Dynasty Mode can make any game infinitely replayable, this is no exception for NCAA Football 06.
With close to 200 teams to choose from and 50+ seasons for each dynasty, you can play NCAA 06 forever.
Yet at one point in your NCAA 06 journey you may have run out of ideas to start your next dynasty.
Well fear not, I am here to help you make that decision.
Below are some ideas that I’ve used over the years that have provided an immense amount of fun and value.
Please note that you are not restricted by the teams I list below. I am pretty knowledgeable on college football history but I may miss one or two.
Also, don’t be offended that I didn’t list a team in a certain spot.
For the purposes of this game, I will treat the 2005 season as the most recent season.
This means that #2 Tennessee is considered an established powerhouse, not a former powerhouse like they are now in 2018. However, there are no rules here so do what you like.
Established Powerhouse
Most gamers follow this path when they play Dynasty Mode for the first time.
This could be a favorite team or maybe they just want to know what it feels like to dominate right out of the gate.
Please note that sometimes this dynasty may not last as long due to winning quickly on a high level, you may get bored sooner or later.
Which Teams:
- USC
- Tennessee
- Oklahoma
- Florida State
- Texas
- Michigan
- LSU
- Miami
- Ohio State
- Florida
Since I am a huge Tennessee fan, I use to run plenty of Tennessee dynasties back in the day.
In NCAA 06, they are a top 5 school with tons of talent. Fun times for sure.
Emerging Powerhouse
These teams are just on the verge of winning national titles, but have never gotten over the hump, at least not within the last decade or so.
These teams are very talented in 06, but just need the right coach to put them over the top.
Which Teams:
- Georgia
- Iowa
- Virginia Tech
- Auburn
- Texas A&M
- Cal
- Louisville
- Purdue
- Arizona State
I once ran a Cal dynasty that was fun as they have great talent but was never considered a real National Title contender…until I got there.
Revive a Former Powerhouse
This type of storyline is always fun as you try to take a once-proud program and turn them around.
This dynasty will probably take longer due to the lack of talent and the toughness of your schedule.
I always enjoy this dynasty because of how realistic it is. Just like in real life, all it takes is a great coach to turn around a sliding powerhouse, just like Nick Saban has done at Alabama.
Which Teams:
- Notre Dame
- Alabama
- Nebraska
- Penn State
- Pitt
- UCLA
- Colorado
- Washington
Washington is the best example of this as they were dominate in the 90s but really fell off in the mid 2000s and are ranked #86.
My Washington dynasty was a ton of fun as there is talent to work with but the rebuild makes sense as we are seeing this now with Chris Petersen at UW.
They also have a big stadium that is fun to play in.
Power 5 Bottom Feeder
I must admit, this might be my favorite dynasty. It takes awhile to build your teams up do their lack of talent and tough schedule.
However, the rewards are worth it. This type of dynasty makes you feel like you really accomplished something. So much fun!
Which Teams:
- Kentucky
- Vanderbilt
- Duke
- North Carolina
- Wake Forest
- Baylor
- Kansas
- Stanford
Those of you who have followed me the last few years know how many times I have mentioned my fabled Duke Dynasty. I actually had two dynasties.
The first one was quite magical as I took the Blue Devils to multiple national championships on academic restrictions.
My other Duke dynasty only lasted one season…where I won the national title. I still don’t know how I done that with that porous of a team on Heisman difficulty.
Non-Power 5 Invite
This is probably the most popular dynasty idea.
You take in school from a non-Power 5 conference (including the Big East), build them up, get invited to a Power 5 conference, and become a national powerhouse.
What makes this dynasty special is the longevity as it will take you several seasons to accomplish the big goals.
Which Teams: Any non-Power 5 school
My UCF dynasty on my YouTube channel is the perfect example of this. It’s always fun doing a complete rebuild, getting invited to a bigger conference, and becoming a household name. It never gets old.
Nerds
This is a unique challenge as most academic-oriented schools are not very good at football.
Add is any academic house rules you want to apply (only recruiting B or better awareness prospects for example) and you have yourself quite the challenge.
Which Teams: I only list schools that have extremely high academics but are not known for elite football (at least in 2005). I also listed all Ivy League schools.
- Duke
- Wake Forest
- Stanford
- Vanderbilt
- Northwestern
- Brown
- Columbia
- Cornell
- Dartmouth
- Harvard
- Penn
- Princeton
- Yale
I’ve talked about my Duke dynasties as I too gave myself the academic restriction by only recruiting players who are smart. Always a challenge.
