NCAA Football 08 [X360]

If you're the University of Southern California, what is basically a minor league NFL team, recruiting is easy. Just hand a high school All American a pen and tell him where to sign.

But if your TV ratings are lower than the NHL playoffs, if your weight room is a collection of second-hand ThighMasters and your last student to make the NFL was a male cheerleader, then you have a tough road ahead. To land stud recruits, you have to sell your school.

In real life, daring athletic directors could go all Colorado, hire a few frisky sorority sisters to do their duty for the school and throw a little beer-bong recruiting party to sway some blue chippers. But in the ever-so-strict realm of videogame football, you'll have to abide by NCAA regulations and play it straight. Ironic, isn't it? At least in NCAA 08, slated for release in July, you can play it straight, um, deeper than ever before.

The recruiting game has been almost completely overhauled from NCAA 07 and the result is an immersive process in which you sell your school's best attributes to potential recruits. But it's a two-way street, and you'll have to feel out your candidates to find out what they want out of their college football experience, be it eight games on ESPN, promiscuous cheerleaders or a well-stocked library (you nerd).

Here's how it breaks down. When starting your Dynasty, the first thing you do is target new prospects. Because there are thousands of fictional players, EA has created a search tool to help you find those that meet your needs. You want a clutch kicker, power back, or scrambling QB? Do you only look for four-star recruits or better? Do you want to stay within the pipeline or take the search international? 4.5 40 times only? Now you can search, sort and hopefully sign these recruits.

Once you have a group of targeted players, they are added to your recruiting board and this is where the fun begins. In the past, you would simply make a few calls and send the coaching staff to sway a recruit. To ink anybody was basically a roll of the dice. In NCAA 08, it all starts with your school. A university is more than just a 1-6 prestige rating. A recruit has to consider academics (ha!), coaching philosophies, playing time and proximity to Mom. So EA has created 14 different variables that define a school and ranked everybody. USC is among the elite in TV exposure, but West Coast recruits may want to consider Cal if they are interested in an elite academic program. We're not saying USC students are dumb -- OK, we are.

But that's the entire point. Not only are these rankings going to stir up a little friendly discussion in the community (there are going to be a lot of disappointed Louisiana-Monroe fans... what else is new) but they are going to be the basis behind the entire recruiting system.