Welcome to the history of the weekly check down. We are excited to bring you an honest and unbiased review of the weekly happenings in what is the HOTTEST dynasty the NCAA franchise the universe has ever seen. With unrivaled access to the 6 head coaches, we are ready to provide the behind the scenes insights you could never find anywhere else. Here at the “Weekly Check Down” we are excited to break down all things league related. 

After many failed ventures in various Madden releases and NCAA 25 this group of blind squirrels seem to have finally found their nut. This is by far the longest running and most successful endeavor the ownership group (OG) has embarked upon. They have been through a lot over 6 years of collaboration but through grit, friendship and god (through which all things are possible) they have crafted what is a genuinely entertaining and competitive experience for both players and spectators alike. 

Born in the dark ages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 the original cornerstone of the league was set. Not all founding members are with us today but the core 4 remain. Beef, Emperor Palpatine, Girl Dad, and Hobbit started out early on with a Madden Dynasty. This Dynasty was a solace of sanity in a time where social distancing and isolation was the law of the land. This rag tag group of gunslingers realized they needed to bring some level headedness to the leadership team so they brought in Safety Guy who quickly became a competitor.

During the Covid times this core 5 really came into their own. Many seasons passed in various Madden franchises but they never seemed to get it quite right. Trading cap space was the core downfall of each dynasty. Some members were particularly trade happy. Beef and Girl Dad would notoriously pillage cpu franchises for star players leading to cap space hell for cpu teams and themselves alike. This would eventually lead to the need to restart to rebalance the finances. It was also good to have a fun fantasy draft night and fill out a new team.

While cap hell seemed to be the main driver of restarts and frustration it allowed the space for the 5 owners to try new things. When trying to find a fair way to make unbiased decisions and introduce controlled chaos the wheel was established. What was once a simple fair governance tool has evolved into an unquestioned religion. The all holy wheel must never be questioned. It is the guiding doctrine of the league. Blasphemy will not be tolerated and non believers will be executed(booted from the league without recourse).

In early times when the league was finding its footing and creating its ideal framework it was always in search of a solid 6th member. There have been other players who wanted to be apart of this special project but you can’t just want to be apart of something like this. You have to commit. Unwavering loyalty, grit, and sacrifice are mandatory requirements not suggestions. The core 5 finally found that unicorn member in Dexter in 2023.

The Hobbit was able to convince him to part with some of his gold to buy a PlayStation 5 during a drunken debate at his Halloween party and that set the fire in Dexter’s belly to one day be crowned champion. 

Having caught their unicorn the league was excited for the upcoming release of NCAA 25. A dynasty in NCAA meant no more forced restarts due to cap space, exciting coaching changes and conference re-alignment, and above all also CROOTIN. The ability to build and develop the team you want was enticing. The league got all this and more. NCAA 25 was an immediate upgrade to game play. Madden has long been regarded as junk, money grab by EA that should have the respect of no one. NCAA was a clear step forward in performance. 

The excitement was short lived. Internal squabbles, births of the next generation of league members, and normal frustrations caused some early stumbles and 2 league resets in NCAA 25 but thankfully the league had hope for NCAA 26.

The growing pains of NCAA were ironed out and the 6 members were ready to step into what could be the most exciting dynasty the league has set out upon. The game dropped, and the wheel was called upon to set the foundation for the 6 members of the league and pick their first jobs as head coaches.

Beef and Hobbit started in the MAC at Bowling Green and Ohio respectively. Safety Guy went to UTSA. Emperor Palpatine brought his Death Star to Hawaii and Girl dad went to Charolette.

Across the board in year 1 everyone had the same focus. Win and get a better job.

