upcoming return

In 1993, Electronic Arts released their first college football video game: Bill Walsh College Football. Thirty years later, EA Sports has decided to reboot the popular franchise. After last making a college football video game in 2013, the company’s announcement sparked enthusiasm for fans of the game.

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March 11, 2021 When did you first start playing NCAA? Connor Duffy: “When I was younger, I would always get the new Madden games for Christmas and on my birthdays. The first NCAA I got was NCAA12. When I bought this game, I had so much fun with it that I wanted to play this game from different years. I ended up getting every NCAA from 2006-2012. This is when I knew I found something I loved.”

What do you like about the game? Charles Wilson: “The nostalgia of the game keeps me playing it. I have fond memories of playing the game on my PS3 with my dad as a kid, and I always want to keep playing. I enjoy the ability to play as the college teams as opposed to the professional teams. I love using the Dynasty mode, which is when you can create a head coach and lead your team through as many seasons as you want. You have to build your team using recruiting over the years, and that’s a super fun element to the game.”

Alex Nadalini: “There is so much joy in battling one of your buddies head-to-head with your favorite college football teams. The competitive nature of the game combined with the simple, easy to use controls makes the game perfect for teenagers who have interests both in sports and in video games.”

CD: “I don’t know why, but I have always been fascinated by the ranking system in college sports, and specifically, college football. The game has such basic controls that the game is much more simple and entertaining. College football, in some ways, is more exciting than the NFL which in itself will make the game better than Madden. The game has so much variety with recruiting, coaching, and playing that there is never an opportunity to bore yourself.”

Why are you excited about the new game? John Hubbard: “I’m excited because we’ll get to see updated teams and graphics. If they can make the game more current and immersive, that would be great. The fact that the game is college football makes it way more exciting. In Madden it’s always just the same teams, but in the NCAA it’s more exciting and unique.”

CW: “I’m really excited because the one downfall of NCAA 14 is that it needs a big graphics overhaul and I hope that this happens with the new game. The old game is definitely aged and it can glitch out at times, so I’m excited for them to update the rosters and revamp the game. It’s just a change of pace from Madden, and I feel like a lot of people have stronger connections to their college teams and it makes the rivalries more intense.” CD: “Electronic Arts shut down servers which makes it impossible to play online with either your friends or other online players. I don’t want the game to change a ton honestly. Of course new technology will make for a more realistic and visually appealing game; however, I want the same feeling in the game as before.”

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What’s your favorite team to play as? JH: “My favorite team is the Texas Longhorns, but my favorite team to play as is the Florida Gators because they’re always one of the best teams in the game. When I play with my brother, we always choose the worst overall teams just to keep things interesting and experiment with new players.”

CD: “What I like to do is take teams like East Carolina or Texas State and build them up to be dynasties in college football. It’s cool because in real life, there isn’t much opportunity for smaller schools to prove themselves compared to schools like Alabama or Florida.”

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LINED UP Junior wide receiver Conor Duffy stands tall at the line of scrimmage for the 2021 Lions rendition of an NCAA football video game cover.

As varsity football players, how does the game compare to the real sport? JH: “It’s made me appreciate the play calling aspect a lot more. Instead of running the same couple of plays, I understand concepts better now and I can call a variety of different plays. When I joined the football team in the fall, I learned so many new offensive and defensive concepts that help me when choosing plays and coverages in NCAA.”

CD: “The game allows me to create a false reality for myself. When I play Road to Glory, a specific mode in the game that allows you to play as a high school player, I’ll think about what fans and teammates would think about my performance. Also, the game allows you to fight for a position and earn your spot on the team which is something I relate with as a football player.”

STORY Luke Nayfa, Rajan Joshi GRAPHIC Jonathan Yin

Five stats to know

• The last EA College Football game was released in 2013.

• NCAA video games earned over 1.3 billion dollars.

• 126 teams were included in NCAA 14.

• The game will return with a new name: EA

Sports College Football.

• Former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson was the game’s last cover-athlete.

Senior athletes Bajec, Hubbard and Puri try new fall, spring sports

by Rajan Joshi

While many seniors use their school year to relax, seniors Aaryan Puri, Colin Bajec and John Hubbard chose to go out of their comfort zone and try a new sport.

Puri had never touched a golf club a year ago, but over the summer he decided he wanted to learn to swing.

“Golf can be a valuable thing to learn in life for meeting new people,” Puri said. “So I decided to learn now and be ahead of the curve.” It has been difficult at first, but Puri is confident he can improve his skills soon. “Some days, it’s really hard to just get the ball off the ground,” Puri said. “The more I practice, the more results I see, so I’m just going to keep grinding.” For Bajec, the choice was much easier, as he had competed in football back in Middle School. “My parents didn’t want me playing football in high school because of head injuries and CTE,” Bajec said. “But they changed their minds this year and allowed me to play as a senior.”

While he didn’t get much playing time, he’s glad he got to enjoy time with the team and form connections with the other seniors who had been playing football for a while.

“The best part for me was definitely just talking to and becoming better friends with some of the players,” Bajec said. “Since I hadn’t played all four years, I didn’t get as much playing time as some of them, but the memories I made will stay with me forever.”

Hubbard felt similarly about the team and had fun during his time as a player.

“The team seemed to already be really close to each other, but by the end of the season, I was able to get super close with everyone,” Hubbard said. “It was really awesome to have a brotherhood like that for the whole season.”

Hubbard had never played football before, so the fall was a learning experience for him.

“This was my first time playing tackle football,” Hubbard said. “I definitely had to adjust to the aggressiveness in practice and start to go hard every day to make myself better.”

As a long snapper, Hubbard was able to see the field during some games, and going in was nerveracking for him.

“I went in for field goals and extra points as the long snapper,” Hubbard said. “I was super nervous because I wanted to make sure I did everything correctly, and I ended up not messing up and being able to help the team out.”

For all of these athletes, trying something new meant putting themselves in uncomfortable positions, but in the end, they felt more well rounded.

“Stepping out of my comfort zone has always been something I strive to do,” Puri said.”I wanted to use this year to do things I’ve never done before.”