Independents and Military
The Independent route is fun as you have full control over your schedule, allowing you to make it as hard or as difficult as you like.
Most military schools fall under this umbrella other than Air Force, they are in the Mountain West Conference.
Which Teams:
- Notre Dame
- Navy
- Army
- Temple
- Air Force
I can honestly say I’ve not done this dynasty for a certain length of time and stayed there. It would be fun nonetheless.
1-AA to 1-A Rebuild
I guess some would call this the ultimate challenge. You take any 1-AA school and move them up to 1-A by replacing them with a current 1-A school.
This dynasty probably has the longest shelf life as you starting roster will be terrible.
However, just like any other challenge, the rewards are greater on the other side.
Which Teams: Any 1-AA school
My Yale dynasty is all you need to see to get an idea of how challenging this is. Add in my academic restriction and you have one heck of a challenge. I am having a blast with it though.
Conclusion
I am sure there are other dynasty ideas out there that I did not think of, but as you can see, there is no end to the depths of NCAA 06 as long as you have Dynasty Mode.
Do you have other dynasty ideas that I failed to mention? Please put them in comments section below.
Hmmm…
One dynasty idea is to pick a dynasty where you get to, you know, rewrite history. In other words, pick a dynasty with a program whose fortunes have severely declined between when the game came out (2005) and now (2018), and try and rewrite history by maintaining good fortunes or improving fortunes. This could go in all sorts of different directions, as you could keep a then-powerhouse from declining (like Tennessee or Miami), keep some other team from having a rapid decline in fortune (like a Hawaii or a Purdue), or create the ultimate alternate reality where a team could win a national title in 2018 instead of playing in FCS/I-AA (Idaho).
Another idea is to pick a school that is 1-2* both academically and with its football program. Then you have the challenge of building up not just the football program, but the academics as well so that your school is academically attractive to recruits.
Finally, there are the create-a-team options. Create-a-team dynasties are also popular (Miles Dawkins 247, if you’re familiar with him, has gained quite a following with create-a-team dynasties) so the topic of create-a-team dynasties may be worth a blog post all by itself!
I hope this helps!
Just goes to show that you can never run out of ideas.
Agreed! And I’m sure both of us are missing dynasty ideas too.
For example, dynasties with storylines is one thing I’ve gotten into. That was one of the many things that made my Rice dynasty such an enjoyable, satisfying, and long-living (20 years) one…in 2005 (in real life) the football program was on the verge of shutting down and the coach took them from the verge of shutdown to a perennial Big 12 powerhouse!
Al, question for ya….and you may not be able to answer, but I thought I’d try. I’m looking to create a full-fledged, grindy dynasty starting with a 1-star program whom was hiring a coach to start the 05 season (I believe there are 5 qualifying teams). The problem I have is I know deep down, I’m gonna be like you and fully turn around this program quickly in a few years. Look at your Yale dynasty for example, we’re at season 5 and you’ve already got them at a near-top 10 ranking. That’s not me bashing you, your dynasty vids are awesome, please don’t change what you do.
But I’m trying to find ways to make a potential 1 star dynasty more difficult and realistic….and one idea that I’ll try tonight is letting the cpu play as soon as I snap the ball. We know as soon as you snap the ball, if you don’t touch anything, your qb/hb will do their thing for you….or your defense guy will do his thing. Do you believe it is viable to do this strategy and let the player ratings be the determining factor, or have you found the cpu decision-making to be awful? I would still call audibles and pre-snap adjustments
I have two ideas that may help. First, I’ve never done the live “CPU vs CPU” gameplay before, but it is possible with 06 as you said that all you have to do on offense is snap the ball and let the CPU handle the rest. Again, I have never done this before, but it seems viable.
The second option is actually playing the game like normal but being more strict about your schemes. What I mean is instead of conforming your offense and defense to your roster, you do the exact opposite. This means, for example, you pick a 1-star program and you MUST stick with one offense, no matter how bad your initial roster fits that scheme. This will force you to take longer to recruit guys that can fit your scheme. This means that your first few years will be a struggle until your roster matches your offense and defense. I used whatever offense and defense I could to win games at Yale. It would have took me much longer if I had force the Al-Raid, Flexbone, etc. on them.
To make things even harder, pick a team whose offensive roster is set up for the exact opposite of whatever scheme you want to run. Take Rice for example, a team that is terrible but at least has the makings of some type of option offense. Imagine me forcing the West Coast Offense on them? I would have took me 2-3 extra years before I started seeing success. Mike Leach is the perfect example of this as he only knows the Air Raid so it took him awhile at Washington State before he started seeing success.
