NCAA Football 12 News Post

NCAA Football 12 Blog - Custom Conferences

04:22 PM - May 26, 2011 by mr janny

NCAA Football 12 developer Ben Haumiller talks at great length about the addition of custom conferences in today's blog at EA.com.

This addition ties in with what seems to be the team's overarching goal of providing users with more customization options throughout the Dynasty mode this year.

Quote:


	This is without a doubt one of the deepest features added to the game in years. With conference membership movements, conference rule changes, and editing BCS bowl tie-ins the combinations you can make in your Dynasty are almost endless. Plus, you can make updates in future years of the Dynasty, which not only allows you to make updates based on changes in the real world, but also allows you to make whatever changes you prefer to see in your Dynasty.

Check out the rest of the blog to get all the details.

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Member Comments

# 21 jello1717 @ 05/26/11 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DorianDonP


	Everything sounds good except only being able to edit the BCS bowl tie-ins. I hope everyone realizes that before they start going crazy with the custom conferences.

This is too bad assuming that you can only change BCS bowl tie-ins and not other bowl tie-ins (I don't think I've read that you can't change other bowl tie-ins). In our OD, we're all in the B1G, Pac-12, and SEC. We've already got the Rose Bowl for the B1G/Pac12, but it'd be nice to set up other bowl tie-ins like B1G (#2) vs. SEC (#2) and Pac12 (#2) vs. SEC (#3) and B1G(#3) vs. Pac12(#3) or something like that. That way we could have a lot of user v. user bowl games and not just the Rose Bowl and possibly the BCS champ game.

# 22 jello1717 @ 05/26/11 05:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by l_XaVo7o3_l


	I dont see myself changing anything unless it changes in real life. Which seems like conferences are all on the move to becoming super conferences. So im glad this feature in the game.

Same here. After year2 I'll be moving TCU to the Big East and BSU to the MWC and some of the other MWC changes, but that'll likely be about it. If BSU completely dominates the MWC after a few years, I'll likely invite them to the Pac13 (or same goes for any mid major that completely outclasses their conference mates).

# 23 drtrix @ 05/26/11 05:17 PM

"The number of conference games depends on the schedule type you select and the number of schools. By default all conferences use the correct schedule type, but we needed to account for how conference schedules would work for conferences with less than eight schools or more than 13. Here's a quick breakdown of how many conference games will be played for each schedule type:

4-8 schools � 7 conference games. There are no protected rivals since everyone plays everyone else. For conferences of 4-6 schools FCS opponents will play the part of your additional conference games"

Would this not screw with top 25 rankings? For example, a team from the WAC (assuming people move Hawaii, Boise, etc to the MWC) could pick up 3-4 conference wins from FCS teams.

# 24 justblaze09 @ 05/26/11 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DorianDonP


	On a related note, I wonder if you take away all of the BCS tie-ins, how will they pick the teams? Will it be 1vs 2, 3vs 4, 5 vs 6, 7vs 8?

Since the bowls rotate on who they invite to play it will always end up:

1 v 2
3 v 7
4 v 8
5 v 9
6 v 10

Quote:

Originally Posted by drtrix


	"The number of conference games depends on the schedule type you select and the number of schools. By default all conferences use the correct schedule type, but we needed to account for how conference schedules would work for conferences with less than eight schools or more than 13. Here's a quick breakdown of how many conference games will be played for each schedule type: 4-8 schools � 7 conference games. There are no protected rivals since everyone plays everyone else. For conferences of 4-6 schools FCS opponents will play the part of your additional conference games" Would this not screw with top 25 rankings? For example, a team from the WAC (assuming people move Hawaii, Boise, etc to the MWC) could pick up 3-4 conference wins from FCS teams.

If anything it will mess up bowl invites as then they have to win 7 games to be Bowl-Eligible. The polls usually look down on when teams play multiple 1-AA teams (that's how I remember it on NCAA 08/09).

# 25 doom41 @ 05/26/11 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ziza9Noles94


	He addressed that: "Non-conference games are the last games to get filled when the schedules are created. If Auburn goes the Independent route but Alabama stays in the SEC, the game will still try and schedule the Iron Bowl for the last week of the season. If it can't get scheduled that week it will try to find another week to schedule the game."

