If you're anything like me, you look forward to the NCAA Football games every year for one main reason - Dynasty mode. Dynasty mode lets you sit in the coaches chair and make all the moves of a big-time college football program. Whether it's setting your depth chart or recruiting, the player is in charge of building, or in some cases maintaining a college football team. EA gives us new features every year to improve the dynasty mode...but there are so many things you can do to make your dynasty "your own" and really get into the game - possibly deeper than ever before.

As we all know, EA places the player at the helm of whatever team the player chooses. The first chance to really customize your dynasty appears immediately. In the 360 version of the game, you're prompted first to create a prospect. I discovered this feature for the first time in NCAA '05, and found it to be great. Over the last few years, I've created my share of prospects. Starting with last year's game, my brother and I began keeping our prospects in a notebook. We write down every prospect's name, hometown, postition, and eventually the school he signs with. As that prospect's career goes on, we also keep track of any All-American honors or awards he receives. The ultimate goal is for these prospects to make it to the NFL, and we have a great time tracking their careers and seeing them pop up on the cover of ESPN. Many players who create prospects make them specifically for their own team. Sure, this is fun, but it's even more fun to see where your players sign and how they do with the CPU in charge.

Once you've created one (or 10) prospects, it's time to continue through the pre-season. The next step to really take over your dynasty, and my favorite, is customizing your coach. I must say I'm disappointed with the 360's coach customization options. The PS2 did a great job of representing the coaches. With the added emphasis on recruiting I was hoping EA would give us more to do with the coaches, possibly the chance to give them recruiting styles, or attitudes. Maybe next year...but as I was saying, customize your coach. If you're like me, name all the coaches. It's fun to get to the end of year awards and see Nick Saban in the running for coach of the year, rather than ALA Coach. I

So, now that I've created my coach (Poindexter Buckley, for those wondering). It's time to set up the team. Poindexter lived in the East Bay area after college and loved watching the Bill Walsh coached 49ers and their West Coast offense. As such, he incorporates this knowledge into his playbook. Choose an offensive and defensive playbook that works for you. Make sure you study your team's roster beforehand though. If you want to run a Pass dominated playbook and your QB is rated 72 overall, you're going to have a tough first season. So choose accordingly. By choosing your O/D schemes you've also helped yourself recruit. How so, you ask? You've basically created a template for players. For example, Poindexter runs a 3-4 defense. To thrive, he'll need to recruit linebackers with speed. To find them, he'll use the prospect search. Getting to know your team and coach will give you the advantage when it comes to the new recruiting system.

By now, you should be pretty comfortable with your team, and you may not even have played a game yet. You'll be tracking the prospects you created to see what their next move may be, or trying to find out what it takes to make sure their next move is into your school's dorms. If you're anything like me, you'll get so into the game you may even create a back story for you coach (Something like Poindexter running practice using the YouTube feature on his new IPhone)...OK, maybe you're not that in-depth, but I hope these few small changes help you to immerse yourself in Dynasty mode like you never have before.