After having a decent amount of time with Retro Bowl College, here’s some tips that I’ve found useful.
If you’re curious about the differences between this game and its predecessor, Retro Bowl, click here.
5. Don’t worry about maxing out scholarship funds
In order to recruit players, you’ll need to award them scholarships at the start of the season. In the base, free game, you’ll get $50,000 to split amongst your team.
Some dilemmas will allow you to raise funds for this, but it is extremely easy to max out at the end of the season; all you need to do is ensure one or two players get drafted in the first two rounds. All the extra cash over $50,000 goes back to the school, never to be heard from again.
This makes earning that $50,000 every year extremely easy to get and the scholarship system essentially useless outside of recruiting, where you have to manage your money well. Once you get a few seasons in, it’ll pretty much refresh on its own.
4. Keep an eye on GPAs
In order to stay on your active roster, your players will need to maintain a minimum GPA. They naturally decline as the season goes on and can be bolstered at any point by spending some Coaching Credits on Academic Coaching.
Bye weeks sometimes will also see them naturally recover and there are certain dilemmas that will let you boost them as well.
I usually always take advantage of the GPA boosting in dilemmas, as the price of Academic Coaching can add up, especially in the early game, where I could almost never afford it.
3. Set your expectations in terms of the National Championship
Unlike the NFL and “Retro Bowl,” “Retro Bowl College,” like its real-world counterpart, has a very funky playoff system where only the top four seeds get to compete for the National Championship.
This arguably bars the best teams from competing, as it’s based on a broken rankings system. It’s very possible to go undefeated and still struggle to break into the top ten teams, because how well you play doesn’t matter as much as who you play.
My first season I went undefeated and was only able to play in the Wool Bowl (its noncopyrighted version of the Cotton Bowl), whereas the teams that competed for the National Championship all had multiple losses.
It’s important to set your expectations in terms of the National Championship, because you can do everything right, but be held back by a lousy schedule against a bunch of bad teams.
2. Don’t neglect your Offensive and Defensive Coordinators’ contracts
“Retro Bowl College” introduces a lot of new systems on top of the “Retro Bowl” formula, and one thing that has repeatedly slipped through my fingers is renewing my offensive and defensive coordinators’ contracts.
This is especially true in the middle of a playoff run. Don’t forget to do it. They have a huge impact on your team’s performance and are usually not cheap to replace.
1. Keep star players as long as you can
You have a finite amount of time with your players in this game, given that everyone graduates or gets drafted in four years (there are no super seniors in this game).
But you can also lose a star player early to the draft if you think they’re ready. Unless your scholarship funds are in dire straits, never do this.
Like “Retro Bowl,” you’re incentivized to invest in players who have potential but aren’t huge spends. This means your best option is to wait for their talent to develop.
The issue is, as soon as they hit their prime, the game gives you the option to let them go into the draft early.
There’s a lot of risk doing this — you start from square one at their position — and almost no reward, given how easy it is to replenish your scholarship money.
I also haven’t yet encountered an incident where a player’s draft value has decreased after declining to go into the draft. If anything, it’s increased after playing their senior year.
Much of the tips I’ve gone over in “Retro Bowl” still apply to this game, as it’s fundamentally similar. Here’s my previous batch of those, if you missed it.
InReview: Reviews, Commentary and More 