NCAA 2005: The Passion of TCU

The Disciplinarian
The only significant change to Dynasty this year, at least during the course of a regular season, is the inclusion of player discipline and composure. Player composure, which affects confidence and performance on the field, doesn't reset from game to game. Instead, it's an ongoing, season-long process that can even affect the decision to go pro early or to transfer to another school. This helps a lot when determining how to play the hot hand.

Discipline is a bit different. Each week you can check if any players have caused any infractions. An infraction isn't just an NCAA violation -- don't expect anyone to be caught getting money from boosters -- but instead is more about breaking team rules. The team has an overall discipline rating, which increases the likelihood of infractions (if it's low). Every player also has their own discipline rating, but even a kid rated an A+ can slip sometimes. Usually one or two kids have infractions each week. You can ignore them if you want or you can bench them for a quarter, a half, a game, or even an entire season.

If you let them slide, you will appear like the totally cool coach -- heck, maybe they will take you out drinking with some sorority girls -- but it will also draw the attention of the NCAA. That's right, the NCAA is in the game now, like a scrutinizing parent. The more infractions, the less discipline shown, the more likely it is the NCAA will step in and punish your team. You are limited to 70 "demerits" if you will. That's actually 70 quarters you can bench players throughout the season. That means that if some kid is skipping class, you may want to merely offer a 1 quarter benching. However, a kid that skips practice might merit a full game suspension. Whatever you choose, save some demerits in case one of your kids does something truly stupid. Fortunately, none of my kids have done anything too dumb. When they do, I'll letcha know all about it.

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Half A Season
Over the weekend I played six games, going 6-0. Halfway through the season, there's not too much to add regarding the gameplay and features than has already been written. However, I did come across a really interesting and unexpected result with user-controlled celebrations.

In case you're not in the know, following any big play (meaning a touchdown, a significant defensive play, or an offensive play for a good chunk of yardage) you can hold the trigger and press one of the face buttons to trigger a player, mascot, or fan celebration. If you are the visiting team and you choose a fan celebration, the cut-scene doesn't show fans jumping for joy (after all, they are rooting against you), but instead you see the home crowd having a defeated and negative reaction to whatever's happened. It's pretty cool.

Some of the extreme celebrations also lead to fights. Remember that extreme celebrations have the chance of leading to a penalty. One celebration has one of your players shoving around an opponent and earning an unsportsmanlike conduct penality. D'oh. Actually, it sucks to get hit for 15 yards, but it is one of the sweeter cut-scenes.

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The Season Continues
TCU is off to a great start. Ranked #15 in the country, with one of the top defenses in the NCAA, the true challenge for the Horned Frogs begins with the next few games, as tougher opponents are on the horizon. Will purple make it to the National Title game? Will Von Doom leave early for the NFL? What changes have been made to recruiting and how will discipline and composure factor in? These are questions I'll answer in my next update. And think, when that build of Madden finally comes in, I'll be able to import some of comic bookdom's finest into the NFL 2005 rookie class.

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