Chris Sanner: Let me start this roundtable in a strange sort of way, that is with a brief discussion about why college basketball gaming failed. Put simply, it failed because it didn't capture the audience's attention -- sales were low, attention was lower, and this almost always translated into an average at best game. Even when College Hoops 2K games seemed to break into the realm of being kind of good, they still sold extremely poorly.

I think considering everything, a college hoops game would have to be of just exceptional quality to even start to sell well, but the even bigger problem is that college basketball just isn't that popular from November through February in America. However, this is me framing the basis for the rest of the debate, so how about it OS staffers, can a college basketball game not only survive but thrive and how?

Jayson Young: I don't think a full-price retail game can succeed, because the average sports fan doesn't pay much attention to NCAA basketball until March, when tickets to The Big Dance start getting punched.

Perhaps the best business strategy would be to release a $15 downloadable game right after Selection Sunday, sort of like what EA Sports did with NCAA Basketball 09: March Madness Edition.

If not a downloadable game, maybe a cheaper, $30 retail game would make the best business sense.

As we've seen with College Hoops 2K8, full-priced NCAA basketball games just don't make enough money to be profitable.

Dustin Toms: It really is a shame how bad College Hoops sold as a series. Until NBA 2K11, CHoops 2K8 was the best basketball game ever made.

It really will be tough for a company to start making these games again, but if anyone can it is the team at 2K. With the insane popularity and success of 2K11, 2K could use that momentum and start selling a CHoops game again. They will have to market it like no other, and most definitely sell the point of being able to upload draft classes into the NBA counterpart.

EA, on the other hand, would make as much money as I did when I was buttering popcorn at a movie theater. Without a successful NBA franchise, there is no way EA can pull off a full college game.

To go off of what Jayson was saying about the $15 DLC, it's a great idea but it just isn't enough. It's better than nothing, but people will want to play as their favorite teams, and I don't see the Eastern Washington Eagles making the dance anytime soon. Also, the best part of a college hoops game is the recruiting. Finding McDonald's All-Americans and crazy JuCo transfers is what makes you feel like a real collegiate program.

But like I said, anything is better than nothing. And I'm sick of having nothing. So please 2K and EA, bring it back and build it into something that will sell. The ball is in your court.

Christian McLeod: It's a sad day in sports gaming when we witness one of the most unbelievable tournaments in recent history, only to be left with no video game to attempt to re-create the magic from the past two weeks. So who's to blame for the lack of a college basketball title? Is it the consumers who don't buy the product? No. I place the blame completely on the developers for lack of foresight, marketing and most of all business strategy when it comes to dealing with an NCAA hoops franchise.

For starters, instead of releasing the college title in November, less than a month after the release of the NBA titles, why not wait until January. Not only would this mean that the NCAA game would not be in direct competition with its NBA brethren, but it would also mean that the developer could further tweak the engine and add new animations/fix bugs that may have popped up in the NBA title. Additionally, by January many gamers have already played the NBA game to death (yes, we live in a disposable society), so they are looking to get their next basketball fix.

January is typically a dead zone for gaming releases, making an NCAA basketball title one of the only games on the block during this time frame. Add in the fact that by January college basketball is hitting its peak nationally with college football over and the NFL winding down, and you have a recipe for success when it comes to release dates.

The later release date means additional advertising time for the developer by default. Imagine how well a 2K NCAA hoops title would have sold this January with 2K pushing the success of NBA 2K11 at every opportunity. I can already see the commercials: "from the studio that brought you NBA 2K11 comes the most authentic college basektball experience ever..."

Look, I get it, college basketball games are never going to be a company's cash cow, but for developers to turn their back on the genre completely is just ludicrous to me. There definitely is money to be made with a college hoops franchise, especially if the development team can share the resources with the NBA counterparts (or hire some guys here at OS responsible for the impressive NCAA Basketball 2K11 mods). I, for one, am dying for an actual college basketball title to make its way back to consoles, and I am willing to spend whatever it would take. I know I'm not the only one either.

Chase Becotte: Since this question really means how can 2K Sports' College Hoops 2K series make a comeback, I will be answering it as such.

A release date that does not coincide with the start of the season, or a game that is not full price sort of flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but I like that you guys are thinking outside the box. I would tend to agree that a different release date would be a good first step.

When looking at college football, EA's game does so well partly because it kicks off the football season, so it even hits the spot for people who associate themselves more with the NFL.

Nevertheless, the college football landscape is filled with more fans than college basketball partly because more programs have an insane following when compared to college hoops, and partly because of football's inherent popularity in the country. Still, the college games have never sold as well as their professional counterparts in either football or basketball.

So my solution is a bit more simplistic. 2K simply has to try again without making any drastic changes beyond just a different release date. The NBA 2K franchise is bigger than ever -- it's unheard of for a basketball title to be the fourth best-selling game in February -- which means a simple correlation between Madden and NCAA Football perhaps just needs to be applied here. Madden is a top-selling game, and partly for that reason, NCAA Football receives some of those off-shoot sales. On the basketball side of things, instead of waiting until March, have the game release before NBA 2K is released in October. People will be so hungry for the next basketball title from 2K, it could be a great way to get people back involved with the College Hoops franchise.