Anyone use Custom Conference? (Dynasty Mode)

[xMeeks]

Does anyone even use Custom conference for Dynasty mode? I hardly hear anyone talk about that feature.

[Frank the Tank]

I've tried making the MWC into an almost BCS conference by adding Boise, Fresno, Hawai'i, and Nevada from the WAC and transferring SD St, UNLV, Wyoming, and New Mexico over to the WAC. That was in last year's version, though, but it did give the good teams from each league a lot more competition.

[xMeeks]

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank the Tank

I've tried making the MWC into an almost BCS conference by adding Boise, Fresno, Hawai'i, and Nevada from the WAC and transferring SD St, UNLV, Wyoming, and New Mexico over to the WAC. That was in last year's version, though, but it did give the good teams from each league a lot more competition.

Oh, I tried making the MAC a good conference by adding Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Marshall, Northwestern, and Michigan state. I also put Navy and both UCF/USF in the ACC, I played as Marshall and I win that conference 2 time out of 5 seasons.

[Pogo27]

I just started an offline dynasty with a create-a-school based in Alaska. I wanted to start Independent, but I also wanted to replace a 1-star school (as that's what I was starting as) and wanted decent rivals that would make sense for an Alaska school...

So I replaced myself with Idaho (rivals Boise State, Washington State). I then proceeded a long line of conference swapping to keep realistic-ish conferences but allow myself to be independent (to start, the idea is to get invited into MWC/WAC/PAC10).

First I moved Notre Dame from Indy to Big Ten, taking Indiana's spot.
Then I moved Indiana to MAC, taking Miami (OH)'s spot.
Then I moved Miami (OH) to Sun Belt taking Troy's spot.
Then I moved Troy to C-USA taking UTEP's spot. I also then traded Troy and Memphis, putting Memphis in the west, Troy in east division, as this made more geographic sense.
Then I moved UTEP into the WAC replacing Idaho (which became my team).

Also, because I think it's ridiculous that Louisiana Tech is in the WAC, I put them in the Sun Belt for North Texas.

So now the Independents are: Alaska-Anchorage, Army, Navy

The Big Ten is: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, Wisconsin

MAC: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, CMU, EMU, Indiana, Kent State, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Temple, Toledo, WMU

The Sun Belt is: Arkansas State, FAU, FIU, ULL, ULM, LATech, MTSU, Miami (OH), Western Kentucky

C-USA, West: Houston, Rice, SMU, Tulane, Tulsa, Memphis
East: UAB, UCF, ECU, Marshall, Southern Miss, Troy

and the WAC is: Boise State, Fresno State, Hawai'i, Nevada, New Mexico State, North Texas, San Jose State, UTEP, Utah State

[xMeeks]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pogo27

Also, because I think it's ridiculous that Louisiana Tech is in the WAC, I put them in the Sun Belt for North Texas.

I agree, Why the hell is LA Tech in a western conference? And I also think EA should the ability to add schools to conference instead of always having to swap them. I can also tell you the best way to set some of your conferences.

I always set the MAC like this.

East

Marshall
Louisville
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh
Bowling Green
Purdue
Ohio




West

Notre Dame
Iowa State
Western Michigan
Northern Illinois
Michigan Sate
Northwestern

[poopoop]

I'm going to take the big 10 + Notre Dame and Nebraska and replace the big 12
Put Northwestern in the MAC
Utah to the pac 10, Wash St to WAC or MWC
Boise/Nevada/Fresno to MWC for SDSU/New Mex/Wyoming

Probably try to strengthen the Big East a little but don't see too many good teams to put there.

