I held on to my PlayStation, but it just never felt quite the same. It was like a part of me was missing.
But not anymore!
While we can't be sure if EA Sports will complete the game in time for the 2016 season, the release date doesn't matter to me as much as knowing I'll have a new version of the game in my hands at some point in the future.
So for this week's Friday Five, I decided to rank the best thing about the return of the NCAA Football video game series.
5. The Players Will Get A Cut: The thing that killed the franchise in the first place was that the players featured in the game, who were modeled after real-life players, didn't get to share in the profits the video game companies were making. Which just isn't fair. So I'm happy that the two sides were able to come to a compromise that will at least see the current players getting a cut, even if the cut isn't that substantial.
Something is better than nothing I suppose.
4. The Joy Of Beating Your Friends: Long before you could play video games online, my friends and I used to start dynasties on my PlayStation. While in college we would all head over to my place after class -- and sometimes instead of class -- and play our games against one another. Things would get heated, both on the virtual field, and in the virtual recruiting wars.
I can't honestly say that there weren't times when a couple of us wouldn't speak to one another for a few days. I don't know that I'm proud of it, but if I'm being honest, I'm not ashamed of it, either.
Anyway, it was all worth it when you could add another conference title (while the conferences switched, we were always all members of the same conference) or national title to your resume. Hanging those over the heads of your friends was the best feeling in the world, and I got to hang it over their heads more often than they did mine.
You can still do it now, online, but it was always better when you could see the anger in their face right next to you.
3. Updated Rosters: I hardly play the latest version of NCAA Football anymore simply because, when it comes to sports games, I prefer as much realism as possible. Outdated rosters don't provide that, and while there are still some remaining online that you can download, it's still not completely the same because...
2. Updated Conferences and More: ... there's still the problem of the conferences. Yes, you can move schools around from conference to conference, but while you can put Maryland and Rutgers in the Big Ten, you can't have the nine-game conference schedule like the Big Ten will have in 2016. Also, the old video game is still a relic of the BCS system. There is no College Football Playoff.
The new game will have the CFP and everything else that's changed since the last version. The sense of realism will be back. So much so that, as I'm playing Idaho in my non-conference schedule, I'll actually wonder how many touchdowns I'll need to score to shut down the program.
1. April Fools: Sorry, but it is April Fools' Day. If you didn't see this coming by now, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
Hopefully we'll be able to laugh about it together one day as I'm beating you in an online game of the new version of NCAA Football.
