The Most Underrated College Football Game of All Time

[@KinetiKGaming]

2004 was a big part of my childhood. I never owned a next gen so I just stuck with 04, even til now. I played dozens of seasons in dynasty mode with various teams, created teams, and my favorite the Wisconsin Badgers. Ill never forget the biggest game of my dynasty mode, visiting the Buckeyes, and it went to 4OTs. The Buckeyes had the ball first in the 4th OT and in a couple plays they had it on my 2 yard line. They swung a pass to the slot receiver on the right side of the field, looked like they would score, and on the goal line I forced a fumble, picked it up, and returned it 98 yards for the game winning score. Thanks for making this video, this game always puts a smile on my face! So many amazing memories.

[@mikeg4960]

Dope

[@Siptoseina]

I started with 05 Larry fitz on the cover

[@hereforthedubs6816]

Damn bro. What year of the dynasty are you on now?

[@KinetiKGaming]

@@hereforthedubs6816 I can't remember how many years I did, I think I got up to around 10. I never had enough memory card space so I'd usually go a few years with a team til it was no fair anymore. On the hardest difficulty after a couple years of recruiting my defense would be averaging negative yards allowed per game, and my offense would score so much it'd break the scoreboard. Allowing more than a TD per game would feel like a loss.

[@D-block15]

@@KinetiKGaming So basically what your saying is that you created then what Alabama is now and your Nick Saban 🤣 Nice 👍🏾. Kinda did the same thing with NCAA Football '06, some really fun times had with some of the most entertaining games played.

[@serialcarpens290]

04 was my senior year of high school football. I remember almost all of my friends playing it and we created our entire conference we played in with accuracy. It’s crazy how 18 years ago had more features than any game could dream of since then

[@TruthTeller10444]

My freshman year in high school for me

[@GG9]

NCAA 04 is most definitely underrated. I agree with you SD that 06 is the best, despite 14 getting so much love. Great vid covering one of the more forgotten about NCAA games 👏

[@Superp1g]

Did not expect to see you here

[@GG9]

@@Superp1g I’m Batman

[@ManuelLopez-mo7im]

The only feature this game lacked that the 05 version had that I wish was included was being able flip the play at the line of scrimmage. The 05 version also included the stadium pulse feature which I never cared for. All things considered I still think 04 just played better. 05 also had this really dark tint to it that I never cared for.

[@SOFTDRINKTV]

@@GG9 hi vengeance

[@H8erOfLife]

14 had awful gameplay imo. The way the players move and run is just unplayable to me

[@jamesmarshall6619]

2004-2007 NCAA was awesome, it just kept improving and was so much fun to play, it stagnated a bit until 2013-2014 where we began to see another leap forward then the end. Some great games that were just a ton of fun to play.

[@videogamevibes7]

Dude this was my childhood. You're my hero

[@texastwostepgaming]

Thousands of hours, not doing my high school homework, were spent playing this game. Oh nostalgia!

[@YoungDolan]

About time someone talked about this game. As soon as I saw the USC cover my eyes lit up. Personally 09 and 12 are my 2 favorites but 04 was my game growing up

[@rstreet5537]

I got 09 on the p2 and 12 on the p3

[@b.santos8804]

Fight On! ✌

[@YoungDolan]

@@rstreet5537 same here

[@mullamillamix]

Watching this game brought back so many memories. I didn’t have the money to buy NCAA 06 so I bought this instead when I was 12.

[@bobertkallahan4392]

I did as well! Small world!

[@sethtate2079]

The touch passing was unreal for it's time. You could throw the ball low or high or throw in front or behind recover in relation to defender.

[@MusicCityCANE]

There’s nothing more satisfying than settling a dispute with friends, or a sibling rivalry by either destroying them or winning in epic fashion in OT in these games. NCAA 03 and 04 are my all time favorites in this series. 03 I got for Christmas, my 1st ever CFB game and 04 I got for my birthday. Mom was the best! ❤️ 🏈

[@bradydicarlo9143]

I love this game, it was my first ever college football game. The 2004 series of EA games were so good.