[Amoo316]

I bought the game late and knew I was going to have to restart an offline once patched so I decided to have some fun. I decided to ignore the conference regions we know today and just put good rivalries together. Here is what I did:

Big Ten:
Texas
Texas Tech
Nebraska
Houston
TCU
Boise State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas A&M
Iowa
Utah

Big 12:
Ohio State
Michigan
Penn State
Wisconson
Michigan State
Minnesota

USC
Cal
UCLA
Notre Dame
Oregon
Oregon State

ACC:
Va Tech
Virginia
West Virginia
Kentucky
Louisville
Tennessee

Ole Miss
Miss State
Wake
UNC
Duke
UNC

SEC:
Florida
Florida State
Miami
USF
Georgia
Georgia Tech

Alabama
LSU
Auburn
Arkansas
South Carolina
Clemson

Big East:
BC
Cincinnati
UConn
Maryland
Pitt
Rutgers
Sy
Ill

Pac 10:
Washington
Washington State
Standford
Arizona
Arizona State
Missouri
Colorado
Forget the last 3

Kind of tried to keep in state rivalries and conference rivalries together, basically just move stuff around for a few seasons wishing we could add schools to conferences without retracting others.

[Pogo27]

Quote: Originally Posted by xMeeks

And I also think EA should the ability to add schools to conference instead of always having to swap them. I can also tel youl the best way to set some of your conferences.

Ultimately, the biggest problem is scheduling.

The 8 and 9 team conferences are easy, everyone plays everyone, and you have 4/5 non-conference games to custom schedule.

Outside of that though, the scheduling isn't so easy.

The Big Ten has 11 teams, and each team plays 8 opponents based on some rotation that I'm not sure how it works, which means each year, you don't play 2 teams.

The Pac 10 has 10 teams and everyone plays everyone, making it the only conference whose teams play 9 conference games (and therefore allowing its members just 3 conference games, at least per the games rules).

Then there's the MAC, a 13-team conference made up of a 7 team division and a six team division. Personally, I have no idea how their conference rotation works.

Likewise, I'm not totally sure how the ACC or C-USA rotate their conference schedules, though I'm sure in both of these 12-team conferences of 6-team divisions, the schedules certainly consist of five intra-division games plus three inter-division games.


But let's just take a look at the difference in schedule rotation from the Big 12 to the SEC.

Both conferences are 12-team conferences with two 6-team divisions. In both conferences, you definitely play your 5 intra-division opponents every year, that's a given.

But the inter-division opponents rotate differently between the two leagues.

In the Big 12, team X in the North division might play something like AT Team A, VS Team B, AT Team C for the inter-division games in year 1. Then year 2, flip the home and aways, VS Team A, AT Team B, VS Team C. Then in year 3, trade out the teams: AT Team D, VS Team E, AT Team F. And in year 4, flip the home and aways: VS Team D, AT Team E, VS Team F. Year 5 is like year 1, year 6 is like year 2, so on and so forth on rotation.

The SEC operates completely differently.

Suppose Team X is in the Western Division, and Team Y is in the Eastern Division. These two teams play each other every year (in addition to their 5 inter-division opponents). Then the last to cross-division games are on a rotation that looks something like this:

Y1: VS Team A, AT Team B
Y2: VS Team B, AT Team C
Y3: VS Team C, AT Team D
Y4: VS Team D, AT Team E
Y5: VS Team E, AT Team A

Then year 6 is like year 1, year 7 like year 2, 8 like 3, so on and so forth on that rotation.

For instance, Arkansas plays LSU, Ole Miss, Miss Stake, Auburn, Alabama, South Carolina every single season. The other two conference opponents rotate. Last year it was AT Florida, VS Georgia. This year it's AT Georgia, VS Vanderbilt. Next year it will be AT Vanderbilt, VS Tennessee (I think Tenn is next on rotation). Point is, Arkansas plays South Carolina every single season, despite being in different divisions (every team in the SEC plays a team from the opposite division every season-- Bama-Tenn, LSU-Fla, Aub-UGA, OleMiss-Kent, MissStake-Vandy). The Big 12 doesn't do this.

Anyway, the point is... if EA just let's us add however many teams...then conference schedules start to get wacky and/or the game doesn't know how to schedule it all properly.

Heck...the game doesn't know how to schedule their games properly as is... in year 1, numerous teams play just 11 games, and many teams in the same conference that should play each other don't, like Boise State-Nevada. USC & someone, etc. etc.