NCAA tidbits, links

After taking season #4 off last season over at DaONE, I make it no secret that I want to win another championship in season #5 - and last night I started off with what I hope is another great run on the heels of a 16-3 win at Tennessee. My defense really won it for me, as I was able to contain Gerald Riggs Jr. for the most part, holding him to like 45 yards rushing on the game - allowing me to concentrate mostly on shutting down the passing game. What followed was a 3 pick-performance by my secondary, with the INT's coming from CB's Ashton Youboty, Donte Whitner and SS Tyler Everett.

The games in the league are being played on the Heisman level this season, and since EA never lets any ranked games be played likeso it's only natural to become adept to playing on All-American. Well, Heisman plays a bit different and can be difficult to adjust to. One thing it does is it nearly nullifies the overblown-...uhh, -ness of the impact RB's by allowing defensive lineman and linebackers to tackle them in the backfield in many more one on one situations than on All-American. RB's will still truck DB's with relative ease if they're not gang-tackled in the flats & open field, but overall it's a much better situation than the oft-ridiculousness of what occurs in ranked AA games.

On that same token, passing is rough to get used to as well. The deep ball isn't there with much regularity because of the defensive backs ability to play it much better (a godsend, really), however it doesn't eliminate it and still forces defenses to stay honest while attempting to shut down the short to intermediate game. Defenders will tend to play much more intelligently in zone coverage and remain closer to their assignments in man, but they will get beat and they will be caught out of position by the experienced passers. Other than the earlier mention of impact backs in Heisman mode, the running AI is still very smooth in P2P games - unlike matchups against a Heisman level-computer opponent without sliders being adjusted. In the end it's going to be up to the users to make the game, but I gotta say at this point I see NCAA '06 going the way of Madden 2004, with the switch to All-Madden unranked being made online by most, and EA subsequently caving and allowing All-Madden ranked games online in '05. It's just that much better a game on the highest possible level.

Other than expressing my views on Heisman being tits as far as a preferred difficulty level, I wanted to throw a few links up in the NCAA/Maddenmania community. My man Rhombic posted a wishlist for NCAA '07 worthy of being labeled a dissertation by scholars alike, but it basically lays out everything either not in, in, or done incorrectly in this year's version of the game. Very constructive post - be sure to view it here and leave feedback so that it may be finalized.

My Impact Tournament over at MM is down to the final 2, as Marino defeated me 14-10 to advance to the finals, and Liquidrob won a hard-fought game over Kiz to advance himself. The winner of this matchup will receive an NFL specialized controller from MadCatz, who selflessly donated this to help promote both the product and competitive gaming at the same time. I mean, sure it's an NFL customization, but yo - it's a nice piece you didn't have before. No word on Madden being awarded yet as I had originally hoped, but as always I came thru with some free shit to the guys who win my events.

Tired of beating the CPU opponent mercilessly every night? Does your QB not have enough time to drop back before getting drilled? Are you tired of your WR's dropping easy passes? If so, try adjusting your sliders. Every year it becomes common practice for people to spend abnormal amounts of time to figure out what the perfect setting to play NCAA on is, and upon finding what they believe may be the way to go they post their results to the general public to insert into their games and tryout. So far this year, a set assembled by WolverinesManiac (unfortunate name, huh?) seems to be the local flavor, and can be found on the first page of this thread.

Finally, one of the biggest attractions of Maddenmania is the ability to share your dynasty/franchise with the world, and yearly this section of our site falls just behind general discussion as far as popularity goes. Being the NCAA junky that I am (and lack of a dynasty player myself), I always stay tuned to projects by both BDawg35 and Hellisan. This year both chose MAC schools in Michigan for their coaching destinations, with BDawg taking on Western and Hellisan taking on Central. Both have finished their first seasons and are set to embank upon their seconds, so for a good read and perhaps some ideas for your own dynasty, check out BDawg's Broncos and Hellisan's Chippewas at your convenience.