College Football’s National Championship, Sega’s Forgotten Football Games

There was a time when EA didn’t dominate the sports video game industry. A bunch of companies made sports games. Specifically, Sega had its own sports franchises. I’ve looked at the Joe Montana series, but they had basketball, baseball, and college football games.

The two college football games released by Sega share many similarities with the Joe Montana games. Blue Sky Innovations made both games, and they share the same engine as NFL 94, which stars Joe Montana.

Both games have the same number of teams and the same gameplay, which is what you should expect from sports games. The second game is a yearly update. I wanted to know why Sega stopped making them.

The Games

Sega published two college football games named College Football’s National Championship. The first was released in 1994, and the sequel was released in 1995. After that, they were done with college football.

The first game (Link) is based on the 1993 college football season (Link). Florida State won the national championship that year, Charlie Ward won the Heisman, and the developers had 106 teams to choose from. For those unfamiliar with how college football is set up, the NCAA divides the schools into divisions.

Each Division is further divided by conferences and a few independent schools. These two games and other NCAA football games are based on the Division 1 schools. This name has changed over the years, but the core of it is built around the Power Conferences such as the Big Ten, South Eastern Conference, Pac-10, Big-12, Atlantic Coast Conference, and the American Athletic Conference (Formally known as the Big East).

These games have fewer teams, taken from these conferences and the 19 bowl games from the 1993 season. You can’t play a season, franchise, or career in the game. However, you can play with four players; the game has commentary (which was a rarity at the time).

If you didn’t like Blue Sky’s Joe Montana games, you probably won’t like College Football’s National Championship I and II. The play selection is fine, passing the ball is a nightmare, and the user interface takes some getting used to. I personally don’t like the game, but some of the things I don’t like can be changed in the game’s settings.

The second game (Link) is an updated version based on the 1994 College Football season. Based on the reviews, it was released in 1995 in late November or early December of that year. It still has only 32 teams, and while there are some new teams, it is basically the same game.  

I’m a little surprised that Sega and Blue Sky stopped making these games. Sega could’ve switched developers and continued, assuming they could get the license, which was probably where the issues were. EA might’ve been able to land exclusive rights from the NCAA, much like they did with other sports leagues.

Both of these games have issues. If you learn the controls (duh! No crap, Paul), then the game gets easier. Like many of the games I own, I don’t have the manuals for these games. I figured it out with some trial and error. Both Manuals are available online at Sega Retro (I, II)

Sega’s Relationship with Blue Sky

Sega and Blue Sky had a long relationship that resulted in 17 games over seven years. An exclusivity agreement between the two companies ended in 1997 or 1998. The last game that Blue Sky made for Sega was World Series Baseball ’98.

Sega’s downturn in the mid-1990s probably helped to end the agreement between the two companies. Blue Sky suffered from bad management and struggled to switch to 32-bit development.

Blue Sky had two unreleased Sega Saturn games, which points to a few things. Eventually, Titus bought them in 1998. However, this didn’t last much longer, as Titus filed for bankruptcy in the mid-2000s and was gone by 2005.

It would be interesting to find out the details of the agreement between Blue Sky and Sega. Nintendo had exclusivity agreements, and Sega had an agreement with EA. If I had to guess, I would say the Blue Sky agreement was probably similar to Nintendo’s agreement with third-party developers.  

Ken Horowitz conducted a handful of interviews in the mid-2000s. They can be found on his website, Sega-16 (1, 2). The interviews were great but didn’t point me to what I was looking for.

If you have any more information on this, please let me know. I’m sure that I missed something while researching it.

Sports Games

There were several football games in the 1990s. EA had three franchises I’m aware of, Sega had two, and dozens of one-off games. Some had NFL licenses, some had NFLPA licenses, and few had both.

The college football games were a little different. There was no player’s union, and everything was run through the NCAA. Not every team made it into the game, which is why my alma mater isn’t in here. I’m sure no one missed Western Michigan in these games.

This has changed in the last two decades. College Football and basketball have seen significant changes in how players are treated. Depending on how you feel about it, this has been a positive or negative thing.

While we haven’t had a college sports game since 2013, that is also changing. I haven’t heard of anyone developing a College Basketball game, but College Football is coming back. EA will be releasing a game at some point. I think it will be in the Summer of 2024 (Link).

Final Thoughts

I find the 1990s era of sports games to be way more interesting than it probably is. It wasn’t dominated by EA and 2K Sports at the time. A bunch of games were being made, some with licenses, others without. There were also a ton of arcade sports games.

It can be odd to revisit these games today. Each one is like a time capsule of the year it was made. The players have long retired, and in the case of this game, they’re probably forgotten. I know that sounds sad, but do you remember every player on the 1993 or 1994 Nebraska football team?

There are other football games I want to look at. I think I’ll look at the start of EA’s college football games at some point. As for now, I’m going to move on to something else. As always, if you have any information on these games, let me know.