The 2003 pigskin season has kicked off for the GameCube with Electronic Arts' NCAA Football 2003, a game that pretty much represents everything that college football video gaming should be about -- with a couple of small exceptions.

First, let me start off by saying that I'm a huge college football fan, and have been patiently waiting for Electronic Arts' college football game to arrive on a Nintendo console for years. The NCAA series – which was really fired up by EA in the late '90s – called the PS1 home for quite a while, where it established a loyal following among gridiron gamers and nabbed critical kudos as well. As a faithful N64 owner, I admit I was jealous that the only way to experience the series was to either own a PS1 or a PC that could play the title.

Somehow, though, I knew that -- with the dawn of the GameCube -- EA would have to satisfy the Nintendo audience after all, particularly after Sega announced their own college football (NCAA 2K3) title in advance of EA's official announcement several months ago.

Flash-forward to the present and it's finally here. Has the wait been worth it? Heck yeah!

After its next-gen console debut on the PS2 last year, NCAA Football 2003 has been designed with the big three consoles in mind, and the GC version arrives (thankfully) with all features intact. In fact, it may even be superior to the Xbox and PS2 versions, in that the GameCube rendition has been apparently devoid of manufacturing problems which have caused certain copies for those other systems to freeze up and crash!

NCAA Football 2003 – in terms of its play calling and user interface – feels and controls pretty much like EA's Madden series. The selection of plays and their execution in the game (in terms of passing, timing, and defense) are all Madden-style, so little time needs to be spent on how the game is played: if you've played EA football in the past, this is it yet again! Sure, the game is a little faster, and there are some tweaks here and there in terms of being able to juke and make moves after you run or catch the ball, but it's all more or less the same.

However, if you want to win at NCAA 2003, I have one word for you: run. Or, even better, learn the option. Passing is harder to execute than in the Madden series (unless you're using a national power that utilizes it, like Florida), but defenses tend to be a bit softer to the run -- so press the sprint button and get movin'!

While the overall similarity to Madden isn't any surprise, the unique elements that make up the college game – option-play calling, stadium atmosphere and fight songs – have all been successfully rendered here, making this far more than last year's Madden with collegiate uniforms slapped on the jerseys. In fact, it's very much its own game with its own (fast) pace and that should please college football fans everywhere.

I say that because NCAA boasts tons of options – I mean, I had a hard time just figuring out who to play with! All 117 Division 1 schools are present, as are a smattering of I-AA institutions (basically the Ivy League and teams that regularly make I-AA playoff appearances) – each with their own stadium, unique rosters (sans player names, which you CAN edit in), many with their own fight songs and anthems. The full, actual season schedules are included for all the Division 1 teams, and the option is available to take a I-AA or player-created team and substitute them for one of the D-1 schools. The interface is easy to navigate and making your own schedule up is a breeze.

One of the greatest things about NCAA 2003 is being able to take a national power like Nebraska or a small program like Troy State and accomplish each program's respective goals – the former to win it all, the latter just to make the post-season. The challenges are pretty unique in both cases and equally satisfying to the player.

The modes of NCAA 2003 are pretty self-explanatory. Season Mode enables you play a full one-year schedule (either the team's actual line-up or with a schedule mostly of your own creation), while Rivalry Game includes all of college football's storied rivalries with trophies on the line (everything from traditional battles like Stanford-Cal's "Big Game" to more obscure match-ups like Bowling Green-Toledo's "Battle of I-75"). When you win one of these, the victory is recorded in your User Profile's Trophy Room. Mascot Game enables you to utilize a whole team full of mascots instead of players (not every team is represented, however) – it's amusing for the first few minutes but is pretty pointless overall, unless you and a friend are just looking to mix things up a little bit.

The heart and soul of the game is clearly the Dynasty Mode, where you coach a team and begin a crusade to enhance your program's prestige level. As before, start with Navy and there's nowhere to go but up. Begin with Miami (Fla.) and one small misstep will cause a slight dip in your rating. You also have the option of being bound to a contract and having to meet certain goals – i.e. making the Top 10 two out of three years – or else you'll find yourself fired!

