NCAA Football 10 was a disappointment. While new additions like Team Builder and Season Showdown initially impressed gamers, faulty gameplay mechanics coupled with a lack of collegiate presentation and atmosphere, ultimately doomed the game in many consumers' eyes (myself included). So as college football gears up for its final month before the beginning of bowl season, I thought it would be a good time to look at some things I want to see included in NCAA Football 11.

As a start, I will be outlining the five most important changes that the series needs to make if it is to ever going to become as relevant as it once was on the Playstation 2 and Xbox gaming consoles.

The Madden 10 team took the mantra “if you see it on Sunday’s, you will see it in our game,” and gave sports gamers some of the best presentation we have seen this side of NFL 2K5. It’s time for the NCAA development team to step up and establish its own mantra because the NCAA Football games on- and off-field presentation can be summed up with one word: boring.

Off the field, gamers are expecting some sort of College Gameday-like presentation. We want a pregame show, a post-game show, a weekly wrap-up and a season preview. It still boggles my mind that a game like College Hoops 2K8 was able to accomplish all of these presentation aspects three years ago, yet the NCAA Football team is still struggling to figure it out.

The generic magazine covers in dynasty mode are just not going to cut it anymore. It’s time to elevate weekly in-game presentation to a whole new level.

In addition to weekly recap shows, it’s time to take full advantage of EA having the ESPN license. As evidenced by the outstanding looking presentation in NCAA Basketball 10, EA has the ability to integrate ESPN’s graphical overlays and presentation aspects into its games -- this is a must for NCAA Football 11.

To take the presentation one step further, why not integrate three or four different ESPN announcing crews who could be assigned to different games depending on their importance? (I know this is unrealistic because of time constraints, but it sure would be fantastic.)

Finally, it’s time for EA to add college-applicable cut scenes to the NCAA Football series, much like what is seen in Madden 10. Bring back the team-specific entrances, players warming up before the game, fans in the stands with their various signs, coaches barking at players, post-game Gatorade baths -- basically take everything about off-field presentation that was already in NCAA Football 06, and have it return in NCAA Football 11.

On-field presentation is another area where the NCAA Football team needs to summon the spirits of past NCAA Football games. Just as in Madden, it is important for the NCAA team to understand that every team out there is somebody’s favorite team. There is no reason not include every team's alternate or throwback jerseys or to leave out a team's stadium.

NCAA Football 11 will mark the series’ fifth year of development on this generation of consoles, yet gamers are still missing out on many little details that they were spoiled by during the last generation of consoles. Those details include bowl patches and bowl-specific presentation. As it stands now, dynasty bowl games, both online and off, are soulless abominations that provide players with no sense of bowl immersion whatsoever. When I invest countless hours of gameplay in a 13-game season and earn a bowl bid, is bowl presentation that is complete with patches, rabid fans and an on-field trophy ceremony that much to ask for?

Along with the bowl patches and presentation, I’d like to see the return of the "dynamic" pride sticker. By dynamic I mean pride stickers that are earned based on actual player performance on the field. This is yet another last-gen feature that has not found its way over to the current console generation. It is sorely missed.

Add the previously mentioned features to some additional on-field equipment, like towels and hand warmers, and you would have a visually rewarding college football title on your hands.

The NCAA Football gameplay speed needs to be slowed down. While adding variable speed settings like in Madden 10 would make a huge difference, the underlying problem with NCAA Football 10’s speed has to do with player momentum and locomotion -- there is none. Players move and cut on a dime, which makes it feel like they are made of paper or sliding across a field made of ice.

Because there is a lack of momentum and player locomotion, many of the animations in NCAA Football 10 ended up looking awkward and unnatural. I can’t even express how many games of NCAA 10 I have played where it actually felt more like I was playing NFL Blitz -- chalk it up to the ridiculous power tackles and overpowered offensive moves. The overall feel of the game screams arcade and takes away from the college football experience that is trying to be conveyed.

NCAA 11 needs to take a cue from Madden 10 and add in the same options for game speed. Give players the ability to choose how fast they want the game to play. On top of this, player acceleration, agility ratings and rating effectiveness need to be reworked from the ground up to prevent players from cutting on a dime.

While not perfect, Madden 10’s player-locomotion system was solid. It was also a reason why there were more realistic on-field conclusions in the game. Now I have generally never been a big fan of copying aspects of the Madden series over to the NCAA series, but Madden 10’s player movement and speed felt right in this year's iteration. So with that in mind, I think it should be the standard for EA football games moving forward.

I know I just said I have not been a big fan of bringing ideas over from Madden, but Pro-Tak has to be one of the best innovations in football games since the multi-button passing layout.

Pro-Tak added a strategic layer to both offense and defense in Madden 10, and it also changed the way I would approach my game plans. It was extremely rewarding to feverishly work the sticks to gain an extra 2-3 yards on offense or break through the line on defense to slow down a ball carrier until your teammates could help you out. Best of all, Pro-Tak felt incredibly balanced offensively. It forced smaller speed-style players to shy away from contact because they might turn the ball over or get injured, while at the same time it forced larger power players into contact because they might pick up a few extra yards.

On the defensive end, I was actually worried about facing players like Brandon Jacobs and Adrian Peterson, especially if I had an undersized defensive line and linebacking corps (see: the Lions). This led to several defensive adjustments and hot routes at the line of scrimmage that I had never thought about before in an NFL video game.

NCAA 10’s current system of two-man gang tackles leaves a lot to be desired. Worse yet is that there is absolutely no reward for recruiting power players, both on offense and defense. Unfortunately, speed is still king in NCAA Football, and this is something that the addition of Pro-Tak could help change.

A Pro-Tak system in NCAA 11 would create an effective speed/power balance, allowing for more flexibility when it comes to recruiting and building a team. Imagine being able to finally create a smash-mouth Woody Hayes-style offensive team that could punish opponents every Saturday afternoon. Imagine an NCAA Football game where having a fundamentally sound defense, not just a fast defense, actually means something. Better yet, imagine playing a team like Alabama and actually having to game plan around Mark Ingram and his punishing running style. Now those are three possibilities that have me excited to play an NCAA game again.

Pro-Tak in NCAA 11 is a must. Its addition alone would give this college football lover some hope that the series is on the rebound.

Recruiting is in dire need of a facelift in the NCAA Football series. The mode, as it currently stands, is tedious (especially in online dynasties), bland and offers no long-term value outside of your initial recruiting-board setup. How am I supposed to build a program when I can’t even enjoy the process of putting my team together?

EA needs to do something to spice recruiting up and streamline the entire season-long process at the same time. I understand the development team was aiming for realism with the addition of the "hourly" allocation system, but something just seems to be missing when compared to the last-gen "points" system. It's something I can't quite put my finger on.

Call me old school, but I wouldn’t mind if EA scrapped the current system altogether in favor of a simpler, more hands-off approach that integrates better AI recruiting logic. Or why not give users the ability to choose between a "simple" or "complex" recruiting system for NCAA Football 11? That way I do not have to spend an entire week coordinating with my old college buddies just to advance our online dynasty to the next season.


Much like Notre Dame, EA's once great NCAA Football franchise has faded into mediocrity over the last five years. The NCAA series is in dire need of a new direction, and as a long-time fan of the franchise, I can only hope changes are made before it’s too late.