NCAA Football 2004 Online league brainstorming thread

[Kodos]

I was trying to figure out how to get an active, fun NCAA Football 2004 league going. Unfortunately, it seems like it would turn into most people wanting to take Miami or one of the elite college teams, and some poor schmuck like me who wants to play with Indiana would get his ass handed to him all the time (even moreso than in the FML ;) ).

Also, there's the traditional problem of getting people to actually play games on a regular schedule. I was thinking this could be possibly remedied by making it a pay league. Make people buy their team upfront, and maybe they'd be inclined to stick with it in hopes of winning money back. If they stopped playing their games, then they'd have no chance of winning it back. The problem with pay-to-play could be that it would encourage guys to play like idiots/take advantage of every AI flaw in order to win, thus sucking all fun out of the experience.

Anyhow, I thought I would see if you guys had any good ideas.

[Marmel]

Find trustworthy owners.

Of course, you wouldn't be able to play then.

[ahbrady]

When I was in college, we used to play through season after season on Tecmo Bowl. There were several teams with players that were unstoppable, but we had about 10 guys that wanted to take part, so everyone wouldn't have a team with one of those guys. In order to make it a little more even, we simmed through a whole season and any team that made the playoffs wasn't eligible to be taken in our league. We then drew for position and had a "team selection draft." YOu could do it where any team that made the top 25, or BCS, or bowl game couldn't be taken.

As for the 2nd question, it wasn't a problem because we all lived in the same dorm. So, I don't know what to do about that.

[Kodos]

Originally posted by Marmel
Find trustworthy owners.

Of course, you wouldn't be able to play then.

I'm completely trustworthy. I swear. ;)

[Airhog]

Well I could think of a few ways to limit this.

Number 1. Force players to pick teams from weak conferences, or teams that do poorly in their conference. For example two teams that come to mind would be Tulsa and baylor. Tulsa is a decent team in a weak conference, and Baylor is a poor team in a strong conference.

Number 2. Institute a draft. Put everyones name into a hat, and then draw them out. That is the order people get to pick their teams. The worst players should get the first pick of teams in later years.

Number 3 Drawing from the sim idea. You sim a season and post the top 25-50 teams. Players can choose any team but those teams.

[Doug5984]

One thing me and a friend do when we are picking teams is we will set rules like no team with above an A or above (since NCAA uses a grading system like school) or say pick a team whos grades average out to a 2.5 or something around that. There are problems with this because when determining the rating NCAA takes into account depth and so a team with a great starter and no depth will be rated the same as a team with 3 average starters.

And again finding a good group of owners is hard to do...in the FML it seemed we had a core group of guys who always played the games on time and then others who would play games or soon quit.

One good thing about NCAA as apposed to madden is in madden there are only so many teams so the teams who pick first have a much better advantage than the team who picked last and got stuck with the Bills :)

Is the online version of NCAA going to be like madden and only be able to play exhibition games? or will it be a season mode? If it is a season mode then it would need to be picking teams in the same conference

[Kodos]

No season mode, but they may have tourneys (I know Madden does, not sure about NCAA).

[Marmel]

I am not too familiar with the structure of the game, but how is this for an idea.

Create 6 or 9 or 12 schools (however many players you get). Create them all equal in ratings, class, whatever it is, and throw them all into 1 conference.

I am probably going to pick up this game. Is online play good enough where it is worth investing in the adapter? What does the adapter plug into? I have cable internet servie in my house for the record.......


*look at me, being serious in a Kodos thread.*

[Kodos]

No create-a-school for online. :(

[Marmel]

Oh well, can you answer my online questions though?

[Fritz]

Originally posted by Marmel
What does the adapter plug into?


Kite string


what a doof

[Kodos]

The adapter plugs in to the back of your PS2. You just take off the little door and put the adaptor on. I don't have mine hooked up to cable, so I don't know how to connect to a cable.

[JeeberD]

Originally posted by Airhog
Tulsa is a decent team in a weak conference...

Don't be hatin' on the WAC, it's not a bad conference. Fresno, Hawaii, and Boise St are always pretty good and we usually finish with at leasst a couple of teams in the top 25.

And you're giving Tulsa WAY too much credit. They always have a miserable team and are usually battling my beloved UTEP Miners for last place in the WAC...

[Samdari]

Yah, Tulsa has not been approaching decent in football since 1991. They actually speak of the Gus Frerotte years longingly. Imagine.

Did anyone notice that Dave Rader recently went from being an insurance salesman to offensive coordinator/QB coach at Alabama? Quite the job change.