The season ended with Emperor Palpatine getting the only playoff berth and only power 5 HC job at Stanford. Beef tried running from the Hobbit after losing to him in the MAC championship to Troy in the Sun Belt…but Hobbits are known to be mischievous creatures and love a good stew so he followed his meal to the sun belt and took the HC job at Coastal Carolina. Girl Dad saw an opportunity to take advantage of beat up MAC and went to NIU. Both Safety Guy and Dexter, unhappy with their offers decided to make unorthodox decisions. Safety Guy stayed with UTSA and Dexter took an OC role with Mississippi State

Year 2 ended in an unceremoniously logical conclusion with Emperor Palpatine winning the first National Champion by taking Stanford all the way to beat Clemson. His one blemish was his one loss to Notre Dame which looked to be his only competition. This isn’t new. The Emperor has been the traditional power house over 6 years of this league. He has so many trophies he melted them down to build his Death Star from which he rules. With no clear challenger at a power 4 team it seemed as though history was doomed to repeat itself with the other players grasping at relevance through conference championships and end of year awards. 

The Hobbit again cooked the Beef in the Sunbelt Conference Championship. The gods felt for the Beef and fate landed him the Auburn HC job. A program overflowing with talent. The Beef was ready shape his dynasty.

The Hobbit took the only power 4 Job he was offered at Indiana that seemed to have talent at all the right places. With a little love they could become a formidable force but he had a new rival to contend with. Girl Dad.

Girl Dad got a HC offer at Illinois and was excited to jump into power 4 relevance. He felt good about his success in the MAC and was ready to take a lower tier program to the next level.

The Safety Guy found a warm spot in his heart for the Road Runners after securing a playoff berth in year 2 in an at large bid and was flirting with it being his forever home.

Dexter got the head coach job he was looking for with Arkansas’s Razorbacks and was excited about tasting some Beef Brisket.

The stage was set for year 3. Everyone was a contender again. No one had an excuse. Everyone had a job they wanted.

The Emperor did what he does best. Win. He bullied his opponents with his steady inside zone run game, dynamic passing attack, and unmatched user ability on defense. But cracks started to show in his recruiting. He was landing highly rated recruits, but he wasn’t filling out his classes. Questions around the league about the sustainability of his methods were quietly being asked.

The Beef cooked his opponents with his jaw dropping quarterback play and aggressive blitz packages. His recruiting has never been in question. He could just bring in dudes. Some say he was enticing them with questionable NIL deals but he was on a war path both on the field and on the recruiting trail.

Dexter found himself in a unique position. He already had a season under his belt coaching in the SEC and was confident the his recruiting pipelines could feed the Hogs. 

UTSA was becoming America’s underdog story. Grit, timely wins against big names, and an impressive passing game took the NCAA by surprise. Safety Guy put the work in during recruiting and it was paying off. His record setting passing performances were nothing to sneeze at. 

Indiana was always known as a basketball school but the Hobbit was on a quest for a ring. His offensive philosophy of getting the ball into the best players hands through steady passing was effective. Defensively he countered better opponents with zone schemes and timely blitzes to interrupt their momentum. Could Indiana really be more than just a basketball school? 

Girl Dad was excited to step into his power 4 job at first but he just couldn’t win against the other league members. Overalls matter more in player vs player games and weaknesses shine through. Never known for his recruiting, he quickly found out that you can’t audible your way to victory at the line of scrimmage.

Everyone made the playoffs except for girl Dad. The Hobbit won the Big 10. Arkansas realized some Beef is just too tough to eat and fell in the SEC championship. The Emperor cruised to another ACC title and UTSA was ready to write their own Cinderella story.

In the playoffs anything can happen. You win, you move on. You lose and you’re sent packing to explain to the boosters why you’re the right fit for the job. The Emperor knocked off the UTSA resistance to set up his second championship run. Beef got his revenge for all of the second breakfasts’ and took down the tricksy Hobbit to set up his second matchup with Dexter in the Semi-finals.

Dexter being the newest member to the league is a clear cut contender. He puts in the work studying film to learn the game and practicing in his free time but would that be enough to take down the record setting year the Beef was on? 

No. It wasn’t.

Dexter was sent back to the lab.

