Message boards and forums are livid at EA and NCAA Football 09, whose problems apparently go well beyond EA Locker corrupting the roster files. AOL Fanhouse went through the boards and made a full accounting, and it's grim.

NCAA 09 Glitch Corrupts Pre-Release Roster Files

About two weeks ago we reported that this is crunch time for the independent roster editors for NCAA 09, which goes to the street today. But as this video — of NCAA 09’s roster screen — shows, using a third-party edited file can can corrupt a team’s depth chart and its overall rating, if not delete the team entirely, until EA can patch the game.

July is the most anxious month for the independent roster editors devoted to Electronic Arts’ NCAA Football franchise. No matter what the game adds each year, promising an ever richer pageant of college football, it falls to these writers to add in the basic identities of the game’s performers, because NCAA amateurism rules forbid EA from including them. That leaves it to these roster editors and those they employ — some working on devkits in India — to hand-enter more than 8,000 players, across 120 teams. The task requires 20-hour workdays and contrivances to get advance copies of the game, all to complete a labor of love that only the most detail-oriented model railroader could ever hope to understand.

But Brian Kaldenberg, in a way, defies that altruistic mode. He sees NCAA rosters also as a very profitable business, and that makes him one of the most despised figures in a community where reputation and motive have as much currency as the accuracy of one’s work. In message boards and private conversation, Kaldenberg is routinely accused of plagiarism, arrogance, and deceitful practices. But with a combination of thick skin, patience and guile, he has become probably the most successful of anyone who sells NCAA rosters for more than a suggested donation. And Wednesday, sending more shockwaves through a jittery community, he acquired another leading NCAA roster domain, thus unifying the top three URLs returned for a search of “NCAA rosters” on Google.

NCAA Football 09 Demo Live

Get a taste of this year's football action a bit early with EA's NCAA Football 09 demo, now available for the Xbox 360. New features in the latest version include the new, more-realistic Break Away Animation Engine promising more control and fluidity on the field, a new college-specific tackling engine, more realistic sidelines, and - best of all - user-influenced mascots after touchdowns. Joy!

The demo weighs in at 1.44 GB, one meaty chunk of collegiate football action to tryout before the full game hits next month.

Demo: NCAA Football 09 [Xbox Live's Major Nelson]

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