Hope this helps.
Al’s suggestion is good. Another suggestion I have is to pick a team that is graduating lots of players (therefore increasing the chances of walk-ons who will stunt the growth of your program). I’m particularly thinking of San Jose State, a team bad enough on its own merits but is made even worse by the 20+ players graduating after your first year of coaching.
Temple is another good example of this. I believe they have over 20 seniors.
Yea Temple and San Jose State are two teams on the roster I use from gamefaqs where they’re graduating 31+ seniors….and SJSU is a C- team to begin with, so that’s a fun nightmare scenario to dig out of. I’m definitely trashing the idea of having the cpu play for me, it just sucks the fun out of playing the game (I know, duh). I’ve really taken a liking to an all-out pass offense, downfield running is my crutch with this game (think HB slam out of Ace Spread), so by removing that, I’m forcing myself to better understand Al’s pass concepts….
I’m not gonna lie, I watched his curl-flats vid from 2 years ago, my mind was blown. Had no idea that concept was so consistent. May need to make that my core concept. I need to watch more of his play-breakdown vids to learn more. I can’t think of a playstyle with more longevity than an air raid, so many directions to go with that, and taking over a terrible team is perfect because I can just force the offense day 1.
Thanks for the input guys!
You’re welcome!
Though in terms of the Temple dynasty (referring to Al’s comment on Temple), that is tough but is also not in the same league as SJSU. Temple loses tons of players but also has decent talent returning (two of their 80+ overall players have at least two years left while something like 14 of their 70+ overall players have at least two years left). As for SJSU, there are only 4 70+ overall players who return. As far as 1-A dynasties go, SJSU is the ultimate challenge.
SJSU is no different than moving up a 2AA team up as the Trojans are a D team like the rest, except for their senior issue like you mentioned.
At least they have really cool uniforms. I’ve never done a dynasty with a California team. Maybe I should choose them for my next one.
That would be a challenge for sure, especially if I stuck with just one offense and not just tailor my playbook and offense around the roster. I am working on two new offenses that I want to showcase so trying one of them with SJSU would be fun.
If the goal is to keep all 119 teams intact, I absolutely agree SJSU is the ultimate challenge. I plan on using recruiting restrictions from Evil Dave on gamefaqs, so the problem with SJSU is not only is 40-45% of your roster graduating next season, but the true freshman coming in may not be good enough to play in your 2nd season. I basically would have to hope a 4-star shows interest in the off-season, because I’m banning myself from pursuing any 4-5 stars in-season until I gain a star. Basically I’d need to redshirt some seniors to guarantee I have bodies to play in season 2…something I’d deem sacrilegious, but probably necessary.
If moving an FCS team into FBS is something you’re interested in (which I may), then I agree with Al, that is truly the “Ultimate Challenge” in NCAA 06. There are some putrid D- teams in FCS….literally worse than if you had created a new team with the “cupcake” roster design. What Al did with Yale was nothing short of insane, literally his entire 1st season was him not being able to win because his roster was that bad. He was lucky to win a game with that team.
Right now I’m toying with different formations and concepts trying to learn how the game works. I’ve played these NCAA games for over a decade, but I never truly learned the X’s and O’s of football like Al does. Literally NCAA 07, for passing I would hone my focus on one single route (often a corner or go route), throw to the receiver whether he was open or not, and just jump ball catch it myself. That’s little league football, that’s Calvin Johnson playing with a bunch of high schoolers football. I need to play properly, NCAA 06 is better for learning coverages and making good decisions.
If I’m a non power 5 school, I never recruit 4 or 5 star kids during the season. If one or two are interest in you in the off-season then I’ll recruit them. They’re probably local kids anyways. Besides it’s very hard to get 4 and 5 star kids interested in you to begin with if your program is bad.
Let me know if you need help with the passing stuff. My entire schematic philosophy for football games is to actually use real lufe schemes and strategy to make it work. My passing system is all predicated on doing real things such as reading coverages, etc.
What offense do you want to run? Maybe I can point you in the right direction.
Well, NCAA 06 has made me a big fan of running the ball, because you don’t have that “jump the snap” feature in the game, your O-line and TE’s will actually do a decent job blocking for you, so I find myself loving the Ace formation with plenty of slams and option tosses. There’s plenty of good formations out of Ace where you can go 4 wide, 3 wide, 2 wide and find the passing concepts you need. What I may want to work on though is your I-option offense. I’ve got your book, I just need to practice and get used to having the fullback. Normally I ignore fullbacks, but you actually could create a good one who can catch PA passes if you convert someone from a different position. It would be great to have it where my FB is more than just a blocker. Your book is good because there’s still plenty of Ace formations to work with when you want to switch it up.