[@RCJH2022]

The thing I loved about this game was Recruiting. It was Deep but not tedious like how in season recruiting felt in some of the later games.

[@leftlon3]

the create a school option in the ps2/original xbox era, despite not being able mix match uniforms, was better. the 4th alternate doesn’t have to be an away uniform, it can be a blackout or even a gray uniform if you like.

[@coryshannon3815]

While I never played 04, and did play 06 all the time, I loved the college games over Madden. It gave you over 100 teams to use, and even when not doing Dynasty Mode, you could play the game regularly in rivalry matchups, and even win the trophy given out for winning that rivalry game. With players being able to profit off their likenesses now, hopefully we can get a return of the game like that, though it might be logistically impossible to do, even with the changes. One can still hope though.😁

[@damienkeene8000]

Friday nights....Beef n broccoli, Heineken and NCAA 04 . The good ol days

[@LL3Jay]

I was a junior in HS when this game came out… I honestly never thought video games could get any better.

[@bjnt922]

I did a create a school dynasty in NCAA 04 using the school from the tv show Coach. The Minnesota State Screaming Eagles. Won the National Championship in 4 years with greatest player that I’ve recruited in all NCAA Football games. A quarterback that was a more accurate version of Cam Newton named Tiger Donovan. He was a Freshman All-American. First team All Conference despite only playing in 10 game. Won the Heisman as junior and as a senior and lead us to the National Championship in which we beat Georgia. NCAA 04 was great memories from my college years.

[@YgLuda]

05 was my favorite..had a 10 yr career runnin on xbox...lot of all nighters recruiting there...damn those were the days Still have 2010 on ps3..played that like crazy as well

[@mr.mcbean8041]

I have fond memories of this game. I would always let the CPU take a lead then come back and try to get a high great game score

[@yudigg7]

thanks for spotlighting this.i just hooked my ps2 back up and had ncaa04.great nostalgia

[@ad_stayfly7]

First college football game I owned. I stayed up all night in a school night to beat all the rivalry games and collect all the trophies. Man, the nostalgia !

[@theartistformerlyknownaslu3871]

This game is the reason why usc is my favorite team. Ik for a fact I still have 04 on my GameCube. It’s crazy to think they have options and laterals. It took madden so long to catch up

[@codybarrier6295]

This was all me and my brothers played when we were kids I loved this game so much

[@Colbates]

Ncaa 12 is probably my favorite. Something about the lighting made it so beautiful. The running was perfect as I remember it

[@okso6369]

I'm glad I've seen someone else say this. I love 12 with all my heart

[@edwinafamefuna4383]

12 was very good but only reason I give 14 the edge because how the community improved the gameplay and player models. But if you play them both stripped down 12 is better

[@David-nu6kw]

Right after highschool I bought NCAA 2003 pre-owned at a video game and snatched it immediately. They didn't sell NCAA games in Canada yet so finding it anywhere was a miracle and followed one of the best video game days of my life. The following year I bought 2004 pre-owned again and agree it's a fantastic game. Wish I still had it. Now I play NCAA 09-14.

[@samjhemr]

Mr soft drink television has blessed us with a return

[@FrescoStevens]

Who remembers Sean Taylor being a 97ovrl and him being OP as hell if you knew how to snag user picks lol🤣 NCAA 04 was God Tier!!!

[@RiVer-Parish]

That game really introduced me Into playing Ncaa and Madden.

[@rickybobbysdriver555]

Loved this game. I miss the magazine covers as a weekly recap. At the time it was ahead of it's time. Not sure if this game was the one where players get in trouble and you had to discipline them. This needs a next gen version.

[@Nathaniel_B122]

I’m a bit late to the party, but I still own and play this game every day. Got it when I was 11 but never realized how good it was until high school. Plenty of memories. I think you did a great job covering the depth and polish of this masterpiece!

[@Nathaniel_B122]

Also, does anyone have a good slider set for Heisman difficulty? All of the sliders I’ve ever used either make the game near unplayable if you have a bad team while being too easy if you have a good team, and I’m tired of just re-adjusting the difficulty after every year.

