NCAA 11 obsolete already? - oldman's Blog

oldman's Blog

NCAA 11 obsolete already?

Posted on June 10, 2010 at 11:06 PM.

The news of the week concerning NCAA Football is obvious, conference re-alignment. To borrow an overused phrase, unless you have been living under a rock, you know that the Big 12 is falling apart. Nebraska is jumping ship ASAP, Colorado already has and OU, OSU, Texas, Texas A & M and Texas Tech all appear to be doing so within the next week. As I pondered the possibilities of OU visiting Eugene again(where they got screwed! sorry Duck fans!), OSU vs. OSU, The people that love Rick Neuheiseil(UCLA) vs. the people he screwed(Colorado) and so on, my mind drifted to my yearly purchase(every year since Bill Walsh baby!). EA Sports does a good job of putting a realistic version of college football into our living rooms every year, but if they want to stay true to what college football is all about shouldn't they change the game to represent what is currently happening? In other words, how awesome would it be to start a dynasty, but right before we start it align the conferences to our liking? The first thing I would do is line up the old SWC(Hogs N Horns!) and old Big 8, then stick Notre Dame where they belong in the Big Ten. With the landscape of college football changing so drastically it begs the question of, is NCAA obsolete before it has even been released?

Other random thoughts:

1. Suddenly, some of the worst jobs in college football are Mizzou, Kansas, K State, Iowa State and Baylor.

2. What I wish would happen is for Kansas, K State and Mizzou to join Conference USA. Sure football wouldn't be the greatest but that would automatically be one of the top basketball conferences in the nation! (Kansas, K State, Mizzou + Memphis and UAB I love it!)

3. Three people I wouldn't want to be right now: 1.Lane Kiffin, the guy got screwed in Oakland, goes to Tennessee and stays in trouble because he can't keep his mouth shut and still somehow catches a great job at USC only to get the hammer brought down on them less than six months later. 2. Dan Beebe, regardless of what happens, whether the Big 12 survives or not, your office should probably already be cleaned out. And 3. Gary Pinkel, a few years ago you are #1 for a little bit and talking about how you are going to beat OU, now you don't know if your next conference game will be SMU or Middle Tennessee State.

That is all for now, leave your comments.

Comments

# 1 tswiatkowski @ Jun 10

NCAA 11 will not be obsolete because any changes will not be made until after this season at the very least. So, its not a huge deal if these teams change conferences right now.

# 2 oldman @ Jun 10

Look at it this way, I don't think anyone will disagree that probably the most played part of the NCAA series is dynasty mode. Where people go in and create their own universe and emulate their own little piece of college football. Now with dynasty, I would say that very few people, if any, play only one season and quit. Knowing that, and knowing that in 2 years time, with 100% certainty(once everything is announced), x number of teams will be in this conference and so on, wouldn't you want your NCAA universe to correctly reflect that change?

I still remember when we could choose whether we wanted bowl games or a play off, so why not have the option to set your own confernce alignments? Now keep in mind that I will still be buyig NCAA, but my 15 year Arkansas Razorback dynasty may lose some of its luster if I know that in the year 2014 Nebraska and OU shouldn't be playing for the Big 12 championship.

# 3 tswiatkowski @ Jun 11

yes but by the time these changes take effect, the game will be released again for NCAA 12. I understand your argument, but as of right now, there is no way to simulate conference realignment in this game anyway. You can't change it during a dynasty, so why is this a big deal? The best thing to do is change teams in certain conferences.
While I agree that there will be a certain lack of realism, it is something that EA cannot control or really change at this point, so I guess we will all have to live with it.

# 4 oldman @ Jun 11

As you said, it doesn't make the game as realistic. That ties into my question of, does it make 11 obsolete? Does it cheapen the experience you have playing this game knowing that every season you play past your second season has the wrong conference affiliations and that there is nothing that can be done about it? To me it does a little, I'm always gonna have that in the back of my mind. I always play multiple seasons and I always want the game to be as realistic as possible. This has made the game obsolete then even before it has been released because the game mode played the most is wrong!