Beef shocked the world. Beating someone twice in one year is hard. But Auburn was the cheese to Beefs Big Mac. He found the QB that could replicate his early successes of his bygone years with Cam Newton under center. He finally figured out how to play NCAA and he was ready to take down the Emperor. 

Biggest Stage. Brightest Lights. The first player vs player NCAA championship had arrived. 3 years into what felt like a sustainable model for this league, the 6 dedicated friends finally had what they wanted. A Championship that meant something.

Player vs player games are what make this league worth it. Each player spends time scheming, recruiting, and yearning for the opportunity to beat one another to claim the coveted crown. Some have never won a single championship. Some have just one title to their name. But each time you strap on the headset to play a rival league member anything can happen. 

The Beef caught the Emperor enjoying his luxuries of success. High as a fucking kite. Perfect opportunity to pounce. They battled through 4 quarters in a high scoring affair. It came down to the last drive. The Beef scored late to go up by 1 but this is where the Emperor made a name for himself. Crushing the soul of his opponents. He is inevitably in these moments. He death marches down the field at will as precious seconds tick off the clock and no matter what defense his opponent calls he just keeps progressing towards the end zone. 

The Emperor got into field goal range but Beef had a timeout. He could ice him. Making a 40+ yard field goal a real challenge….and the Beef got burnt. He never called the timeout. The Emperor won. 

The offseason started and there were some exciting change ups. Dexter and Safety Guy were rewarded. Dexter was the new head coach for the Texas Longhorns and Safety Guy went back on his promise to the UTSA fans and went to Arkansas. This set up a 3 player conference in SEC which posed a real challenge to Beefs supremacy. 

There was also a swirl on controversy surrounding Beefs program…he allegedly wasn’t just offering questionable NIL packages to recruits. He was offering his questionable “package” to all of their moms. This unscrupulous behavior on top of questionable coaching decisions that led to his championship loss had the deck stacked against him from the start. The Auburn superstars that were apart of their historic run fled in mass to the NFL and other more family friendly programs throughout the country. 

The season commenced everyone was off to a hot start except Beef. He was all alone at the perverted BBQ of his own making eventually announcing his desire to leave Auburn at the end of the year.

The Big 10 was competitive. The Hobbit was able to knock off Girl Dad in an early season conference match up that derailed his season due to the other strong programs in the conference. The Hobbit went on to go undefeated and won the Big 10 again and Girl Dad back doored his way into a playoff berth against Oregon in the first round.

The Big 10 was a powerhouse but the SEC was much more interesting though. Both Safety Guy and Dexter were set up for a late head to head match up which looked to hurt any playoff dreams Safety Guy had. Apparently he forgot his team’s PPE and left the game with a loss and severely injured team in multiple key positions leaving him wallowing in self pity. So much self pity that he actually agreed to sim the title game against Texas since he figured he’d lose anyways. 

The Emperor obviously trounced the competition and landed himself another ACC championship and a heisman trophy WR and what looked to be a walkthrough to his third straight championship with only a very down trodden Safety Guy to beat to make the title game. 

Girl Dad has a habit of losing to the cpu and that habit is one he just can’t kick. He was bounced in the first round by Oregon.

The Hobbit was able to outlast Dexter in the semi final. Dexter was a better overall team but historically he loses in head to head match ups. It’s something that has plagued him historically but he is poised to make the next step.

The Emperor was looking to silently take out the Safety Guy resistance in a Thursday matinee game. But he was ambushed. Safety Guy was apparently playing opossum. He was able to knock off the Emperor and secure his spot against the Hobbit in the championship game. Maybe recruiting does matter?

The championship game looked more like a track meet. The Arkansas razor backs ultimately came out ahead by a field goal in the waning moments of the game. This just goes to show in player vs player games anything can happen. The hobbits biggest weakness was his defense and he is committed to fixing this so it doesn’t happen again.

