I'm gonna take it a bit (or alot) further than most and say EA should stop doing what they thought would be a good idea because they are obviously bad at it. You say they changed it to begin with because they though it would be a good idea.
That's the problem we're letting non hardcore football fans (if they're fans at all) decide what would be good in a football game. If you ask me the dev team should have zero say so in the features of the game.
They should only be there for the technical stuff like coding, art, sound etc. ALL gameplay features should come directly from posters. Posters are usually the most passionate and follow the game on the field and off and in season and off season as such they would know what the game should and should not have.
So the dev cycle starts with a blank slate, head of EA sports goes to the hardcore community NOT the game changers or site runners (aka EA yes men) and ask what do you want in the game.
The community responds over a few weeks or a month or so. The head goes to the devs and says the fans want this and that (maybe 5-10 most requested for time constraints) and they are tasked with making it work technically.
Again this is only a problem because the devs either don't know much about football or are not passionate about it. When I say passionate they are not following recruiting and signing day and whose transferring, whose in position battles. There not digging up info on JC players and being excited about them coming to your school.
Hardcore fans do this kinda thing because they care. Football as a whole is important to them even though they may favor one team over another. If the devs don't have this level of passion they shouldn't coming up with ideas for the games. Let the hardcore fans pitch ideas and let the devs implement those ideas.
Look at it this way. I don't watch hockey, I find it boring I don't know anything about it other than there are 3 periods, goals are worth 1 point and you are allowed to fight. Knowing my lack of interest and understanding of the game, does anybody think it would be a good idea for me to work on NHL making suggestions to improve gameplay?
I hope the answer is no. So why do we put up with these guys with seemingly the same lack of passion and understanding making NCAA and Madden?