The recipe is simple: play through a season and make a bowl if you're worthy enough in the eyes of the Coach and Media pollsters (obviously if you're a smaller school like Toledo, you're going to need to be perfect to get there, whereas a school in a major conference can play in the post-season generally by just having a record over .500). You can chart your progress after each week by looking at your personal report card and the polls themselves, which also include those wacky Bowl Championship Series (BCS) formulas. Individual awards like the Heisman and All-American awards are also handed out during the year at the appropriate times – it's all accurate and present for die-hard fans.

After you've finished a full season, the Recruiting Mode appears, and it's simply brilliant. Depending on your players' respective status, you could find some of your top men bolting early for the NFL, while others will simply graduate when the time has come. In either case, you'll have to replace them, and you'll need to navigate through the USA to find suitable replacements. Players are sorted by their overall rating, location, and interest in attending your school. You receive a certain amount of points to spend each week on calling/visiting these recruits, and depending on your efforts, you'll find out if they're coming to your program or heading off for greener pastures elsewhere. It takes a few minutes to complete this round, but make sure you portion off enough of your time to go through it. The best players are cornered early, so make sure you know what you're doing!

All of this gives NCAA 2003 an incredible amount of replay value, since playing with a Top 10 team or a small Conference USA school is like playing two completely different games.

NCAA 2003's commentary is from ESPN guys Brad Nessler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso, and it's one of the better play-by-play tracks I've heard in a video game. Nessler has a solid voice that lends itself perfectly to repeated play; Herbstreit and Corso are great fun together, and the commentary rarely makes a misstep in analyzing the action. Of course, play long enough and much of it becomes redundant, but it's never gotten to the point where I've wanted to turn it off.

Graphically, the game is certainly sound, but I was somewhat disappointed in it just the same. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but on nearly every level, last year's Madden bests this from a graphical standpoint. Stadiums are well-rendered but the playing field off in the distance suffers from the same blurring effect that Madden 2002 had on the GameCube. More significantly, the player models and overall look of the game is simply not as sharp as I would have liked. Player close-ups have a slight raggedness that is a tad disappointing, but since EA had so much to pack into the game (all the rosters, players, schedules, songs, etc.), perhaps it's not surprising the game suffers a bit on the eye candy side.

If I had two legitimate complaints with the game, it would have to be the camera angle and difficulty level.

First off, the default camera angle just seems a little too far away from the playing field. If you have a smaller TV screen and are attempting to pass the ball, you'll find yourself squinting to read the letters on the receivers – it's just a little too far back for my liking. A Zoom angle, Sideline angle (useless in the EA series) and the Classic EA angle are here, but each has its own drawbacks.

The difficulty level is something else altogether. The Rookie and Varsity levels (regardless of what team you're using) will quickly become way too easy, but the All-American difficulty (second-hardest) poses enough problems that you'll quickly be working the A.I. settings for fine tuning. Even on this level, the CPU's passing is ridiculously good – they'll fire into triple coverage and come out with the ball nearly every time. Part of it is that the camera angle is so far back it's often difficult to time your DB's jumps with the ball – but I get the feeling it's mostly the CPU cheating on offense.

Thankfully, EA has included all kinds of A.I. Settings for you to experiment with, which you'll adjust based on what the skill level is of the team you're using. However, I have to say that I often get discouraged by fiddling around too much with A.I. sliders – one change here or there can change the whole feel of the game to the point where you don't feel like you're winning because of your skills, but rather because the CPU has been toned down. It's a little frustrating, but eventually I found my own comfort level with the difficulty – just be patient and play through several games before resorting to the A.I. settings.

Overall, NCAA Football 2003 is a solid game that gets nearly everything right. I haven't even gone into the other minute details that college football fans will love (the "televising" of games, the sideline cheerleaders, even a behind-the-scenes featurette!), but suffice it to say, EA has thought of nearly everything here. You'll need a Memory Card 251 or – even better – the Interact 16X card to really get the most out of the game (Dynasty requires over 200 blocks by itself, to say nothing of rosters and profiles), but for those college football fans who have been dying for a formidable pigskin challenge on a Nintendo platform, your wait is finally over. Touchdown!