[@LenGott8345]

I have 04 and haven't touched it in a while. Now after seeing this, I want to get back into it. NCAA Football is the franchise that EA honestly, hung its true hat on even more than Madden. NCAA in the 00s and this can't be stressed hard enough, DID NOT MISS. I bought em all, played em' all. As much as folks love 06, I feel that 07 & 08 get ignored cause those actually improved on what 06 left out in a matter of speaking. 08 was the proverbial final form of NCAA before we saw it switch consoles and then it more or less started to slip a bit. We lost Summer Training and the Spring Game, which really helped Dynasty POP. 04 was really good and the team specific intros, along with seeing the players run in for a road game with a look of 'oh no...' was well done. You had to factor in the crowd cause you couldn't audible on the road unless you took the crowd out of it. This was a consistent staple throughout NCAA games up until the console switch. Gameplay was stellar, or as stellar as could be cause back then, EA actually gave a crap about what it put out. (No really, they ddi care.) I didn't like how you had to manually add in names, something that 06 finally corrected with Auto Name. It was great running Dynasty in conjunction with Franchise in Madden.

[@kingcowboys2425]

Can July hurry up

[@CarsonClaws]

This game was my childhood. Couldn’t agree more. Love the channel!

[@reliablethreat23]

Back in the day, all you needed was NCAA Football and Madden NFL and you were set! 2003-2008 were the absolute golden years of football video games! I miss these games so much.

[@BoganFromBama]

Hey SD, i want to say thank you for these styles of videos. I want too young to play most of these titles so while in college, i have picked up Madden 08, College Hoops 2k8, NHL 14, FIFA 14 (plus 2014 World Cup) and I have had more fun on these older titles than their current iterations. It is so cool to see my school in a video game (Jacksonville State) and how well these titles hold up and compare to the series nowadays.

[@cjboyer4355]

College Hoops 2K8 still slaps!

[@johnbasedow8973]

im 34, this game came out in my absolute prime of playing football video games? 06 was my senior year. my friends and i still have epic battles on 06 all the time. 04 was the begninnng of when we all fell in love with the franchise

[@AlBeQuirky]

2004 is my favorite of the franchise. I have been playing 06 recently too.

[@pocketfullofry]

Man, thanks for this video. I think I did over 100 years of dynasty with my create a team, which somehow had the exact logo and colors of the my high school in illinois. This brings me back, thanks again.

[@AustinOgonoski]

I live in Canada so I had to pre-order this directly from EA for the Gamecube. College football games weren't sold north of the border until a few years later. Was the first game I ever ordered online. I remember sinking an insane amount of hours into this during sixth grade. As a kid I never quite understood how franchise contracts worked in Madden, but NCAA made things easier because I mean... it's just school so you sign ppl for four years and that's it. I went seriously deep into Dynasty with Oregon State. Had never done that in a football game before. Was also the first EA football game I genuinely enjoyed playing. People don't talk about this a lot, but Madden on the PC/PSX was pretty trash, and the first couple years of madden on sixth gen consoles (Madden 2001, Madden 2002) had sloppy controls and shitty defensive AI that cheated a bunch. NCAA 2004 felt like you could actually get into an offensive rhythm and pick holes in the defense consistently. Also, the unlockables. Holy shit so many teams to play with and the pennant system was awesome. Madden at the time had their Madden cards feature but since you always received duplicate cards, you couldn't theoretically unlock everything. Pennants were way simpler and never gave dupes.

[@chopster2237]

Crazy to think a almost 20 year old game is better than the modern sports games

[@floatinrocktubetalk3768]

This is absolutely correct. Played so much of this it was insane.

[@toddsmith8893]

This game was GOLD.... The other great feature was the multiple options you had pre snap to Yank TE's, and send guys in Motion. Tower View was amazing gameplay expanded. Logged golden hours on this think tank. SO classic..Cheers and thanks for the post.

[@zionreid2537]

2004 might be the best batch of EA Sports games. Madden 2004, NBA Live 2004, MVP Baseball 2004 and all the college games. Just straight classics

[@SOFTDRINKTV]

05 too. 06 is when the glory days started to end with the Xbox 360

[@rstreet5537]

Hell yea you ain't lying I never played mvp baseball but live madden ncaa football stayed in the rotation

[@WWEDX2007]

How you gonna forget to mention NHL 2004? Perhaps still the greatest hockey game ever made.

