The Sad Part Of It All
While the lawsuit focused on the profits gained by the NCAA and EA for their use of player’s likeness, what actually made the NCAA Football games so great was not the fact that you got to play as Ed O’Bannon or other current players.
What made the games great was what came after the initial roster; the ability to recruit and manage your own players.
The NCAA Football games were known for having a notoriously robust Dynasty Mode, where the player took on the role of the head coach of a University as they worked their way up the ranks of college football.
In Dynasty Mode, you would recruit your own randomly generated players to add to your roster for the following year. Each week, you could allot a certain amount of points towards a player to get them to sway in your school’s favor.
These are completely randomly generated players that have zero likenesses of anyone and are not depicting any current or former player.
It was this simple recruiting mechanic that turned my love of the series into an all-out obsession.
Before I knew it, I had created backstories for the players I recruited, I was mourning when they got injured, I cursed them when they transferred to a rival school and I vowed to seek revenge by scheduling their new school every year until that player graduated, ruining their chance at a perfect season (I know, I’m a monster).
It was this team-building process and organic headcanon that brought these games to a whole new level, and I am not the only one with this weird fixation for building my team and creating backstories.
There are multiple YouTube series and Reddit posts detailing people’s seasons and stories, all that they come up with on their own.
Whether its a story they developed in their head or it naturally evolves given the way their season goes, it was an unspoken aspect of the game that could never be advertised on the back of the box.
The game doesn’t tell you that the two-star quarterback you recruited will become a Heisman Trophy winner one day, you brought him to your school because you had the confidence in him.
The game doesn’t create an elegant backstory for your players, you do that yourself by just playing the game and having the experience of nail-biting victories and excruciating losses.
Before you know it, you have a trophy hall filled with gold from the accomplishments of past recruits, players you chose to have on your team.
But because of legal issues and the NCAA refusing to award college athletes any type of compensation, the only people left to feel the brunt of the loss are the fans of NCAA Football.
