Ranking The NCAA Football Video Games I’ve Played

This summer, EA Sports will have NCAA Football return to their catalog, and fans could not be more excited.

And I don’t blame them.

Those games were a staple of my childhood, and a lot of others as well.

There have been a lot of hours put into dynasty mode and road to glory mode, and there will surely be lots of powers put in around July when it comes out again.

And that got me thinking to the past games. None of these games were bad by any metric, but there were some clear standouts compared to the rest since I started playing NCAA Football 2002.

So let’s rank them!

13. NCAA Football 2002

The first game I played is actually the “worst” on the list.

2002 was still a very good game with an in depth dynasty mode, but due to it being the first PS2 era game, it lacked a lot of features previous games had.

It happens with switches over to new consoles, but that’s still going to make it the worst of the bunch.

12. NCAA Football 10

NCAA Football 10 actually has a lot of features. Much more compared to games older than it.

The issue is, those features were all from NCAA Football 09 and nothing much changed.

Does that make it “better” than other games? Sure.

But looking back on it, I’m not going to give them credit for just rehashing a previous game.

11. NCAA Football 14

If you look at the price of this game, you may think this is the best of the bunch.

Right now, Amazon has it listed at $216 dollars to buy.

But the reasons for that are A. There hasn’t been one since then and B. There is a new mod where you can make the teams and players be realistic to current day, so it’s like you’re playing the 2023 season.

The game itself? It’s good but far from anything special.

The features in dynasty and road to glory are the same as previous years, but recruiting has actually been completely neutered to be extremely easy to get top rated classes.

Recruiting is hard, and previous games made it hard.

This one made it some sort of easy side mini game, and it takes a lot away.

10. NCAA Football 2003

I love realism in college football games.

But in 2003, I was 8. Which means I also loved fun.

NCAA Football 2003 had both.

It had player awards with real trophies, it had rivalry game trophies which you could win and show everything off in the trophy case.

So that was cool.

It also was the first game with a mascot mode, where instead of players playing against each other, it was the mascots.

For an 8 year old, that game was like magic to me.

I had an absolute blast watching the giant headed UGA face off against the Sebastian, the Miami bird.

The perfect balance of realism and just dumb fun.

9. NCAA Football 11

11 was the first game to have an overhauled recruiting system, which made you actually work to get recruits.

You could pitch them good things about your specific school to try and sway them to your side. You could even bad mouth other schools to get the recruits more in your favor.

It made the recruit signing the scholarship to your school mean even more, and gave dynasty mode a lot of added flair.

8. NCAA Football 13

NCAA 13 had online dynasty where you could play with your friends.

It had the same road to glory as NCAA 12, and the same recruiting features as NCAA 11.

It was a good game!

But it also had a new mode, where you could play as former Heisman trophy winners in road to glory mode.

But you didn’t need Barry Sanders to play at Oklahoma State, or Tim Tebow at Florida.

Want to see Mark Ingram playing for Akron?

You can do that!

It was a cool, alternate universe feature that I really enjoyed.

7. NCAA Football 2004

Everything I listed above about NCAA Football 2003 applies to NCAA Football 2004, but 04 had an added element that was beloved not just in NCAA Football games, but NCAA Basketball games as well.

That was the addition of the “College Classics” mode, which let you replay some of the most legendary moments in college football history, such as Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary vs Miami, or “The Play” between Stanford and Cal.

Not only was it fun to play, it also taught people about the history of the game.

6. NCAA Football 2009

NCAA Football 2009 was the first game to have an online dynasty.

It had school specific celebrations, even with the mascot.

It had custom sounds you could add to make the stadium more realistic to each specific school.

It also added a little QB mini game during the game, which, if you’re an experienced player, was truthfully kind of annoying.

You had a “quiz” after a turnover, to help you understand what defense the opponent was running.

For someone like me who played constantly, it was frustrating. I know what defense they were running, I’m just stupid and risky.

But for a newer player, it was actually a great feature to help teach the game of football, which is a complicated sport.

5. NCAA Football 12

We hit on 11 and 13s recruiting in dynasty mode, but NCAA 12 came with a new revamped road to glory mode where you earned scholarship points by playing an entire high school football season.

You could import your school in with Teambuilder, and you could even play both sides of the ball.

For someone who was in high school when the game came out, that feature was super super cool, and also left your college options completely based on how well you played on the field which meant you may play college ball at places you never expected to.

I was never a Minnesota football fan, but after winning 3 straight Heisman’s for the Golden Gophers, I grew an affection for them.

4. NCAA Football 2005

And now, we begin the best 4 year run of the game.

Have you been to a big college football game?

The fans are loud. The energy is electric. You do everything you can to make the opposing team live in hell for 3 and a half hours.

And NCAA Football 2005 was the first game to implement home field advantage.

If you’re playing on the road at Neyland Stadium in Tennessee, you better remember your play, because the crowd is loud.

And that means the receiver routes will shake uncontrollably. The buttons over player heads will be question marks. Audibles may not be heard, so your players may end up running the wrong play.

It was just the beginning of a legendary run for EA Sports college football.

3. NCAA Football 06

NCAA Football 06 kept home field advantage from NCAA 05, but added in a legendary mode called “Race For The Heisman.”

Instead of trying to win the Heisman Trophy with your recruits in dynasty mode, you created a player, went to school, and tried to win a Heisman for yourself.

06 was the first game to have a specific player career mode, and it became a staple and was enhanced every year after that.

The only downside was you controlled the full team apart from one player, which made it pretty easy to win.

2. NCAA Football 07

A few months ago (or maybe a year or so ago. I can’t remember), I made a post saying which of each EA Sports game was my favorite.

For college football, I said NCAA Football 07.

I was wrong.

But it’s not because I don’t love the game.

Just like 06, I love the dynasty mode and how players can get suspended, or else you may get violations.

I love the road to glory mode, where it has been expanded so you actually have to go to class and take tests as well as play, or else you’ll be academically ineligible.

It’s the type of realism I love from NCAA Football and from sports video games in general.

I want it to feel real.

So why was I wrong?

1. NCAA Football 08

Because I was fortunate enough to be able to have a PS2 and a PS3 with NCAA Football 08 on both.

The PS2 dynasty mode continued where they left off, with violations and suspensions and possible probation, all the stuff I loved. It was something the PS3 era was missing.

The PS2 road to glory mode was almost a carbon copy of NCAA 07, which is a let down, sure, but still fun.

So what was the difference?

The PS3 road to glory mode.

Not only do you now start in the high school playoffs to earn scholarships, you control only your specific player and nobody else, meaning you really had to work to become a campus legend.

The great of the PS2 era perfectly aligned with the beginning of an excellent PS3 era, and being able to experience both made it a great year to play NCAA Football.

Here’s to the new game coming this summer.