Posted by Jud Mackrill | 0 Comments

Why the BCS Does Not Want TCU in the Title Game

Here we are again with a BCS match up that is all too predictable. BCS conference versus BCS conference for all the marbles. *yawn*

The title game match up that was easily predictable 5 to 12 months ago has arrived. Sure we didn’t know for sure that it would be Bama/Texas but we just as well could have figured it would be something similar, something none to surprising, something we have seen before.

Lets just say that the Big 12 did not decide break NCAA rules to reward Texas with an extra second on Saturday night and Texas would have officially lost? The outcome would be chaos. The formula would be questioned as well as the entire system of who plays who, and why we continue to allow the greatest college sport to ultimately come down to politics and subjectivity year after year.

Instead, Texas wins and TCU gets segregated to the teams that wish they could have a chance bowl, the Fiesta Bowl. (Nothing against the Fiesta Bowl, but I think that either of these teams are capable of beating Alabama and/or Texas.)

Don’t get me wrong. I love the bowl system, the tradition, parades, all that jazz. But, if at the end of the day, you sit back and look at this system, you must admit how far it is from where it ought to be. Every team should be able to pump themselves up each August by knowing that, “we can go all the way.” Instead good programs like Boise State should go out telling themselves that even though they can win them all, it still wont matter. Many will be quick to point out that they should schedule tougher schools. However, that will not fix the overall problem. If all of the smaller schools (aka no possibility schools) try to schedule the BCS schools each year, the schedules wont work out because even the BCS want to play other BCS in their non-conference.

I am going to end my rant now. Having not fixed anything and feeling quite disappointed by the state of affairs. I guess my only hope is that one of the teams like TCU or Boise plays so exceptionally that voters cannot help but consider them.

Posted by Jud Mackrill | 0 Comments

The National Championship Game of Choice

Like many of you out there, I really do not expect anything too surprising from this weekend’s games.

This is how I see the games going:

Cincinnati beats Pitt by means of superior offensive firepower.

Florida soundly beats Alabama by possessing what Bama does not, a sound and productive offense that can get things done in the red zone.

Texas takes care of Nebraska by having too much offense for NU to keep in the game.

Where does that leave us?

Five undefeated teams with the possibility of there being four undefeated teams at the end of the post season. All of this was much easier when we had only one or two zero loss teams, but the success of the MWC and WAC has left us with too much conflict for my taste.

What are your thoughts about what may be the most controversial trophy presentation we have seen in a long while?

Posted by Jud Mackrill | 0 Comments

Who is your Heisman Candidate?

Who would you throw on your ballot?

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Working through a major update

We hope that you enjoy the weekend of football we have ahead. Stay tuned for major site changes as we get everything up to speed via our new provider.

Posted by Aaron Klein | 0 Comments

EA Sports’ ‘NCAA Football’ worth the money year af...

Video Games: “NCAA Football 10”

EA Sports’ ‘NCAA Football’ worth the money year after year

By Aaron Klein

“NCAA Football 10”
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Tiburon
System: Xbox 360, PS3
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Released: July 14, 2009

[This article originally appeared in the July 15, 2009, issue of Omaha City Weekly. It is reprinted with permission.]
]

Budgets are tight, and this game comes out every year. You need to know if it’s worth it to drop the dough on the newest iteration.

Bottom line: Yes, it is. There’s so many improvements this year that I’m having a hard time squeezing them all in to this review. “NCAA Football 10” has many substantive enhancements to both the on-the-field action and new gameplay modes.

On the field, you will find an additional layer of strategy with the game-planning feature. It has 11 offensive and defensive keys where you can set your players to react aggressively or conservatively. For example, if you tell your defense to focus on stripping the ball, you will create more fumbles at the expense of more facemask penalties. Telling your offensive line to hold their blocks longer will give you more time in the pocket and potentially more holding calls.

Certain offensive plays are linked together, allowing you to run one play to set up the other. Once a play is 100 percent set up, the defense is more likely to bite on the play action and you’re more likely to bust a large gain.

On the defensive side, prior to the snap you can attempt to guess the play to get a jump on the offense. If you think the offense is running right, you can direct your defenders to swarm to the right by pulling the left trigger and moving the right thumbstick. Of course, if you guess wrong you will be open for a big play.

And you will need to adjust your strategy from time to time, as the adaptive artificial intelligence will adjust to your playcalling. If you constantly run up the middle, for example, the defensive line will begin to pinch and take away the running lanes.

