Madden Farming - The Gunslinger's Blog

The Gunslinger's Blog

Madden Farming

Posted on July 29, 2017 at 10:42 AM.

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For whatever reason, I've always been really interested in the ability to play utilize the minor league farm systems in MLB the Show, NHL 17', and NBA 2k11. Maybe its the thrill in finding a diamond in the rough or seeing an undrafted player progress his way toward the major leagues. With 2k recently announcing the inclusion of the "G-League" (formerly the NBA D-League) in NBA 2k18 to allow players to be called up/sent down, I thought it would be interesting to explore the issue of minor league farm systems in Madden.

However, the NFL is the only professional sports league out of the big 4 (NBA, MLB, NHL) to not have a dedicated farm system. Sure, minor leagues like the Canadian Football League

, Arena Football League, and the fledgling Spring Football League have acted as a de facto farm league for professional players looking to make it into the NFL. However, there have never been any attempts to implement a minor league system in Madden.

Let's face it. As the exclusive licencor, the NFL has a lot of say in creating Madden video games. Its rumored that the NFL prohibited EA from adding ESPN broadcast integration into Madden so as not to compete with NFL Network. The NFL would most likely prohibit EA from implementing any type of minor league system (whether real or fantasy) into the Madden series.

However, its important to note that last fall, for the first time, Madden included CFL players in Madden 17'. However, the inclusion involved only a few past and present CFL players being included as playable characters in Madden Ultimate Team for Madden Mobile. Still, with more and more CFL players making it into the NFL, it will be interesting to see if EA expands on this deal with the CFL. A CFL video game was recently released by a Canadian video game company called Canuck Play. Despite being one of the few CFL games on the market, the game does not have any real life CFL teams/stadiums/players. According to Canuck Play, the CFL and its players union demanded an extraordinary amount of licensing fees and royalties in order to be included in the video game. Thus, it may not be in EA's best financial interest to include the CFL in Madden.

Alas, if you're looking to implement your own minor league system in Madden, you have a few options at your disposal including the two Arena Football games released in mid 2000s, Teambuilder feature in NCAA Football 14, or text based simulations like ZenGM.com. Practice Squad mode in Madden 17' sort of acts as its own minor league system, but is very rudimentary. It would be nice to have the option in the summer offseason to assign unsigned/undrafted free agents to CFL teams in a playable season/tournament (sort of like the Summer League in NBA 2k). This would help provide players with added insight into which players they should bring along into training camp and preseason. Since the CFL season carries on through to October, users would have the ability to still send down players who have been cut from the 53 roster following the last preseason game.

Make it happen EA