[@pussydestroyer87]

NHL 2004 is my favorite.

[@brandonwhite4899]

Fight night 2004

[@uncletido99]

After a 12 hour shift my dad would come home and play this for hours, using NAU (fcs school) and build them up. So many memories ❤️

[@The_Husband_of_Jane_Lane]

I had fun playing this game on the original Xbox. Played it for the 2017 Division I-A Football season with the Louisiana State Tigers in dynasty mode.

[@mlang28]

Love 04 found a copy at a thrift store for 2 bucks..a great find!!

[@itsjustmeBen]

I have fond memories of NCAA '05 with Larry Fitzgerald on the cover. My favorite thing was to do dynasty, with my Razorbacks of course, and throughout the season play the computer in other conference games etc. to help swing the standings. I once played Marshall in the National Championship

[@jeffguevara9517]

My dude ! I am a Southern cal grad , was going to ask, you mentioned Marshall in the championship. What teams do you get that get really good that aren’t usually good ? On my end when I am on my 6-8 year with my team , North Texas and Colorado State become ridiculously good like 6 star good. I was wondering if other people get different teams becoming good while they are on their own dynasty mode.

[@travelandfood9625]

I won many natties with my Georgia bulldogs over the years. I guess it finally rubbed off in real life lol. I have also won natties using Kent state, middle Tennessee state, famu, Miami of Ohio.

[@ritchietodd409]

2005 guys could still get injured during the season even if you had injuries turned off.

[@christwarrior8501]

I still play NCAA 04 lol I have Purdue on a 3 year win streak. This game is super fun to play.

[@cheesegangcinematicunivers3999]

THIS GAME WAS MY CHILDHOOD i legit only played this from 2003-2010, the covers during dynasty mode were so stupid lit man. I really wish I could play this game or a modern version of a new ncaa football game.

[@gavinhaynes23]

Still play this on my ps2 when i get the craving. Also march madness 04 which has been the one ive been playing all month

[@Jordan-sk8pm]

Brings back memories, loved 04

[@icanttrustasoul.]

*timeless game still have mine from way back when as a youngin'.*

[@kingshanethe1st]

This is the one i play to this day. Was playing it today working on the rosters. I make all time teams and i just finished up making all time Georgia. Wish it had a few more accessories and certain unis for teams but other than that (well maybe a truck stick) its the best for what i like to do with a sports game.

[@Rockyinlp]

I loved being able to use classic teams. I would use 95-96 Nebraska and just run the option the whole damn game. had a game where I was over 700 yards rushing against my brother.

[@dannyh5937]

2004 was great. I remember playing a dynasty and exporting my draft class to Madden. So much fun back then.

[@johngalbreath9394]

I remember playing mascot mode against my sisters on NCAA 04. Always had Syracuse against Wake Forest

[@daved1018]

Love NCAA 04. I still play it on my PS2. I actually took the time and effort manually putting in each players name from their respected teams. Love playing Dynasty and taking a one star school and turning them into a powerhouse.

[@geebee380]

Sjsu!

[@1D4ever]

NCCA 04 was great it's my second favorite after 06 I just won a Dynasty this summer. Great gameplay and smart AI. Banger video.

[@ManuelLopez-mo7im]

I have the GameCube version of this game, and it’s still one of the most fun football games I have ever played. Sadly there is no roster guide online available, and many colleges no longer have historical roster archives online that go all the way back to the 2003 season. It took me months of scouring internet for sources of all kinds from 2003 to create a roster update, but it was totally worth it too see all those old player’s names in the game.

[@SOFTDRINKTV]

Is it possible to share the update? Or you could copy it to memory cards and sell them if not

[@ManuelLopez-mo7im]

I don’t know how to upload a GameCube memory card file online. I looked everywhere for a guide for the 2004 edition. Luckily there were rosters for the 03 and 05 editions which I did use as a base when applicable. However, most rosters still required the use of sources like team media guides for the pres, team spring rosters, uploads of actual game day programs, and whenever possible historical roster archives from the actual teams’ football web page. If you have the game cube version I can mail you a memory card with the file on it.

