Nostalgic Stories Of Playing Old College Football Video Games Is A Punch To The Emotions

Grab some tissues because a Reddit thread about the old college football video games is bound to pull at your heartstrings.

“College Football 25” officially comes out in a couple of weeks, and it’ll be the first time in 11 years EA Sports has released a college football video game.

The last game – “NCAA Football 14” – was released in 2013, and I think it’s safe to say we were living in a different world back then. Not only has so much about society changed in the past 11 years, but the sport itself is very different.

Old “NCAA Football” gamer stories go viral.

Well, with the new game coming out July 19th (July 16th for people with early access), people are sharing stories on Reddit from the good old days of playing the old “NCAA Football” series.

When I say the stories will have you up in your feelings, just know that I’m not kidding at all. It’s like walking into a time machine.

Check out some of the posts below, and hit me with your thoughts at David.Hookstead@OutKick.com:

• When I was in the military, we would smuggle in a 360 every night into the super secure building I worked inside and play NCAA for 9 of our 12 hours of work overnight. Won’t be happening because I am no longer in the military and I now have a life.
• Similar situation. I convinced my best friend in high school to get it, then went to summer camp for a week. I came back and his girlfriend was like, “hey, I don’t know if you heard, but Jeremy has been super sick lately!” I texted him and he said “don’t tell Kylee, but I don’t want to hang out with her. I’ve been playing NCAA pretty much all day this week.” We would hang out until midnight or so every night with other friends, but then we’d get home and call each other and play NCAA until like 3am. It was awesome. Like you, we’re both in our 30s now and have a wife and kids. Super excited for the game, but a little bummed we can’t do it anymore.
• Being able to talk to my uncle about my RTG and just spending time with him. Unfortunately we lost him a couple years ago.
• When I was in college there were 11 of us in a house. We did an SEC dynasty and drew straws to decide draft order for team selection. Nobody picked Vandy, I got Florida. Rules were that recruiting had to be simmed, we’d sim any games against non top 25, and obviously play each other. Me and a buddy (Auburn) went to the BCS title game, I was down, and I charged down the field to get into 50 yard field goal range. He iced me, so I had to try to aim with that ridiculous ice animation. I made it as time expired and won the Natty. I’m married with kids, and obviously that’s the best part of my life. However looking back at moments like that with the boys, having beers, playing video games, that was really worry free fun that you never forget. You never really realize that you’re having legendary moments until its over. I’m not in college anymore so I can’t do that. But I can still have fun.
• In 05 I was terrified of playing USC, so when I saw they were undefeated heading into the last week of the regular season, I usered their team and spent the whole game rapidly pressing dive-> switch player-> dive-> switch player etc. They ended up losing 112-0 or something crazy like that (played 4 minute quarters) and I completely tanked their heisman chances.
• I used to play dynasties with my roommate, we’d usually recruit good fullbacks so one could pass/run block. Probably can’t get my new roommate (wife of 7 years) to play with me like my old roomie.
• Took off 3 days of work, and my wife & kid are going to the in-laws for a couple days for this reason alone. Gonna be in like 2030 by the time they get home.
• Some of yall have the coolest wives and girlfriends.
• Great post and good call about midnight lol. I can’t even stay up past 9:30pm lol. Old tradition was to order pizza for delivery and smash a season in dynasty. Glory days.
• Taunt schools, get called for unsportsmanlike celebrations, get put on probation.
• In the early 00s we had a dorm tournament and a dorm dynasty. The tourney was a $20 entry winner take all. No repeat teams. Bring your own controller. No memory cards. 21 point skunk (minus the championship). The dynasty was only 5 of us. You had to have at least 2 other members in the room when you played the weeks games/recruited. There was a 3 day window to play your weekly game, or it got sim’d.

This thread immediately made me think about this clip from “The Office.” It hits so damn hard.

My fiancée (yes, I’m engaged. Let’s not make a big deal about it) has asked why I care so much about “College Football 25” coming out. Why did I buy a PS5 just to play it?

The answer is simple. “College Football 25” is about a lot more than a single video game. It’s about a lifestyle. It’s about reminiscing on life when it was simpler.

There was no better feeling than playing “NCAA Football” for hours on end with my college roommates. Nothing beat it. The fridge is stocked with beer, there are two frozen pizzas ready to roll and I’m about to upset Alabama with Tulsa and then taunt the hell out of my roommate for the next week. 

That’s why this game means so much to people who otherwise haven’t picked up a controller in a decade. It’s about finding the worst team in the game and building a dynasty. It’s about chasing titles. It’s about all the traditions and prestige that we love about college football.

So, when someone asks why we all care so much, just know it’s not really about understanding the why. It’s about staying out of the way so we can, once again, indulge in something that brought us so much joy such a long time ago. I truly can’t wait for July 16th. Don’t expect to hear from me at all! Let me know what you think at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.