FCS teams on video games - a general contemporary/historical inquiry

[MDSE]

Hi guys,

Apologies if this has been posted here before.

But, rather than specific comments relating to a certain year's college football video game, I more just have a few general questions, as I'd love to play as an FCS team on my PS3, but I've been out of the loop for a while, and wouldn't be opposed to buying a console from the past.

1.) So, I get that FCS teams aren't on the games as you buy them from the store. Have they ever been at any point in the past for any console/platform?

2.) I was told by someone who owns a 360 that in order to 'build a team' on the newest/current EA game, your only choice is to download a roster, and to do that, you have to pay for a lengthy online subscription. Is that entirely accurate, and the same for PS3 as for X-Box?

3.) Are there any past games, regardless of year or console, where you could simply 'build a team' right on the game itself/save it on your memory card or whatever, and create players, etc., independently, WITHOUT having to deal with the whole online/subscription/download hassle?

Thanks for the help.

[cbarrier90]

3.) Are there any past games, regardless of year or console, where you could simply 'build a team' right on the game itself/save it on your memory card or whatever, and create players, etc., independently, WITHOUT having to deal with the whole online/subscription/download hassle?

NCAA 09 has the "Create-a-School" feature which lets create and save straight from the game. The only drawback is you can't be as detailed with your creation as TeamBuilder Online.


1.) So, I get that FCS teams aren't on the games as you buy them from the store. Have they ever been at any point in the past for any console/platform?

NCAA 09 for PS2 has teams, rosters and conferences up to date with 2007 and is the last year I'm aware of that EA included FCS teams. It also lets you edit both the FCS and the FBS rosters.

[MDSE]

Thanks! Sounds like I should buy NCAA '09 then. For PS3?

I can do a dynasty/legacy mode as a team I create, then, recruiting players and the whole deal?

I take it the only downside is the logos/jerseys/etc. are composites/cartoon type things?

[wheeman04]

NCAA12 has the "teambuilder" feature. http://www.easports.com/teambuilder#/home Individuals have to create the teams and post them online. With Xbox you might have to be subscribed to Xbox live. With Ps3, im pretty sure its free.

I have downloaded the entire Socon. WCU is accurate with their rosters and ASU's is as well. Not sure about the rest. The only problem is that the stadiums for these downloaded teams are not accurate, as the individual had to create them so they come out generic. But the FBS stadiums are pretty sweet. Also there is not going to be a playoff, because basically you download the teams and stick them in FBS conferences. For example, my socon teams play in the Sun Belt.

[superman7515]

If you're going to buy an older version, 2007 (Reggie Bush on the cover?) for PS2 was about the best. Had just about all of the 1AA/FCS teams at the time, you could create teams without having to have a subscription to anything, and you could interject the teams into whatever FBS conferences you wanted. Downside is no playoffs (that was only available on NCAA '99 for the original PlayStation) and PS2 games aren't compatible with the newer PS3 systems, although they are still making games for PS2, so it's not gone the way of the dodo yet.

[JSUBison]

I haven't bought a college football game in many years because of the lack of FCS teams, which I can tolerate to some extent. But the fact that nobody has put out a college basketball game in the past 3 or 4 years really disappoints me.

If you really want to play with a FCS team though I can help, if you don't mind playing a 20 year old game on an antiquated system. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Play_Action_Football

This was the last college football game I bought. It was nails for it's time. I remember Montana, ASU, GSU and others on there. They also had DII teams, as I played as NDSU because NDSU was DII at the time. I actually downloaded the game for a SNES emulator a couple years back and messed around with it a bit on my computer. It obviously isn't an option for modern gamers, but I just wanted to point out that if Nintendo could give us that product on a 16-bit gaming console, it really shouldn't be an issue on todays monster gaming machines.

[Twentysix]

Why doesnt EA or 2k or whoever makes the college football game put out a $10 dlc that has the FCS teams on it? $10 dlc that has the DII teams, $10 dlc that has the DIII or NAIA whatever.

It couldnt take them that long, if they can sell 30,000 downloads of them they would make back way more than the money they invest putting them out..

