Glory Days --- an NCAA 12 Legacy

[TylerHL]

What’s up OS! Some of you may remember me from my BYU dynasty, but it’s been a while. Though I’ve mostly been away from or lurking on these boards for the past couple years, I haven’t stopped playing the NCAA series. After finishing a few more seasons in NCAA 14, I got fed up with some of the frustrating aspects I kept experiencing within its dynasty mode (Ranked teams consistently losing to FCS teams, the point-dump recruiting system, at least one MAC team ALWAYS finishing in the top 10, etc. etc.).

Because of this, I started revisiting some of the older games in the series and I had forgotten how much fun they could be. When I got to NCAA 12, I found that I still had my updated and named rosters for the 2011 season, starring the likes of Andrew Luck, Kellen Moore, Russell Wilson, Justin Blackmon, and Luke Kuechly to name a few.

It reminded me of the times when me and several high school friends had a full twelve-man online dynasty running at one point, one of the most fun gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I wanted to tie these themes into a new idea I had for a dynasty report, and hopefully this will be the result.

Glory Days: a time in the past that is remembered for great success or happiness (Merriam-Webster)

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Disclaimer: The following story lines, game results, etc. are fictitious and are for entertainment purposes only. Any fictitious story/article posted that any person(s) or the NCAA feels is inappropriate will be taken down upon request.

[TylerHL]

Structure:
I’m calling this a legacy mode instead of a traditional dynasty because of my plan on how I’m going to structure this thing.

I’ll be making a player in Road to Glory and playing through the high school season in order to be recruited by schools. I’ll select one from those who offer a scholarship (no walking-on), create my player into the official 2011 roster, and then load that into the regular dynasty mode.

Starting in dynasty mode, I’ll use the existing offensive coordinator position at the school I choose to play for. In game, I’ll utilize the player lock feature on my player and simulate or watch any plays when my player is not on the field.
Once my college career is over, I’ll either simulate a year or two in advance, or sacrifice a bit of realism and start immediately, creating my player as a new coach (with a default D- rating) and taking over as the OC for a school whose job opened up in the coaching carousel that year. From there, it’ll run like a traditional coaching career.


Why NCAA 12?
Though the gameplay is not as fluid as NCAA 14, and there are not as many unique animations, the dynasty mode is much more complete in my opinion.

Coaching contracts with specified goals that, depending on if hit or miss, help determine your coach prestige and likelihood of better offers or being fired is one of my favorite features. The coaching carousel seems to make more sense, and schemes/alma mater play a major role in who gives who an offer.

Recruiting also is more in-depth, with the classic phone call system. There is no scouting system, so looking at the range of attributes, 40-time, bench press, squat, and awareness ranks becomes the best method of guessing how good somebody may be. With this method it is exponentially more fulfilling when you land a gem of a player, and equally disappointing when that highly ranked 4 star you were able to snag is really a bust.


Recruiting:
Because this is somewhat of a blast from the past, I’ll have the ability to create realistic recruiting profiles of some of college football’s recent standouts for a good amount of seasons.

Each year I’ll be making 10-15 real recruits, using a range of players, and try to fit their profile into how they actually stood in their class that year (to avoid having all 5 stars each year recruited by only the top tier teams). Each of these players will have something like ‘Superstar Development’ from Madden, and instead of regular offseason improvement, I’ll bump them up a few extra points depending on where they stand.

Just to give an example, if I were to incorporate Carson Wentz into the first class or second class as a JUCO transfer, I would make his stats poor to reflect the fact that he was not highly regarded out of high school and increase the likelihood a smaller school will land him. Once recruited however, I’ll bump up his ratings to ultimately be among the top quarterbacks in his class.
Players that were top 10 recruits will still get some rating boosts, but obviously not on the same scale. I’ll talk more about this later when I’ve made the first class.

[TylerHL]

Settings:

Difficulty: Heisman
Recruiting Difficulty: Heisman
Quarters: 8 minutes
Speed: Normal
Threshold: 25
Injuries/Fatigue: On
HFA: On
Icing the Kicker: On
Rosters: 2011 base named rosters with my own adjustments

Sliders: TBA

Gameplay Rules:
As a player:

· Must use the ask coach feature for playcall selection.
· Player lock ON every play.
· Simulate or watch downs when not on the field.

