July 9, 2013 (five years ago today), NCAA Football 14 released to the public on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The EA Sports mega-hit scored over $1.3 Billion since the title’s release in 1998. You could say that the game scored EA Sports many touchdowns. However, two months after the popular sports developers’ release of the 2014 version of the game, the NCAA filed a lawsuit against the developer for using players image and likeness in the game. EA Sports ended production mid-release in September of 2013.
NCAA Football was one of the greatest sports games to be released by any video game developer. Between Sega, 2K Sports and EA Sports, NCAA Football was the best sports game year after year. The Summer release became a yearly expectation because you knew that the newest college football would be released.
The gameplay was so smooth and responsive, and the graphics always looked crisp and clean. EA Sports’ attention to detail to each universities’ tradition and pageantry was second to none. Not only did EA focus on the Power Five conference teams, but they also focused on the smaller schools and included their tradition. As a devout Tennessee fan, seeing Neyland Stadium look exactly the same as it does in real life and hearing Rocky Top play was always so much fun.
The game modes that you could play in the game included: Exhibition, Dynasty, recently added Road to Glory and Ultimate Team. Exhibition mode allowed players to simply play a football game with the teams of their choice. Dynasty mode allowed players to pick a team and play season after season with them and recruit players and act as the coach of the team. The newly added Road to Glory let players create a player and player through high school, and go through the recruiting process by picking the college school of their choice and then playing their college career. Lastly, Ultimate Team let players build a team online and play against players all over the world.
The game has been sorely missed since its’ last release five years ago. Each year in July, fans make fake NCAA Football covers with the player that they think would have made it and they share it on social media. No one really knows what the future of college football video games will be, but right now we all just miss the game and continue to play the 2014 edition as much as possible.