I’ve also got your Al-raid book, that’s one I may switch over to after I’ve improved my lowly team to a point where I have a QB I can trust. Your I-option feels like a great way to play ball control and eat up some clock with a bad team.
You’ve already got so much out here on YT and this site, it’s just a matter of absorbing all of it and executing. Not to keep patting you on the back, but what’s great with your videos is there’s always something to learn, you don’t just play dynasty mode and go “whoa check out that pass, awesome!”. I could run through the whole Hawaii dynasty and learn how to run your Al raid in the process.
Thanks. I actually ran the Run N Shoot offense in the Hawaii dynasty. The RNS is different than the Air Raid but they’re cousins in some ways. My next book I’m working on is on the RNS. I hope to finish it soon.
Just wanted to say I love this site. Found it years ago but never kept up with it until recently when I went back to ’06 on PS2.
For dynasty, I like the Big East teams best due to the short conference schedule and no CCG. Having a lot of teams that can potentially make the jump to elite status plus being able to schedule 4 non conference games with no permanent powerhouse on your schedule is a lot of fun.
The Northeast states have a lot of good recruits that I didn’t realize until I took over Syracuse for a few years. Jersey, NY and PA are all accessible and you can pull in a lot of 3 star guys. Attempting to build a wall around the NE for your recruits if you pick a Cuse, Rutgers, Pitt or UConn where your focus is just those surrounding states seems like it would tap a lot of potential.
Most recently I started at Cuse for only 2 years before leaving for FSU (mama called after a 4-7 year for the Noles) but my two recruiting classes are in 1st place in the Big East going into November just two years after my departure.
I should add that another dynasty idea would be taking a team and “retconning” recruits and attrition starting with the ’06 classes. Might be better suited for a program that maybe didn’t quite live up to it’s potential in those days, i.e. FSU from 05-09, one that fell off a few years after 2005, or one that exploded shortly after (Bama?)….Basically what I do in my current FSU dynasty is recruit the same star rankings (or lower depending on scouting) and measurables (as close as I can get) from guys taken from their respective classes. Only thing I don’t follow is hometowns.
I just started a dynasty with three user controlled teams I subbed into the Sun Belt: App State, UMass, and Villanova. I also put Delaware in there to provide some rivalry games. It’s HARD! Mainly because the 1-AA players are vastly underrated. Hopefully I can get some some decent recruits and transfers.
With the 200 plus teams in the game, there is no real excuse to run out of dynasty ideas and you just proved that.
I saw a cool dynasty idea in Mike Lowe’s post on simsportsgaming from earlier in the year. One of his house rules revolves around team selection. He only chooses schools that actually hired new coaches in the year the game was released and he takes it a step further by not taking over a position where the coach was a coordinator the year before. Basically, each team option has a new coach with a 0-0 college head coaching record.
I’ve implemented this as I now have a PS2 and every NCAA from 2003 to 09. Just fired up a new dynasty with Pitt (sorry Dave Wannstedt) last night. Really cool idea. I even have gone so far as to do the same thing in Madden. Looks like with Madden 21 I can only do a CFM with my Panthers. 🙂
Yeah I’ve done that a time or two in NCAA 06 but not to the length you mentioned at the end. If you enjoy the other games (I don’t unfortunately) then that idea can last you quite awhile. At that point you’re getting into roleplaying mode then. Good stuff.
I love that I found this forum. I received a PS2 and NCAA Football 2006 from Amazon and started playing last week.. I haven’t played this particular game (2006) since the 2008 version came out. (I skipped 2007) I’ve adjusted sliders for my own preferences/skill level and I’m having a blast.
Human / CPU Offense
QB Acc – 10% – 10%
Pass Block – 0% – 0%
WR Catch – 50% – 50%
RB Ability – 0% – 0%
Run Block – 0% – 0%
Human / CPU Defense
Awareness – 0% – 0%
Knockdowns – 50% – 50%
Interceptions – 10% – 10%
Break Block – 0% – 0%
Tackling – 0% – 0%
I started with Ohio University in the MAC, but since I see so many different ideas in the thread above, I’m thinking about moving UMASS into the Big East and replacing USF. Not sure though yet. It could be a really rough go after looking at the roster.