When events like this have historically happened in the league it breathes fresh air into the league. The cloud of darkness that The emperor rules with recedes and the sunlight of possibility warms the hearts of the other players. The end of a season also is new opportunities. Offseason recruiting, new jobs, and nasty rumors. The most scandalous being that the Safety Guy played it safe and committed to sim loss against Dexter in fear of his being too beat up to play again. We will never know if that’s true but league circles will always grumble…what if?

There were two new coaching roles taken in the off season. Beef was known to be leaving but the stink on him was rotten from the nasty and no big program would touch him. He ended up settling for Navy. An exciting historic program that he petitioned to move to a power 4 conference during the off season meetings. Many are interested to see if his recruiting prowess and high powered pass game can translate to a team who’s locker room looks like Vince Lombardi built it to run the wing T on offense and defensive backs didn’t exist yet.

The biggest surprise came when Girl Dad was gifted the Oregon Ducks HC job through some alleged backroom dealings with the Emperor. If you follow the bread crumbs The Emperor turned down the Notre Dame HC offer which opened the door for Oregon’s HC to take it leaving Oregon scrambling for a new coach.

It was known that Girl Dad didn’t have any respect for Illinois and was always looking for a bigger job ever since he saw Beef get Auburn. Not to mention he doesn’t even know that Illinois team name is the Illini. He always thinks he deserves the big jobs over everyone else but he’s yet to win a meaningful game in NCAA 26 on any stage. Well he got one. 

In his first act as head coach he took an inherited top 4 recruiting class and recruited so poorly they dropped 5 spots to 9. Not bad but it’s not a vote of confidence when players don’t want to come to your school. 

Dexter recommitted to Texas and signed the number 1 class in the country with 7, 5 star recruits. Impressive and certainly a contender in the upcoming season.

During league meetings it was 2 big things were agreed upon. Conference realignment and week 0 player vs player games. Beef would move navy to the Big 10 to compete with Girl Dad. Safety Guy and Dexter would stay in the SEC and Hobbit would move Indiana into the ACC to directly challenge the Emperor. The emperor is still licking his wounds though so this could be a hobbit trick! Everyone knows hobbits are in fact sneaky.

In the week zero match ups Beef gave the reigning champ a fight but again, late in the game he choked it away, making the critics even louder. But he should ignore them. He’s in a conference he can win. Put up an admirable fight against Safety Guy. A few weeks from now I think we will be talking about how good of a move this was for him.

The Hobbit was outmatched by Dexter this time around. Turnovers were the story and they hurt. No second breakfast for the defense this week because they were slow. Dexter is a contender and is looking to show what the number 1 recruiting class in the country can do.

The Emperor may have gifted Girl Dad Oregon but Girl Dad should’ve known he’d pay for that in blood. The Emperor mopped the floor with Oregon and looks to use this as a stepping stone for he’s campaign to reclaim his seat at the top of league.

That gets us to what everyone’s been waiting for…POWER RANKINGS

1. The Emperor. He didn’t win last year but he has a 99 overall team and a fire in his belly
2. Dexter. Number 1 recruiting class in the country with weapons all over the place
3. Safety Guy. Surprisingly low ranking but had a real scare in the week 0 game against Beef that he squeaked out a win in. Week 0 is weird and expect a strong bounce back performance moving forward
4. Hobbit. Weak showing in the opener at home against Dexter. Needs to refocus and get back to business. The weak schedule should help with record but may not sharpen the performance for a win that matters
5. Beef. No longer burdened with scandal he’s looking to clean up his act with the midshipmen. Strong showing against a higher ranked him opponent shows he has a shot at the big 10 championship
6. Girl Dad. Big programs come with big expectations and getting blown out when you talk so much trash is just a bad look. Getting into conference play and getting a better feel for the team will help but he needs to win some meaningful human games and make a deep run into the playoffs to be considered a viable contender.

We want to thank our readers, league advisors (the wizard and the medic), and the league members who make our work possible. We pride ourselves on bringing the narratives to life through story telling, history, and honest coverage for all matters involving the league. The Weekly Check Down will release new issues every Sunday.