A Winning Tradition

This year's Madden Challenge and NCAA Challenge--both being run by EA Sports--will wrap up next week, with the finals of both nationwide gaming tournaments to be held next week in Las Vegas. If you analyze the results of each tourney, it's easy to see which teams are the powerhouses in the respective football titles. Of the 32 individual tournament rounds held in this year's Madden Challenge, for example, 25 winners used either the Minnesota Vikings (and the high-powered triple-threat offense of Culpepper, Moss, and Bennet) or the Atlanta Falcons (capitalizing on the one-man scoring machine that is Michael Vick). Bringing up the rear in the pro ranks were teams like the Titans, Packers, Eagles, Bucs, and Dolphins.

In the NCAA tourney, on the other hand, the winning teams are a bit more evenly spread between traditional college powerhouses: Oklahoma (4), USC (3), LSU (2) and Miami (2) with Virginia, Georgia, and Texas also finding success.

While this "offense-first" strategy seems to fly in the face of at least one expert's opinion, the numbers--and the wins--don't lie. Food for thought for the next time you log onto Xbox Live, looking to deal some pigskin damage...