Running down the clock is also no longer a chore with the inclusion of the Chew Clock option, which fast-forwards the play clock to 12 seconds when you break huddle.

In addition to enhanced strategy, the on-the-field action is crisper and more beautiful with more than 1,000 new animations. EA Tiburon used a system called Pro-Tak to allow more realistic tackles with up to three defenders ganging up on the ball carrier. Defensive backs will jam wide receivers at the line and there will be more hand checking and jostling for position when the ball is in the air. Defensive players also take much better pursuit angles reducing the risk of large offensive gains and making it more difficult to get around the corner.

Ball carriers can actually spin or juke their way out of tackling animations. Offensive tackles fan out more, creating a more realistic pocket for the quarterback and defensive linemen are more likely to try to swat the ball out of the air.
In addition to a better core game, “NCAA Football 10” includes even more ways to play.

Campus Legend mode has been improved and rebranded as Road to Glory mode. Here you create a recruit, guide him through his high school playoffs and sign with a college. ESPN reporter Erin Andrews follows your recruit with her video camera and hosts a broadcast-style highlight presentation whenever your recruit hits a milestone, such as a first start, being named player of the game or becoming a Heisman finalist.

While Road to Glory offers a different way to play the game, the problem lays in the time spent in between games. You must spend your week practicing to try to earn a starting position and participating in various evening events to boost your stats. However, an inconvenient load screen to get in and out of practice bogs down the experience. Especially since evening events are only selected from a list with no graphics and no interactivity. The loading, practicing, and loading makes the time in between games tedious and it is difficult not to simulate through it and forgo any skill boosts you would earn.

Road to Glory mode is position and school specific, adding a lot of replayability. A Nebraska quarterback will have a vastly different experience from a wide receiver from Akron. An online leaderboard allows you to compare your recruit to everyone playing that position for your team, your conference or across the NCAA.

Season Showdown is a new mode that should keep you playing the game throughout the entire season. It is a competition to decide once and for all what school truly does have the best fans in college football. Everything you do in the game earns points for your favorite school, which you select upon first loading Season Showdown mode. Executing a setup play earns strategy points and user tackles will garner skill points while going for it on fourth & long when you’re up by 21 will lose you sportsmanship points.

Each week, we as Husker fans (I’m assuming) are playing against the fans of our team’s opponent for that week. For example, the week of Sept. 13, Husker fans will go up against Virginia Tech fans. You earn points in five different categories; whichever team wins three of those categories is named the winner.

In addition to three categories involving actually playing the game, non-gamers can help Nebraska earn points by participating in a college football trivia game online. The final category, Allies and Rivals, puts any tiebreaker in the hands of college football fans at large. Each week you can vote on who you would like to win each of the nation’s matchups, which will most likely end up meaning you will vote against the teams you don’t like.

At the end of the season there will be a 32-team tournament to decide who has the best fans, although the grand prize at this point seems to be bragging rights only.

Finally, Teambuilder rounds out this year’s major new features. With Teambuilder you can log onto teambuilder.easports.com to build your own football team, upload your logo and customize your uniform, stadium and rosters. Then you can search for your created team and download it to your console, as well as any other user teams you fancy. These teams can be used in custom conferences and online dynasties against your friends.

So finally, we will be able to play as the UNO Mavericks, or as Creighton’s fictional football team. We could even see a Millard West and Millard North showdown with accurate uniforms and logos. If you can dream it, you can create it.

Dynasty mode is largely unchanged, but has subtle features in recruiting. Now you can recruit against other rival teams, and the interface has been updated. One significant change is the inclusion of dynasty “accelerators” for those who want to pay to speed up their progress.
For just more than $10, you can purchase a recruiting advisor, coaching seminar, boost the toughness of your stadium, improve recruiting pitches, maximize training buffs, add a pipeline state, unlock all promises and spy on other teams with recruiting reports. These “accelerators” can also be purchased separately for around a dollar a piece.

While none of these “accelerators” are necessary to play and enjoy the game, their existence as paid upgrades feels like nickel-and-diming.

So there you have it. These are tough economic times, and video games – especially annual video games – might be considered a luxury. Luckily, EA Tiburon spent the last year wisely, cramming a ton of improvements and new features into “NCAA Football 10,” some of which set new standards for the franchise to build on.