I mean... I have an NCAA basketball game from 09 and ben woodside is a black guy in it...
http://a.espncdn.com/i/mag/blog/WoodyMona.jpg

[darell1976]

Why doesnt EA or 2k or whoever makes the college football game put out a $10 dlc that has the FCS teams on it? $10 dlc that has the DII teams, $10 dlc that has the DIII or NAIA whatever.

It couldnt take them that long, if they can sell 30,000 downloads of them they would make back way more than the money they invest putting them out..

I mean... I have an NCAA basketball game from 09 and ben woodside is a black guy in it...
http://a.espncdn.com/i/mag/blog/WoodyMona.jpg

I have that game and played as NDSU...they put the crowd wearing green and WHITE (I wonder what school they were thinking of).

[troianus]

I have that game and played as NDSU...they put the crowd wearing green and WHITE (I wonder what school they were thinking of).

As there wasn't any pink, I'm still going with NDSU...

[Twentysix]

Hes got you darell.

[Jazzman1522]

The teambuilder feature for NCAA 12 is pretty cool and if you go to operationsports.com and go to the NCAA Football Teambuilder Forum, some guys over there have put together a whole database of created FCS teams that you can download, complete with accurate rosters and pretty accurate uniforms (some are a year old). The only downside with it, as opposed to the older PS2 games, is that when you use them in the game's dynasty mode, you can only put 12 new teams in. But if you want to play out whatever fantasy about your school moving to FBS you might have, you can do it pretty well, as I am with EKU (Insert comments about how poorly that would go in real life here). I confess, I'm a huge nerd. Hopefully that helps some people.

Also, I'm fairly certain you don't need the paid subscription for XBox Live to download teambuilder teams. If you do, it's only $20 for 3 months.

[GrizBowl]

FCS teams have been known to show up on the original xbox version of the game. NCAA 05 for xbox did feature Montana, but the details (the way the stadium/coach looked) were not accurate.

[LehighU11]

Anyone know if the Patriot League has ever been featured in past versions?

[Jazzman1522]

Anyone know if the Patriot League has ever been featured in past versions?

I don't think it was, no. I can't say it with 100% certainty, but I do know that the Pioneer League wasn't ever in the game, so I'm assuming it was a non-scholarship thing. But I don't remember ever seeing them in there. I could be wrong about it though.

[superman7515]

Anyone know if the Patriot League has ever been featured in past versions?

The Patriot League was on a few online football games like Blue Chip College Football... http://www.bluechipcollegefootball.com/
And of course, my personal favorite, Fox's What If Sports... http://www.whatifsports.com/gd/
Coach Profile - Superman7515 (http://www.whatifsports.com/gd/CoachProfile/Default.aspx?uid=287281&wid=2)

[TwoFeathers]

Yes, I don't recall the year, maybe 2001-3, but I played the Tribe versus Penn State, and true-to-life, I got crushed.

[LehighU11]

The Patriot League was on a few online football games like Blue Chip College Football... http://www.bluechipcollegefootball.com/


I'm convinced a Lafayette grad wrote the code for bluechip. 40 simulations against the Pards and not a single Lehigh win...xrolleyesx xrotatehx

[superman7515]

I'm convinced a Lafayette grad wrote the code for bluechip. 40 simulations against the Pards and not a single Lehigh win...xrolleyesx xrotatehx

You can't use non-FBS teams, but you can do simulations with past teams like 2008 Florida vs 2003 USC... FBS Simulations (http://www.whatifsports.com/ncaafb/)

[alvinkayak6]

They don't make FCS stuff, because that takes work and effort. Their sales are fine just focusing on making improvements to the BCS conference teams and stadiums. There have been lawsuits over various issues that EA has...they have exclusive rights to ncaa football videogames right now.

They say they don't include rosters, but they spend LOTS of time matching roster #'s to players. And getting ratings.

[darell1976]

I had Super Play Action Football for the Super Nintendo and they had college teams..of course some of them had their names changed like Smart Mouth instead of Dartmouth and Moldy Moss was Holy Cross. Here is a link to the FCS and FBS teams on that game. Released in August 1992.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/snes/588746-super-play-action-football/faqs/6739
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Play_Action_Football