For a variety of reasons, I am on the record as opposing any sort of college football playoffs. I stand by that position. I am curious, though, as to why EA Sports, the exclusive makers of the NCAA football (and other sports) video games never had a “playoff option” on their game. My first thought is that maybe it’s written in the contract that they can’t alter the post-season format. But I’m not sure who would prevent them from doing this. The conferences, maybe, but the conferences (apparently) don’t mind people shifting teams around between conferences, which would seem to me to be a bigger deal. Maybe it’s the bowl games? Institute a playoff system on the game and you’re likely getting a Rose Bowl with #3 from the Pac-10/12 and #3 from the Big Ten. Or maybe EA Sports has never pursued it because they don’t want to go there with their comfortable collection of conference and bowl licensing. The freedom to try different playoff formats and get and such would wet public appetite even more, which some people (other than me) wouldn’t like. Old versions had it, though. And seriously, if the SEC doesn’t care about somebody putting Florida Atlantic University in their conference, why would the Rose Bowl care about getting the #3 team in some fictitious scenario that may well involve a 12 year old kid making a 7′, 300lb running back. And yet, it seems that it would be an incredibly popular feature, the only reason not to do it is if somebody says “not cool.”
About the Author
2 Responses to Why No PlEAyoffs?
Leave a Reply
please enter your email address on this page.
why EA Sports, the exclusive makers of the NCAA football (and other sports) video games never had a “playoff option” on their game.
Old versions had it, though.
Well, which is it?
To answer your question though, I would say with 95 percent certainty that EA was ordered to not have a playoff option. Why stir the pot?
I feel the need to point out that EA, while not using player likenesses per se, uses player statistics and measurements in the game. The players get paid by EA the same amount that I do…
Oops. Revise first sentence to say “have not in recent years had…” they had playoff mode a long, long time ago.
To answer your question though, I would say with 95 percent certainty that EA was ordered to not have a playoff option. Why stir the pot?
In one version of the game, they gave you limited conference mobility and if you did good in dynasty mode they would let you “upgrade” conferences (Big East to ACC or ACC to SEC, for example). But the next year they cut both options. I figured it was the conferences saying “No way!” but they added it again a couple years later, so I guess not.
I feel the need to point out that EA, while not using player likenesses per se, uses player statistics and measurements in the game. The players get paid by EA the same amount that I do…
Not only that, but for a while you could download memory cards from people that went through and applied names to the players. So some completely unrelated schlub was making the money (they may have put a stop to it since, I don’t know).
The rosters are inexact, though. When I tried to apply the names to the Southern Tech players, our star freshman QB was conspicuously missing and there was this junior that was actually pretty good but was nowhere to be found on the real roster.
The fact that they wouldn’t apply names was kind of a pain (except for the eBay folks it was a gold mine for). I got a random name generator off the Internet and went through Sotech’s conference and OOC opponents and just started adding names to avoid the announcers saying “Quarterback knew what he was doing on that play!” and the conference leaders being listed as “Rushing Leader: ESU #21”
The next year’s version had a random name generator. Saving time and only picking names that the “announcers” knew.