IU students ready for some football

With the recent start of both the collegiate and the NFL seasons, the time has come for the annual ritual that goes together with football like peanuts go with beer. Like birds in springtime, students everywhere are flocking to their game consoles to play "Madden 2005."\nHow popular is the "Madden" series among college students? In the first week it was available, 1.3 million copies of the game were sold. Brent Coyle, the IU campus representative for EA Sports, said that according to the maker of "Madden," 70 percent of those games were purchased by adults between the ages of 18 and 24 and were almost exclusively male.\nSo what does all of this mean? It means if there is a guy who's too old to play with Ninja Turtles and too young to run for the presidency, there's a good chance he's recently contributed to John Madden's retirement fund. \nAt 5:30 p.m. every Monday at Scotty's Brewhouse, 302 N. Walnut St., "Madden Monday" begins. The first 32 people to show up play in a single-elimination tournament with the opportunity to play for the grand prize -- a Sony PlayStation 2 and a copy of every EA game -- in a Dec. 6 tournament. "Madden Monday" is sponsored by EA. \nJohn Yeadon, a senior majoring in sports marketing and management and an EA intern, said he thinks the reason so many college students like "Madden" is because of its competitiveness. \n"My friends and I bet each other on who has to run to the store," Yeadon said.\nCoyle, who is also a senior majoring in sports marketing and management, echoed those thoughts.\n"Madden is more popular because the NFL is more accessible," he said. "It lets guys live their dreams."\nAnd gamble. \nMost students entering the tournament one night had stories of gambling on games. Most of the wagers were between $5 and $20. \nSome students, like Joaquin Velez, a student at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, skip classes to play the game.\n"Oh yeah, I skip class all the time," he said. "In fact, I skipped all three of my classes today to get some practice games in before this tournament."\nJason Bell, a student at Ivy Tech in Indianapolis, said he even thinks of it as his second job.\n"I play 40 hours a week," Bell said. "On a good week, I can make between $600 and $1,000. The most I ever lost on one game was $2,000."\nThe tournaments are just for fun, however, as the winner left with just a copy of the game. All of the winners will be entered into the championship tournament Dec. 6.\nBut not everyone plays "Madden" to help pay their tuition. \n"'Madden' (is) just fun to play with friends," said Andre Martin, a student at Ivy Tech in Bloomington. "It's just for bragging rights."\n-- Contact staff writer Andrew Petersen at andpeter@indiana.edu.