Editors Note: We have updated this article with the latest information from Adam Thompson from EA Sports.  

The collective NCAA community has gone through a huge range of emotions the past 48 hours or so. Those emotions have undoubtedly ranged from envy, anger, concern, confusion, crazyness, and even sheer joy for some.

This wide range of emotions all stems from many gamers across the country scoring early copies of NCAA Football 09. Unfortunately, these select few gamers have taken the NCAA Community along a wild ride which has led to many gamers deciding to discount buying NCAA Football 09 altogether.

After what can be best described as a wild weekend, it's time to separate the facts from the fiction, the rumors from the truth and we will try to answer the ultimate question – is it really worth buying NCAA tonight at midnight?

Rosters ... Or Not?

A huge chunk of the discussion about the problems with NCAA Football 09 has stemmed from several bugs surrounding an apparent glitch in the roster editing feature.

First, NCAA gamers found those editing rosters were having a ton of trouble making edits because the game was crashing or freezing during the process.

Currently, we know several roster editors are trying to work on roster sets to get them released as soon as possible.  Right now, it is anybody's guess on when working named roster files will be released but we should see some soon.

How the whole roster mess effects your decision to buy the game hinges on one thing – can you play the game without real names?

One of the rumors going around currently is there is an 11 character limit on player names. Exceeding that limit might end up crashing the game or causing other problems. Another is to not use punctuation in the names, although the random named rosters in the game seem to have this same kind of punctuation and aren’t causing any problems.

At some point during this weekend, Pasta Padre released a roster set that caused all sorts of problems with the game. Many who used his roster file reported having zero rated teams in play now as well as teams disappear completely off of the screen. There are also several more unconfirmed rumors about the roster file, but the fact of the matter is Pasta Padre has pulled the file from his locker and it is no longer available in his locker. 

We received a note from Adam Thompson at EA in which he said EA asked Pasta to remove the file since it acts almost like a virus in the sense that it messes things up in the game.  Right now, Thompson said he does not believe the character limit has anything to do with the glitch and it definitely has nothing to do with your online status of your console.

Thompson also said you cannot name players with apostrophes in the game, which could be causing some problems when rendering the player's name on the uniform.  Anyone with Pasta Padre's file is recommended to not use it and to not share it as well, as there is a definite problem with the file.

You can edit your own rosters, but as Pasta's file has already shown, you can create some serious side-effects when using roster files.  Thus, until EA figures out how to break the files and then fix that issue with a patch, roster editing should be considered do at your own risk.

How the whole roster mess effects your decision to buy the game hinges on one thing – can you play the game without real names? For a majority of NCAA gamers, this answer is yes. So regardless of what is causing the roster editing issue, if you do not mess with the rosters, you will not have any problems.

For many people, this is reason enough to just skip on to other parts of this article.

It's the Gameplay Stupid ...

Out of the fog of the whole roster mess we enter into the realm of the gameplay for NCAA Football 09. EA has heard gamers complaints on some aspects of the game, and we have gotten a promise there will be an investigation and then possibly a patch in the near future to fix any issues. Here is what was officially said:

I want to caution this does not mean we will get fixes to all of the issues above, and we aren’t sure when they might be addressed. Most likely if a patch is released there will be subtle tweaks to fix these. What the above post does illustrate is EA believes there are problems and they are looking into fixing them.

As far as the actual user response to the gameplay, it seems as if the reaction is cautiously positive. Despite all of the bugs being reported, a good number of people have reported having fun with the game and enjoying the gameplay. There have been impressions that are to the contrary, but most people have found themselves enjoying the game.

While gamers say the game is fun, the general consensus is that this is the year of the offense in NCAA Football.

However, as one gamer on MaddenMania put it, your relationship with NCAA Football 09 will most likely be a "love-hate" relationship. While gamers say the game is fun, the general consensus is that this is the year of the offense in NCAA Football.

The defense has been dumbed down to a point where 40-35 games seem to be the norm. So, while you may have fun scoring at will, you will most likely be pulling your hair out as the computer does the same to your defense. In my opinion, this is a good and bad thing. The game will be fun and frustrating all at the same time. Will the fun be enough to overlook the lack of an offense? We will have to wait and see.

Another thing that I have seen stressed in the community has been the fact speed kills. EA warned us this year that speed was no longer on a simple upslope curve and is instead exponentially higher as you go up the scale. Therefore, a guy with a 99 speed rating will burn a guy with a 98 speed rating.

When you get down to the North Texas and Troy level, you are very likely to get smoked by much more athletic big conference teams. This could make your dynasties instantly much tougher, so count me in as a cautiously optimistic gamer on the speed.

Dynasty Mode Bugs?

I want to leave a quick note to dynasty gamers on their future dynasty. If you are going to play dynasty mode and if you do not want chance running into bugs, you are probably best served not using named rosters downloaded from an EA Locker or the internet.

It seems as if most, if not all of the weird and downright frustrating bugs have to do with rosters.

Your options are either:

A) Use the randomly name the rosters.
B) Play with the default, no-name, QB #14 rosters.

Are either a desirable solution? No. Should we ever had to have made it? No. But it's the reality, and it's not a good one. Otherwise you risk having a catastrophic problem several years into your dynasty.

So Do I Buy?

After everything I just discussed, I think the initial buy/no-buy decision hinges on one very important issue, the rosters. If you can play without the rosters, then advance onto step two. If you can't, it is best to wait until a patch or a proven roster set is released to see if that fixes the issues. Until that time, I would steer clear.

So buying it is sitting on one issue: do you want to sacrifice some realism for some fun?

As for the gamers that can live without the rosters, your next decision should hinge on whether you can deal with a lack of a formidable defense in this game. You most likely will not get ultra-low scoring games with this game. That is a simple fact. You also will most likely want to pull your hair out with the plays the computer will make. So buying it is sitting on one issue: do you want to sacrifice some realism for some fun?

If you can answer yes to that question, get in line at midnight and prepare to have fun. If you answered no, take the safe bet and rent the game and see if it's for you.