[@SOFTDRINKTV]

@@ManuelLopez-mo7im I do, dm me on twitter I can pay for shipping

[@travelandfood9625]

I still play 2005 on my GameCube til this day! Never gets old!

[@Jebbreh]

​@@travelandfood9625 Same here. I have the PS2 version, but I ended up switching to the Gamecube version. I can't help but go back and I even have 14.

[@theshogunblaze3656]

04 awakened my love for sports titles i played it for weeks before my little sister broke my ps2… didn’t play another football game until madden 07 on psp. ah good times 😌

[@jjroberts9545]

I grew up on 04. So excited to see someone else talking about it

[@aaronsanders7145]

This is the best game ever… I still play it and it cost about 4 bucks…I never like 2005 and above….my kids are 23 and 21 and they go crazy seeing me still play it..my last name is Sanders so I would be on my dynasty and get kids with my last name on the whole team ..once I had 9 players with my last name Sanders 🔥🔥🔥

[@geebee380]

I'd have a soccer team if i did that 🤣

[@michaelbrohman1521]

This was my only NCAA game for ages, but what a great game. It was just such an immersive experience, especially with the Dynasty mode. I always loved how the sideline crews were an active part of the environment too, even with the coach animations after plays.

[@sentelnbalivebolton7399]

It's crazy you made this video because in my opinion I've been saying for the last decade NBA Live 2004 NCAA 2004 the PGA golf tour 2004 the college basketball 2004 all were the best

[@Maal7432]

PGA 2004 was AMAZING!

[@SOFTDRINKTV]

Why do you prefer Live 04 over 05?

[@d.jackson9100]

Yeah NBA live 05 was the last good one

[@hyphenuniverse]

Thank you for covering this game. I've been playing this game since 2003 and I still play it. It's my favorite football sim ever. 🙏🏾

[@TarkiTark]

What’s funny is growing up I’ve seen this game laying around once in awhile now it sits my collection hella scratched 😭 but never knew 04 would be talkin abt this game

[@finchused18]

04 was my first. I learned SO much about football formations while playing too. Good game. A classic.

[@TheWildJeffrey]

Gonna have to get myself a copy of 04 now!

[@greenbeans2]

Played this for hours as high school kid. And later verisons added a facial reaction while recruiting that was amazing. I also mess really good Commentary in games.

[@Reedinho]

I purchased a ps2 this past Christmas, and picked up NCAA 10 just a few weeks ago. For me that's probably the most underrated college football game.

[@baypalobeezy4436]

Legendary. Shoutout to my momma for getting me this game. Rip.

[@TreaMendenhall]

Have to agree here. 04 was my first NCAA gaming experience and will always have a special place in my heart

[@Josebombs]

i loved this game so much! i was poor and this was the only football game i had for many years 😂... shattered EVERY school and ncaa record! 😁

[@Chief4Army117]

I honestly completely forgot about this game until now! I remember playing this game early on and played the hell out the Mascot Game which I always thought was super fun! Ah, good times...!

[@finefeeling4825]

As a huge fan of these games, having collected a vast majority of these games, the thing I love about 14 is the hurried up recruiting. As a father of two I have little gaming time n this helps a lot. Not the best for in depth gaming I know but it works for me.

[@jimmycr8ckedcorn]

This game and game engine are incredible. 05 was the last title I purchase and I’ve had a 37 year dynasty with Ohio State. So many great points in this video and so many great aspects of this game.

[@TheBlackScatPack]

I personally am a huge fan of NCAA Football 05. So much fun and the PS2 titles are much MUCH better than the PS3 games.

[@kbeezyk]

In my late 20s and playing NCAA 06 will always be in my top all time games. I don't even know how many countless hours I've played that game as a kid. NCAA 07, 08 and so forth could never quite compete with 06.

[@unclegoose3864]

I spent so much time with both 04 madden and ncaa.