Look at it this way, let's say the average person plays 10 years on there dynasty(I know this may be too many years but it will work). Since 2012 will either be the end of the world(which definently won't occur in the game) or the year of conference realignments, that means that in only 2 of 10 years will your dynasty correctly resemble the college football landscape even moderately close! 80% of your dynasty will be completely incorrect! No Texas-Arizona State Pac-16 championship game, no Nebraska-Penn State Big 10 title bout and definently no Mizzou-Southern Miss Confernce USA bout( or wherever they end up). That takes some of the fun out of it. Will it still be a good game, yes. Is it already behind on features to address, and to put in the game what is actuly
in the game? Yes as well. Therefore I believe the game may already be obsolete.

# 5 DubTrey1 @ Jun 11

IMO, who cares about this either way? If the game is not fun and is full of bugs, glitches and other game breaking issues - none of us will be playing it anyway long enough to care. Besides, as the other poster stated - any changes would be for the next year before going into effect so this years title would likely not be affected at all....

# 6 jmik58 @ Jun 11

Gameplay is #1. Conference alignment will be be made correct for the 2012 season, seeing as how no changes will take place until then.

If someone wants to mix it up in their dynasty, you'll have to live with non-conference custom schedules.

# 7 tswiatkowski @ Jun 11

Im gonna have to agree with jmik here. but i understand your point

# 8 sagestranger @ Jun 13

I would hope that EA's first (and maybe second) patch accounts for the known conference changes in Dynasty starting in the 2011-2012 season onward. There would be a big blow to the realism of the dynasty, for example, if I play as Nebraska and don't head to the Big 10 next season. I typically play many years on a single dynasty. Conference moves may settle down within the next few months which should make patching the conference changes a bit easier.

What we already know:
-Boise State from WAC to MWC
-Nebraska from Big 12 to Big 10
-Colorado from Big 12 to PAC 10

What we speculate:
-Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech from Big 12 to PAC 10
-Texas A&M from Big 12 to PAC 10 or SEC?

# 9 jmik58 @ Jun 13

I bet EA Sports loves this. Consumers will have no choice but to buy next year's game if they want an accurate season or dynasty experience. A lot of gamers will keep an older edition and play through. This time next year, you're exactly right, this game will become instantly obsolete in terms of conference accuracy.

# 10 oldman @ Jun 13

I'm with you sage. I have said, I always play multiple seasons and that little problem is always going to be there in the back of my mind.

jmik you are probably 100% correct. They will not patch it, why would they? That might make someone not want to buy next years. What they will do is just release the game as is and go on from there.

# 11 beelo @ Jun 14

Big things are happening and I only wished the game could mimic conference alignments next year... as boise state I would love to square up against tcu in 2011... and not Hawaii...

# 12 smlmeyer @ Jun 14

As far as I know, you can realign conferences before you start a dynasty. They made a big stink about how awesome it was that when you put Nebraska (or whoever) in the Big Ten (or where ever) that they will have a Big Ten logo on the field, not a Big 12 logo. Now, I don't know if they will patch it so that they conference changes will take place as they should as years advance, but I know you could align the conferences the way you want before you start and of course, the further you go in, the more conferences will change because teams get offered to join different conferences.

# 13 oldman @ Jun 14

@XML... I did not have an understanding that you can align the conferences how you want. What I understood was that as you play your dynasty, if you get offered the opportunity to join a new conference then that would change your logo's on the field. Back in the ps2 days you had the chance to do this, but here is a problem with that. On ps2 when you could change people's conference alignment, you could not change the total number of teams in the conference. If I wanted to move Nebraska to the Big 10 I would have to move someone to the Big XII and vice versa. Assuming it is the same, then that doesn't really help any either. I would still take that over the current set up. All of EA's career modes, NCAA dynasty and Madden Franchise, have gotten worse as the technology has gotten better! How is that even possible? On ps2 we had a radio show on Madden, now they are trying to tell us they can't add anything to the franchise until next year because they have maxed out what is possible on the code they have been using for 10 years. If that is true, then how come there is less on their franchise and dynasty modes than their was six years ago?

# 14 oldman @ Jun 14

Oh and point to the above rant is, is it possible to have this in the game? Yes, will it be, no. Maximize your profits is the game and EA is pretty good at playing.