So I take this to mean when I move my Aggies to the SEC, and Texas & OU to the Pac-Whatever, the game will schedule the Lone Star Showdown on Thanksgiving if possible. And even if it can't put it on Thanksgiving, for whatever reason, it will still schedule it as one of the non-conference games. If this is true I'm liking this feature even more.
I'ld still like to be able to set my own Rivals, especially for Teambuilder Teams.

# 26 doom41 @ 05/26/11 05:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Microsoft_Works


	Yeah I guess I'm going to run into this problem as well when I put the old SWC in the MWC. The conference champion will get a nice BCS berth but the rest will be stuck with the default MWC tie-ins. Kind of crappy, but better than nothing.

Why not put the old SWC in the Big 12, and whatever you were going to do with the Big 12 in the MWC. That way you get your SWC tied to the Cotton Bowl.

# 27 Microsoft_Works @ 05/26/11 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doom41


	Why not put the old SWC in the Big 12, and whatever you were going to do with the Big 12 in the MWC. That way you get your SWC tied to the Cotton Bowl.

I was going to bring Nebraska and Colorado back and make the Big 12 the old Big 8. So either way, one "power" conference will get the short end of the stick when it comes to bowl tie-ins after the BCS berth.

# 28 dochalladay32 @ 05/26/11 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpdavis82


	Yeah and besides I don't think most people are going to move all the top teams into small conferences. If I remake the SWC I can just replace it with the big 12 or something and that way a Team like Texas would still be in a decent bowl.

So you give the Big 8 the shaft? It'd be Arkansas making that decent bowl any way

And the conference schedules sound like a mess. What is it about odd numbers that makes it so difficult to accomplish things? A 16-team conference only needs 9 conference games (which I wish we had more freedom to schedule 8 like the old WAC), but a 15-team conference has to have 10 games? Luckily none of the conferences in my setup have 13 or 15 and the current MAC at 13 doesn't have any major games that should be protected; all the big rivals are in the same division already.

I know an 11-team conference doesn't have divisions, but are rivalries still protected like in real life? The Big Televetwelve didn't play everyone the past years but still managed to schedule OSU/Michigan, etc... so hopefully those games are protected. I'm assuming so if other rivalry games are continually scheduled even if the teams are no longer in the same conference.

I'm hoping with my setups, the small conference schedules of the Big West, Southland, etc... ARE NOT filled with FCS teams. I will have anywhere from a dozen to all 32 independents depending on the year so I would think if you have 32 teams with mostly empty schedules, it would try to schedule them first before scheduling lower teams. If not, that is a flaw that needs to be fixed. It'd make more sense to schedule, say in my '91 setup, ECU (ind) vs. Memphis (C-USA) over each vs. an FCS team.

I don't like that it forces round robin for 10 teams, but that is the standard the Pac 10 set so no big deal there. Schedules were also shorter when a 10-team conference was more common so fewer conference games.

# 29 Wildcats302 @ 05/26/11 06:27 PM

Yeah, the thought of the WAC and Sun Belt teams getting to feast on cupcake 1-AA schools for 3-4 games of the year annoys me. For my 4 team WAC I was hoping to just have the option to play each team twice, one home and one away to add up to 6 Conference games, but I knew they would not do that.

So now I've got 6 WAC teams and 5 Sun Belt after raiding the Independents of Army and Navy. I moved Buffalo from MAC to Independent...so at least now it won't be quite as bad but I'm still annoyed the 5 Sun Belt teams get 3 games against I-AA.

It seems to me that several of these teams will all get to bowls each year due to beating up on cupcakes and take away spots from a 6-6 team from my new 12 team Big East or 12 team Mountain West, etc.

# 30 dochalladay32 @ 05/26/11 06:34 PM

I can already sense 2 things for 2013.

A) An improved scheduling algorithm. I mean really, if you are going to let us put 4 teams in a conference, let us play 3 conference games. Sure, some FCS teams may have to fill the out-of-conference, but other teams still have to play non-conference games and you might have some independents lying around. Hell, if I put the time an effort, I could make one using the teams in the game and it would probably work a bit better than just filling in FCS teams as conference games.

B) Allow us to edit all bowl tie-ins. Some are saying small conferences will have an advantage playing cupcakes, but these small conferences most people are using just have mid-majors. They may pull off a 6-0 or whatever conference record, but will be lucky to go 3-3 outside of it. So they'll get to go to the Humanitarian bowl. Not a big deal. If the conference is small, some of the bowl bids will become at larges, or maybe they made it so they are delegated to a larger conference (doubt it). It will be broken, but not too bad.