As a coach:

· Kicking plays, including kickoff and punt returns, are always simmed or watched.
· No money plays/spamming plays. Utilize the playbook.

Kicking and returning is simply too easy manually. This adds an extra level of suspense in-game and increases importance of having/recruiting a quality kicker.


Coaching Rules:

· Coaching contract goals must be prioritized. (If the contract has more pass-oriented goals, I will aim to be more of a passing team and vice versa)

· Aim to complete contracts up through the year offered before exploring other options in the coaching carousel. (May not be as strict on this though, if I’m at a school where I’m really not having a good time and want out, I’ll find a way to incorporate a change rather than trying to force seasons somewhere I don’t want to be)

· On recruiting: Coach prestige and position effects the influence I’ll have.

~ As a coordinator: (recruiting assistance must be turned on/CPU recruiting)

> D- to C+: can add up to 5 offensive recruits, use 60 minutes of phone calls a week
> B- to B+: can add up to 10 offensive recruits, use 120 minutes of phone calls a week
> A- to A: can add up to 12 offensive recruits, use 240 minutes of phone calls a week
> A+: can add up to 15 offensive recruits, use 300 minutes of phone calls a week

~ As head coach:

> No restrictions other than those in Recruiting Rules

· Leaving players and transfers will always be allowed.

Recruiting Rules:

· No cherry picking highly-rated, unwanted recruits. (This isn’t as big of a deal in 12 as it is in 14, but there always seems to be a 5 star or two that go the whole season unrecruited and can easily be grabbed regardless of what school you are at.)

· Cannot offer any more scholarships than positions available or leaving in the senior class. (If the roster is 70/70 I can only offer as many as seniors graduating, if the roster is 65/70 I can offer the same +5)

Other than that, I’m not going to impose strict rules on this one. Recruiting is a lot harder in 12 in my opinion and keying in on pipeline states naturally play more of a factor. I’ll tend to keep it fairly realistic, however if I’m at a 1* to 2* school, and it so happens for whatever reason that a 4* or 5* has me in their top 3, you better believe I’m going after them (I’ve never seen this happen).

[TylerHL]

Central Gwinnett Black Knights (HS)
David Wooderson: 137/248, 2241 yds, 19 TD, 14 INT, 101 rush, 706 yds, 6 TD

Central made an impressive late season push, including a somewhat miraculous playoff run to the title game, but ultimately lost a close battle to the rivaling Grayson Rams and star quarterback of their own in Deion Booker.


North Carolina Tar Heels (Fr.)
David Wooderson: tbd

[TylerHL]

2010: (HS) Central Gwinnett Black Knights (7-4)
David Wooderson led a valiant playoff push but was ultimately defeated by the (11-0) Grayson Rams and Deion Booker in the Georgia State Championship.


2011: UNC Tar Heels
tbd

[TylerHL]

TBA

[TylerHL]

TBA

[TylerHL]

Disclaimer:
To those of you who remember my BYU dynasty or Falcons franchise, I’ve always been big on creating graphics. It took a lot of effort and tweaking back in the day to keep everything up to the standards I was happy with. However, for the sake of my own time, I will probably be lot more relaxed in that department on this one so that I can spend more time playing the game and less time editing.

Also if you haven’t keyed in on the theme of some of the banners, I’ve already played through the high-school season and up to the second week of the college season (sorry for the spoilers!). I wanted to be sure everything would work out before I started reporting.

Final Notes:
Lastly, I wanted to give a shout-out to any and all of you who post and read these dynasties on here, big or small, you know who you are. I’m certainly more of a lurker than a poster, but I’ve drawn inspiration from a lot of the dynasties on this board. With that being said, if you want to just sit back and check this thing out every now and then, then lurk away! I enjoy doing this for my own sake. Otherwise, it is now cool to post!

Updates coming soon!