Madden NFL 15 & The Demise of EA Sports NCAA Football

Madden NFL 15 is scheduled to come out on August 26, 2014 in North America and Seattle Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman will grace the cover. Madden will be available on the Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3 and Playstation 4 consoles. Madden will be the only football game available, due to EA Sports not releasing NCAA Football 2015 due to lawsuits filed by former college athletes. Over the last few years, Madden and NCAA Football were the only football games available to play on video game systems. After ESPN NFL 2K5 was released in July of 2004, Electronic Arts (EA) agreed to an exclusive deal with the NFL to make Madden NFL the only officially licensed NFL video game.

Madden will always be EA Sports top-selling football video game of all time. But in my opinion, isn’t the best football video game. I always liked NCAA Football better, the college atmosphere, the college polls and recruiting the high-school athletes. Anyone who has ever attended a Division I school or attends one now has the opportunity to show their school spirit with that school in the video game. When I play Madden, I’m just a fan of that team and the passion is not the same.

In NCAA Football you have collegiate polls, some conferences have a conference championship game and some teams qualify to play in a bowl game, which is the last game of the year for the teams that make it. The road to making it to the BCS National Championship game is a lot harder in my opinion to making it to the Super Bowl on Madden. I have played NCAA Football – and after 12 games including 13 for some teams that played in the conference championship game – it was still four teams heading into the bowl game with an undefeated record. The BCS selects the top two ranked teams to play in the BCS National Championship Game. Sometimes there are more than one team left with an undefeated record and this goes to show you a championship is not guaranteed every year in college. The NFL playoffs consist of six teams for both conferences, four division winners and two wild card teams.

This upcoming season NCAA will have its inaugural four-team playoff, with the winner of the Rose and Sugar Bowl advancing to face each other in the BCS National Championship Game. In the first game, the no. 1 team faces the no. 4 team and the no. 2 and no. 3 teams face each other in the second game. This playoff system actually gives more teams the opportunity to play in the championship game. I liked that NCAA video game gave schools the opportunity to move on to a better conference and playing the rival games were something to look forward to every season. On Madden Franchise Mode it’s easier to keep the same group of players together with cap space, good drafting and making good trades.

I have won four of more championships in a row on NCAA Football Dynasty Mode with great recruiting and knowing when and what players to red-shirt. Players have left school early like they do in real-life to enter the NFL Draft and if you didn’t recruit for that position that can big a big void to fill with a player that’s not ready to start. If a player leaves a team in the NFL as a free agent or retires early due to injury, you can trade to fill that position or easily sign a free agent. Every game counts in college football if you wish to play in the championship game. In the NFL, if you lose a game here or there you can still make the playoffs as a wild card and still could play in the Super Bowl.

I will probably buy Madden NFL 2015, eventually, but I won’t be in a rush to purchase it. If EA was releasing NCAA Football 2015, I would purchase it on its release date. I can’t wait to see the new features on Madden and it’s amazing graphics on my Xbox One. I will play with my favorite team the San Francisco 49ers and play with them in the Franchise mode for a couple of years. With a young Quarterback like Colin Kaepernick, one of best defenses in the NFL, young Running Backs are waiting to take over for Frank Gore once he retires. I should be able to win the Super Bowl every season I play with the 49ers. I just need to sign or draft some better Wide Receivers. I can’t wait to hear the crowd chant on Madden “Go Niners.” I just wish I hear the crowd chant on NCAA Football “Go Go Go Go, UCF Knights.”