# 31 PaperBoyx703 @ 05/26/11 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Block-O


	Its about time they stopped scheduling a non conference game after the OSU/UM game.

This was one of my BIGGEST gripes about the dynasty mode.

# 32 Spanky @ 05/26/11 06:45 PM

This whole scheduling thing seems extremely complicated. If they're able to pull it off right, they've really accomplished something.

# 33 drewst18 @ 05/26/11 06:50 PM

Or make FCS teams better? In reality that is what the WAC is going to be, they are going to bring in FCS teams.

The difference is that these FCS teams are improving quickly. Every year now it seems there is a FCS team that beats a decent to bigtime FBS team. I am sure a FCS team that hooks up with LA Tech would give em a good go, and it should be that way in the game.

# 34 stugotsII @ 05/26/11 06:51 PM

I'd love to set up 4 super conferences and have the conference winners play in a 4 team playoff.

Playoffs need to be part of real and video game college football.

# 35 rollinphat @ 05/26/11 07:26 PM

still no word on conference prestige being dynamic or not which means it most likely won't be.

custom conferences is a great feature, but it's going to be lacking if the conference prestige doesn't fluctuate from year to year.

you could have 8 six star schools in CUSA and it would still have a C+ conference prestige....just isn't right.

# 36 jwilphl @ 05/26/11 07:47 PM

That 120-team limit better be gone next year. I'm glad they made these improvements, but I can still envision problems (some already mentioned). I guess we'll see how it plays out.

Conference prestige is an interesting notion, although I would imagine it does vary based upon the collective sum of the teams in the conference. Is that too hopeful?

And I'm not sure I understand it entirely. If you have a four-school conference, you still play 7 conference games? So you play the other teams twice plus one team three times? That makes absolutely no sense.

# 37 nmm666 @ 05/26/11 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rollinphat


	still no word on conference prestige being dynamic or not which means it most likely won't be. custom conferences is a great feature, but it's going to be lacking if the conference prestige doesn't fluctuate from year to year. you could have 8 six star schools in CUSA and it would still have a C+ conference prestige....just isn't right.

Seems like this should be something they could easily address, no? Shouldn't the conference prestige be some sort of average of the prestige of the member teams?

# 38 dochalladay32 @ 05/26/11 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwilphl


	That 120-team limit better be gone next year. I'm glad they made these improvements, but I can still envision problems (some already mentioned). I guess we'll see how it plays out. Conference prestige is an interesting notion, although I would imagine it does vary based upon the collective sum of the teams in the conference. Is that too hopeful? And I'm not sure I understand it entirely. If you have a four-school conference, you still play 7 conference games? So you play the other teams twice plus one team three times? That makes absolutely no sense.

No, you only play each team in your conference once just like now; in order to reach 7 conference games, you play FCS teams. I'm hoping they just mean those games are filled by FCS teams and they don't actually count in conference standings. It isn't much better, but it is more realistic at least.

# 39 JMUfootball @ 05/26/11 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drewst18


	Or make FCS teams better? In reality that is what the WAC is going to be, they are going to bring in FCS teams. The difference is that these FCS teams are improving quickly. Every year now it seems there is a FCS team that beats a decent to bigtime FBS team. I am sure a FCS team that hooks up with LA Tech would give em a good go, and it should be that way in the game.

This is what has always annoyed me about the way that this game implements I-AA teams. The logic at EA Sports seems to be that any FCS team is far worse than the worst FBS team. Simply not true, and the results on the field prove it every year.

These aren't just lucky upsets. I would even argue that the CAA is on the whole a stronger conference than some of the weaker FBS conferences (Sun Belt, MAC, etc)

EA Sports seems to be way behind the times - first completely removing FCS teams from the game in like 2007 or so, and then replacing them with aggregated regional teams that are truly putrid. It's simply not accurate to what is happening in college football right now.

# 40 justblaze09 @ 05/26/11 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwilphl


	And I'm not sure I understand it entirely. If you have a four-school conference, you still play 7 conference games? So you play the other teams twice plus one team three times? That makes absolutely no sense.

No you play against 4 1-AA teams, which means they have to win 9 games to be Bowl-Eligible. It's not ideal unless they made the 1-AA teams as good as low-level 1-A teams.

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