Thanksgiving week is a big one in the world of college football. It’s rivalry week! The Iron Bowl, The Apple Cup, The Game. These are all names that mean something to college football fans, and they are all the names of games being played this week.
We’re celebrating here at BSM with a series of three articles written by Demetri Ravanos, the company’s resident college football fanatic. These articles highlight some of the interesting, “insider-y” aspects of following the sport.
In today’s column, Demetri talks to other sports radio hosts about one of the most influential video games in sports history and how it made them all bigger fans of college football and, in some cases, better broadcasters.
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July 9, 2013.
We didn’t know it, but that would be an important date in the personal history of anyone that loves college football and is of a certain age. July 9, 2013 is the date that EA Sports released NCAA Football 14. EA and the NCAA were embroiled in a lawsuit with former college athletes over the unauthorized use of their likenesses in the game series. When the suit was over and the dust was settled, the NCAA pulled its license from EA. Conferences followed. The game was dead.
If you grew up in a college football obsessed part of the country, EA Sports NCAA Football was every bit as important to you as Madden was, if not more so! I can personally tell you that I owned every edition of the game, from 1992’s EA Sports Bill Walsh College Football up to the final edition, which I still play regularly.
I asked three other sports radio hosts to share their experiences with the game. How did it help them understand the sport better? How did they receive each evolution introduced? Here’s what they had to say.
JON LUNCEFORD – JOX 94.5 IN BIRMINGHAM
From the early beginnings of Bill Walsh College Football until the day the game died, the NCAA Football video game series was my connection to the world of college sports as a young, aspiring football player. I never knew if I’d make it to the promised land of real life NCAA Football, but that was always my pathway to the ultimate goal. I was fortunate enough to do so, albeit in Division 3 so I couldn’t have OL #73 in the game, but it then became a true representation of the sport I loved to play.
In college football crazy Alabama, we didn’t care about Madden. We only cared to grab Alabama, Auburn or even UAB or Troy if we wanted a challenge, and take them on the gridiron to prove to our friends why our team and our video game skills were superior. As the game grew, so did the ties to what we all watched on Saturday.
After getting injured on the actual gridiron, I switched my focus from on the field to the broadcast booth. Not long after, names like Kirk Herbstreit, Brad Nessler and Lee Corso were becoming integral to the product – more examples of what I aspired to be in my broadcasting career. I’d find myself even muting them to call the action in a game between two friends, practicing for the day I could do it for real from the press box.
Without the game, we feel an emptiness in a state like Alabama. Playing with Julio Jones and Cam Newton in Madden only gives us a small spark of the same feeling we had growing up. The lines that went around the block to get a game with Mark Ingram on the cover have disappeared. No longer can we get lost in the imagination that we are using our favorite players from Saturday to march down the field in 100,000+ seat stadiums. Maybe one day we’ll be able to recapture that same magic.
JOE OVIES – 99.9 THE FAN IN RALEIGH
To understand the importance of sports video games in the mid-to-late 90s, put yourself in a situation where there are no iPhones, upwards of 10 different ESPN platforms, or conference networks. To regularly “dial up” the internet took serious home tech or attending a college that offered dedicated networks for your frigate class desktop computer. So without YouTube, thousands of websites devoted to college football, and social media, how could a fan deep dive into the sport?
Video games.
For me, it wasn’t so much using “Bill Walsh College Football” for the Sega Genesis, “NCAA Football ’99’” for Sony PlayStation, or “NCAA College Football 2K2” for Sega Dreamcast to understand play concepts. Those things had been covered by Madden years ago. These games offered me a glimpse of college football culture outside of where I lived. Stadiums, mascots, uniform combinations, recruiting, etc. Stuff you couldn’t get out of a newspaper or primitive America Online sections.
JOSH PACHECO – ESPN 1420 AM IN HONOLULU
“It’s In The Game.”
Count me amongst the thousands that long for the return (hopefully) of the NCAA Football video game franchise from EA Sports and hearing that iconic tag line attached.
I still play video games, sparingly, but only in the sports genre. I’m an avid MLB The Show player and have toyed around in the various NBA titles. But, nothing, not even Madden, came close to the feel and the fun of NCAA Football.
Not only did I spend countless hours in front of my television playing the game, but I also felt compelled to make the game as real as possible. I would spend hours adding real names to the numbers of the players on many of those teams. It just didn’t feel right no intercept a pass from “QB #7.”
And as someone who loved the idea of being a sports broadcaster in school, I constantly had a running play-by-play call in my head (and many times out loud) for every big play. The announcers on the game, as good as they were, weren’t good enough for me. I wanted to be like them and feel like I was in their shoes, too.
Maybe more important was the game better represented the feel and passion that college football on campus provides, whether you are watching on television or experiencing it in person. This experience was even better than what Madden did at the time to replicate the NFL atmosphere. In radio play-by-play, “painting the picture” is essential to give the listener the full experience of what is going on. EA Sports showed that even though you could SEE the game through the eyes of the player or team you were controlling, you could still paint that picture through the finer details with fight songs, mascots, and more.
NCAA football from EA Sports didn’t just make me feel like I was playing a video game. It made me feel like I was experiencing something new every time I turned my game system on. That’s what I try to relate every time I call a game.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
