The cheerleaders are making their pyramid formation and the rowdy fan sitting next to you has his face painted gold in the colors of your school as suddenly the fans rise to their feet in a thunderous applause that manages to drown out the sounds of the marching band below. You watch as your team runs out into the field, each player ready to fight for their campus. Ah, college football, there’s nothing quite like it and while this year EA Sports has scored a touchdown on the main consoles, NCAA Football 07 also makes it to our favorite handheld and it isn’t bad at all.

Ok, so it isn’t bad but it’s not as great as the console version that seems to have improved on all the things that weren’t so hot in last year’s game. Part of the reason NCAA Football 07 for the PSP is good but not great is that many of the big boys’ features have been stripped out of the portable version and there is no Campus Legend mode. What we do get is limited but it manages to do many things right that make this game such a joy to have on road trips or anywhere you feel the need to dive into a solid game of college football.

We’ll start with the game modes and, as I mentioned above, while the deep Campus Legend mode is a no-show here we still get the Play Now mode, Dynasty Mode, Rivalry Game and Mascot Game. Rivalry Game pits your favorite team against a familiar rival so if you’re a USC Trojan fan expect to get into a rough game against long-time rival the UCLA Bruins. Mascot Game does away with your team’s players and replaces them with an entire team filled with clones of your team’s mascot so you can have Purdue Pete go up against Nebraska mascot Herbie Husker. Dynasty Mode is a lengthy career mode that sees your favorite team through a 10-year span as you take them through each season with hopes of becoming champions. You’ll practically have complete control over every aspect of your team’s business including customizing their schedules, do a little in-season recruiting and even make coaching decisions like designing your own Playbook.

Dynasty Mode, for the most part, does a great job of taking you through season after season with all the usual deals and realistic scenarios that pop up. Players can be injured and be taken out of the game and, depending on the injury, can even be taken out of the entire season. One interesting addition comes in the form of the ESPN brand. You’ll get plenty of info from ESPN Magazine that tells you what player stands out and is worth recruiting and what player is being tapped for the Heisman. There’s even a section that tells you what school is tough enough to give your team quite a headache out on the field. The good news is that you can customize your own Playbook or Audible by using an already existing template used from any of the various teams and mix and match them until you have a strategy you can be comfortable using during games.

Out on the field, though, this is where the game shows its many strengths and its few weaknesses. One notable difference this time around is that the lengthy load times of the PSP version of Madden NFL 06 are gone. Instead, we get a game that runs rather smoothly, that is until you hit the game’s few flaws. First, we’ll get to what the game got right. The kicking game, one of Madden NFL’s somewhat weak points mainly because the PSP has no second analog stick has been improved upon here thanks to the fact that the L button acts as a sort of modifier button. This makes it easy to adjust the power and direction of a kick as well as the point of contact. Secondly, the Match-Up feature gives you a fair indication of how your player will stack up against your rival’s key players, allowing you a chance to exploit the situation by matching up an Impact player with a much weaker player. Add some nicely handled tricks like faking a snap at the line of scrimmage and a number of quarterback options at your disposal and you have enough tools for great football.

On the other hand, the running game is just awful. You have some interesting options in this department but neither one makes for a good experience. The Auto Juke, for example, was designed to allow your player to scamper out of some dangerous situations on the field but instead it just results in your player being sent to the infirmary - you’re better off pressing the sprint button and doing it yourself. The game’s Momentum Meter is a good feature that keeps the game going with each great play but the Home Field Advantage feature works better for your opponent. Say you’re the visiting team playing against Kansas State University and suddenly the crowd pumps up your rivals to the point that it rattles you Impact Players and thus makes them perform poorly. I can’t count how many times one of my players was so rattled he often made plays that made my team lose yardage instead of gaining.

Still, even with these weak spots, the game manages to control well enough and while there are no player names each member of your favorite team seems to play accurately enough. It’s also great to find cool little details like the ESPN news ticker that gives you scores for games in progress during Dynasty Mode. It’s also a great feature online in the game’s Infrastructure mode multiplayer game.

On the graphics side, NCAA Football 07 is an impressive-looking football game. The player models not only look great on the field but they make the neat highlight reels look good. While some stadiums won’t seem familiar, at least they look good in day or night games. The sound is also handled nicely with plenty of marching band fight songs from every school and a great commentary team that, while repetitive, is still on the spot.

A bite-sized version of this year’s best college football game available on the major consoles, NCAA Football 07 for the PSP might not be jam-packed with game modes but it’s still a fun sports title you’ll want to take with you on long summer road trips. While there are some features that have been left out that would have put this game over the top, the decent gameplay and Dynasty mode alone are enough to make this a handheld game pigskin fans may want to buy before the next Madden game.

Gameplay: 7.0
Even without a second analog stick, the game manages to do a decent job of making offense and defensive plays run smoothly. While the running game could have been a lot better and the “crowd noise” feature less of a nuisance, this is college football at its most entertaining. There’s no Campus Legend mode included in this handheld version so if you see a girl crying outside your offices, EA, it’s me.

Graphics: 8.5
The slick presentation and sharp visuals make this a really attractive sports game on the PSP widescreen. The player models look great and the stadiums really stand out. While it’s missing some of what we see in the console version, this is still one fine-looking game.

Sound: 8.2
The fans are pounding the stadium floor with their feet and cheering loudly when their team makes a particularly outstanding play and you will hear it all clearly. The game certainly shows its team spirit by including every school’s fight song and hearing the marching band pump up the fans is great. The commentary can be a bit repetitive but the play-by-play and color commentary is still great.

Difficulty: Medium
Those Alabama boys sure know how to put up quite a tight defense and you’ll find yourself really pushing your team as well as your impact players in Dynasty Mode. NCAA Football 07 keeps things accurately so the rival teams that you expect trouble from will certainly push your game to the limit. Luckily you can come up with you own Playbook strategies.

Concept: 7.5
Step right up and I’ll tell you a tale about a college football game with every school well represented and you might even catch that ESPN.com news ticker giving you an insight on Alabama’s #10 shining star who isn’t happy with his coach or teammates so he’s ripe for the plucking when you’re recruiting. The game isn’t big on mini games but at least you can pit a league filled with Pistol Pete mascots against those pesky Willie Wildcat KSU mascots.

Multiplayer: 7.0
You can play against a friend across the room or play against a friend across the State using online infrastructure mode; either way the game runs at a somewhat steady framerate. It’s not quite perfect online but it does the job.

Overall: 7.3
Unlike the excellent console version, NCAA Football 07 for the PSP isn’t the best college football game you’ll play but it has enough pigskin action to keep fans of the sport in the game for a long while. The unfortunate choice to leave out mini-games, the great Campus Legend mode and some extra goodies is upsetting but what we have here is a football game that doesn’t disappoint when it comes to the college football scene.