[@ucfknight07]

Amazing to think that these graphics and gameplay were incredible for its time and still holds up well. Disappointed that 20 years later, graphics got better but gameplay got worse. :-/

[@xyphor317]

This was my first NCAA football game and I loved it. Great memories.

[@Michael-nt7yx]

'04 is the one I played most, this is so nostalgic. Played many years in dynasty mode with my Gators

[@darrensims827]

This is one of my favorite sports games of all time

[@danangell5482]

I prefer 2005, but 2004 was also a very good game. Also, on the subject of commentary, it's a small thing, but when you play ANY rivalry game in 2004, 2005, 2006 and other PS2 NCAA games, Brad Nessler will actually open up with a small comment about the rivalry. They took that out in the PS3 version of games, and I've always missed it.

[@travelandfood9625]

Yes! I still play 2005 til this day

[@ethanberger3417]

New college game needs to take the recipe from ps2 ncaa games and build on that. Ps2\xbox era sports games (if you haven’t, do a video of the 05 sports games, greatest year of sports games by far) are absolutely elite. Time flies

[@micahclawrence]

Man I was 18 when this came out. Everyone played it

[@marathonrunner89]

I have probably put 1,000 hours into this game since its release and it is still on my shelf along with MVP Baseball 2005. The 2 greatest EA Sports games ever imo.

[@mike91mdk45]

Couldn't agree more. I've been playing the hell out of this one recently for the dynasty mode. Somehow skipped it back when it came out, but it's become one of my absolute favorites

[@lonniesmith1223]

My favorite game used to love to do the dynasty used to love doing a recruiting

[@radien239]

Very sentimental for me. My first NCAA game and day one game I got for my gamecube

[@jeremygrant4468]

Man was it everyone talked about 03 was great but nah 04 was life for me in high school.

[@atrholiday2889]

There was one BIG FLAW with franchise mode- non-rotating schedules. So if your team is part of a conference and they didn’t play another conference opponent in your first season, you never would play them ever. Big reason why I’d often just be Notre Dame

[@Jackson-bv8nq]

NCAA 04 was truly incredible, but another one that doesn't get much attention is NCAA 98. First game in the series to offer multi-season dynasty mode alond with customized playbooks for each team in the game. (I know that's nothing now, but to a 4-5 year old kid in the late 90s, it's everything lol)

[@199jwo]

My first ever ncaa…a gem…u spot on!

[@cameronskinner1170]

Having the crowd storming the field would have been 🔥

[@skillracoonful]

8:10 This was actually very true the idea was introduced in the beta version. Todd Zuniga a sports game reviewer from now defunct Official Playstation magazine mentioned about the fans tearing down the goalposts in his review of the game. In the same magazine it also mentioned how the feature was taken out in the final makings of the game despite of this the review scores still stood.

[@davidmcdowell9544]

2004 was a banger. I could either use Mizzou with Brad Smith or play with Marshall (in 2 separate Dynasty Modes I took them to the ACC and SEC)

[@michaelmcgilvry7123]

mizzou was the team I used as I grew up at the lake of the Ozarks 90 miles south of Columbia

[@davidmcdowell9544]

@@michaelmcgilvry7123 Holy shit, me too!

[@zetastreaker47]

I’ve been playing NCAA Football 04 since August of 2021 and it’s so good! I’m trying doing an Illinois dynasty in the game, but I’m currently stumped right now. I have the first season complete, but I haven’t finished editing all the recordings. That’s why I have only one episode on my channel. The only thing I hate about this game is that you have to name all the players on the default roster. Look up Optimus Cline admits that it took him like 5-10 hours to name all the players.

[@thegamingchef3304]

Back when it got to a certain point in summer I was so hungry for a football game I'd buy college football & play it until Madden came out lol, then I'd sell college and get Madden. Good ole days.

[@geebee380]

I would do the same to kill time. But then college just took over...the option play was 💯!

[@gamernorcal]

I still own this game. It's an all time classic. 04 and 06 were the best of the series.

[@Maal7432]

Absolutely!

[@reliablethreat23]

I still own all my old NCAA and Madden games lol!

[@Twigg4075]

I spent so much time with this game, yet I had no idea how good we had it at the time.