EA Sports and the Lack of concern for Small Schools

[thescoop]

Quote: Originally Posted by ucfbreath

i appreciate the kind words, and honestly, i feel the same about USM. ECU is a different story... whiny little babies. I suggest you do come down. Plenty to do in orlando and if last year is any indicator of how this years gameday atmosphere is gonna be, you will definitely love the tailgating and game. That stadium and the way things are growing on campus has really put a jolt into gamedays. It's great. I'll be real interested to see how you all do this year, though I know in a couple seasons you will be right back up. Fletcher is some back. But i'm getting off topic and i apologize. Having our grads working there should help out the conference, as they have already helped our teams ratings get up (the grads talked management into it). And i mean Rice is the second best rated team in the conference... Now if Ben would stop being such an FSU homer and quit overrating them we should be good to go with these games.

Yeah. It is good to have members of the conference helping make the game. You really did give me hope and I do thank you for that.

East Carolina fans are ok. Just got to grow on you a bit. We've always been rivals with them, but I've got respect for them and their fans. Not like those as USF. Those guys invented whinning. No, Louisville invented it. I just forgot.

As far as coming down this year I'd like to and my aunt (a Southern Miss almumi herself) works for UF so I might be able to talk her into it. Fletch is a beast and maybe enough to keep us in the race for a conference title, but I'm not getting too high hopes.

Hopefully we'll keep in touch throughout the season.

Back to topic, I agree with the those on the small school, d1aa side. I think there are more than enough fans to make this worth EA time and effort make them appart of the game. It is funny how those from bigger conferences or bigger programs all say "EA shouldn't waste their time." College football is one big tent. We have room for all.

[ChicagoSparty]

A couple thoughts (having not read through the thread):

1 -- Of course EA pays a lot more attention to the major schools. There's a reason they are called "the major schools."

2 -- Not a scientific analysis by any measure, but every single person I know who went to a mid-major with a football program either (i) primarily follows the NFL or (ii) primarily follows some major school within the state or region. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, many of them, but I bet there are quite a few more who fit my analysis here.

3 -- EA still probably should pay attention to the smaller schools. I question EA's thinking here. I would think that EA could raise revenues more at the mid-major level, since the major schools are already very well represented and their fans (along with general college football fans) will be buying the game regardless. But they might be able to add some mid-major diehards by better representing that experience.

Just some thoughts. I'm sure EA has studied this, though, and could tell me everywhere where I am wrong.

[Scott]

Quote: Originally Posted by t3g

Adding Div IAA schools wouldn't be beneficial to people because it is catering to a VERY small niche. Would people pay $60 to play as their small school in Rhode Island (with 70s for rankings) against people who are power teams like Ohio State or USC? They would get beaten every time online and not get as much mileage out of the game. I went to a huge Div IA school so maybe I am a little biased, but when you go to a school that basically has bleachers instead of a stadium, what is the point? Developers should spend their time elsewhere.

Teams wouldn't be in the 70s...Look at WKU who is rated 60s across the boards.

[JeffHCross]

Quote: Originally Posted by thescoop

And still no D1aa (or whatever they want to call them now) Come on. The App State upset over Michigan alone should have made this a must for this year's game, but still no.

QFT. This was the year to pay attention to FCS. Appalachian's upset garnered so much attention I can think of very few reasons why LSU should be playing FCS Southeast to begin the season rather than the defending champion Mountaineers.

Quote: Originally Posted by peteykirch

To be honest EA's attempt at Div1AA schools was pathetic.

It was worse than that. There was no update to the I-AA rosters between NCAA 2005 and 07, if not earlier (never checked last gen 08). Richie Williams was a senior Walter Payton Award candidate in 2006 and was rated a 56 OVR.

Quote: Originally Posted by ChicagoSparty

2 -- Not a scientific analysis by any measure, but every single person I know who went to a mid-major with a football program either (i) primarily follows the NFL or (ii) additionally follows some major school within the state or region. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, many of them, but I bet there are quite a few more who fit my analysis here.

Slight fix. You're right, except that a lot of students (at least among the sports fans, who are most likely to care about a sports game) primarily follow their own school, and then also follow a second school in the area.

[thescoop]

Quote: Originally Posted by ChicagoSparty

A 2 -- Not a scientific analysis by any measure, but every single person I know who went to a mid-major with a football program either (i) primarily follows the NFL or (ii) primarily follows some major school within the state or region. I'm sure there are exceptions to this, many of them, but I bet there are quite a few more who fit my analysis here.

Not true. At least not true in the South. We take pride in where we went to school. I'm not sure how it is in the North, but we love our team. We may have a team in a major conference that we like, but when it comes time to fire up NCAA, I know far more people from small schools who like playing with their school and beating the so called big boys.

JeffHCross is dead on that this was the season to give us some D1aa teams. That LSU game following the michigan upset of last year would be a fun one for fans to play in their dynasty. Plus every one I know is tired of playing a no name generic school.

The mid-majors need some love. The D1aa's need some representation. Yes they were done poorly in last gen. Maybe they'd still struggle with them, but I hope not.

Who knows, maybe these extra years out will give EA more time to fine tune how they rate them. Only time will tell. At the very least EA should have brought back create a school option for some of these die hard fans for the D1aa's. At least then they'd have something.

Also, if they included them in dynasty you could try and make the jump to d1a and see if you can climb your way up. Would have been fun. But again with EA it is the wait and see if its there next year approach.

[MacPlex]

Be grateful, my school is not in the game. Famu like most D1-aa schools had the same rosters and generic stadium from 2000-2007. And you are complaining about a stadium and the color of your pants. Not to forget we had a generic fight song. lol

But we did have the chant "faaaaaaaaaaaam-- U--faaaaaaaaaaaam-- U"

[cardinalbird5]

I would love to see D-1aa added. I always use my school (SIU) in Choops and can easily beat the better players whom use the bigger schools. I know the players and what they can do. It just makes it that much more satisfying when I beat someone with a school they never heard of or known about, which is sad since we been to the Sweet 16 twice this decade.

As for SIU's football team we made it to the Final 4 in the D-1aa playoffs and barely lost to Joe Flacco's Hens from Delaware. We have had many players make it to the next level and some even succeed. See Brandon Jacobs and Bart Scott. And our QB from last season, Nick Hill, got signed to the Bears. They said he is comparable to Tony Romo.

Also without D-1aa the draft classes aren't quite the same. You don't have your Joe Flacco's or as I mentioned before, Tony Romo's. It is the exception for D-1aa players make it to the NFL, but it is very much existent and should not be ignored. It would be very cool to implement these ideas.

There also might be a case where you some of your players not getting playing time may want to transfer to a D-1aa school.

It should not be that much more difficult, considering how great of a job 2k does with 330+ schools. I realize football rosters are a lot bigger, but if they want to increase the market share they should hire more guys to work on this.

Just my thoughts anyways.

[mjussawalla]

In the future it would be best to just allow users to create schools (complete with importing logos, etc) and share them with friends similar the way rosters can now be shared.