[jwilphl]

1. SPARQ Combine
In the beginning of your season, a little pop-up displays stating that you attended the SPARQ combine and your assigned number is such and such. I don't exactly know how you get assigned this number, but I imagine it is based upon the style of player you select. Thus far I have only been a RB/MLB, so I don't know how it works for other positions, but I selected "balanced" for both positions and got a score of ~83.

Where can the improvements to this come in? Well for starters, I would like to see the length of the mode extended to include the spring before your senior season begins, and perhaps eventually your Junior year, but we will get back to that later.

SPARQ combines take place between January and June (depending on location) for soon-to-be High School seniors (or current Juniors based upon that time of year). To make things simple, it would be easy for now to hold the combine in June and begin "spring training" for your RTG player in April or May.

Training would provide various events and drills for your to hone your skills and strengthen your player before the combine. Then you participate in the combine and actually EARN your score rather than a random assignment. How you do in the combine will depend on how you have trained your player, and THEN you will be assigned a play-style based upon how you performed.

After the combine, depending on how you performed, you might receive interest from schools specifically looking for a player with your type of play style, but this will just be some preliminary pleasantries. It does, however, get your foot in the door as a sort of "bonus" later down the line.

2. Deeper Scouting
What I mean by deeper scouting in RTG refers to your individual interaction with schools. As it stands now, when the season begins, you select 3 top schools you are interested in, which certainly makes sense. Then you "earn" a scholarship based upon your statistical gains throughout the season. As is stands, after each week, various schools take an interest in you at both positions (if you play iron-man), and then you select one to hang on to. This again is okay, but it could be better.

First, I would like to see interactions with your HS Coach--typically he will be your liaison for colleges. You will go through him for a great many things. This includes packaging up a highlight reel of yourself that you send to various schools. Because NCAA already records highlights, this would be an easy addition to the mode.

After each week, or more intermittently, you package up a highlight reel of videos and plays you select yourself and send it off to schools. This won't serve as the only means of gaining a scholarship, but it will provide a "bonus" especially for the bigger Universities (think 4* and up). Aside from this, more communiques between yourself and the schools could make the mode feel more alive, as if you're actually getting to know the schools and coaches that you are interested in playing for (like real life).

Smaller schools, particularly 2* and down, will likely not require some of these other things. These schools will typically recruit more on a local level and drawing in big name recruits is more difficult. With that said, right now there is not much incentive to go to a smaller school unless 1) you could not get a scholarship anywhere else due to poor play, or 2) you personally attended one of those schools and so you have a pre-existing affiliation there. And even with the former idea, you can still walk-on wherever you like. I think the smaller schools should then offer you more incentives to attend their school. Nothing that is an NCAA violation (I'm not talking about Rice's coach taking you to strip clubs, although that would be an interesting GTA-like crossover), but some sort of legal promises or whatever to give your player more incentive to attend that school.

Earning a scholarship at a large University should be difficult. I suppose you can debate now whether you think it is too easy or too difficult, but I personally feel as though it is the former. Perhaps a more balanced RTG mode would help alleviate that concern.

On a simpler scale, it would also be nice to see certain scouts attend your games either later in the season or during the playoffs--perhaps schools that aren't entirely sold on you yet. But a strong performance in front of a school's scout or coach could really give your player a reputation boost. This was somewhat implemented in the original RTG mode.

3. In-depth Experience Gains & Grading
Currently, the only way you gain experience during the season is by performing well. Sounds fine, right? This is true--statistical performance should be a large part of how you gain experience. However, what's missing is school's grading you on the intangibles that you possess. Right now there really is no incentive to stay in your zone or cover your man--you don't gain or lose anything regardless of what you do outside of tackles, fumbles, and interceptions.

I would like to see experience gains as well as skill improvements for the things that don't show up on a stat-sheet. Making the right decisions, for example, can give your player boosts. Playing as the Coach desires you to can also impact your player's reputation and skill-set.

Adding on to that, your player should be rated beyond just straight-up skill. His character and leadership may also receive grades based upon choices you make and how you step-up. This can ultimately impact your reputation with certain schools--it may improve your grade with one school while hurting you at another, or it may have no effect at all.

To reiterate, I would like to see point gains for the hard work your player puts in outside of just tackles, carries, yards, and sacks. Just like NFL scouts tend to "over-scout" college players, I imagine colleges do the same in-depth scouting on their own future athletes.

4. Basic Main Menu Additions
Right now, RTG's menu is pretty basic and dry. It is also missing a few key things that you think would be obvious inclusions, such as a STAT screen that shows your stats from each game, as well as a schedule screen to recap all your results. Box scores and so forth could also be included. Much of this exists in Dynasty so it is just a matter of transferring them over.

Furthermore, I would like to see other interesting and unique things included throughout the main interface. This could include a local newspaper discussing your team's performance, your future as an individual (i.e. speculation about where you will go), and perhaps "faux" headlines based around other schools on your schedule that discusses how they have done. Again, some of these are already sort-of in Dynasty.

For example, if you give one of your opponents "Great Off/Great Def" ratings, perhaps there is a scouting report about the team and how dominant they have been so far, beating their opponents be an average of 40 points, etc. This would help add dimension and context to games, rather than the superficiality that exists now when you just blow through each week like it doesn't matter.

Sure, RTG mode (and HS in particular) is meant to focus on you as an individual, but it could make things a lot more interesting when you include these other details, and a lot more rewarding when you rack up 200 yards against the best defense in the conference.

5. End of Season Expansion
Well I haven't gotten to the end of my season yet, but I would like to briefly mention some things I think should be included once it concludes. If anything already does exist, pardon my ignorance.

For one, if you have not already signed a written commitment to a team, a signing day spectacle could be included, such as where you're sitting there with the three hats in front of the cameras, then you grab one to finalize the deal. However, pre-signing day and verbal commitments should also exist if you already know where you want to attend. Signing early will give you certain bonuses when you get to college, and perhaps give your guy a character boost since you did not feel the need to turn your own ego into a display for all.

I would also like to see the US Army All-American Bowl included. Perhaps you won't always get invited, but if you're a player of high-enough caliber, you'll be rewarded with an invite to this game.