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

# 81 zmcman1 @ 05/30/11 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRealCar10ck


	Also you have Cowboys Stadium as a Conf. Title Site. Jerry World? Is this confirmed in the game.

I'm just assuming it is in the game since it hosts the Cotton Bowl.

as far as the spreadsheet, type "Google Documents" into Google. You can make/save spreadsheets there.

# 82 Solidice @ 05/30/11 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRealCar10ck


	Also you have Cowboys Stadium as a Conf. Title Site. Jerry World? Is this confirmed in the game.

you can choose where the conference championship game is played. you can also have it set where the team with the best record host the championship game, like the real life C-USA and PAC-12.

Cowboys' stadium will be in the game as it is the site for the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic Bowl game.

# 83 majesty95 @ 05/30/11 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bullet Sponge


	It's not as big a deal as it could be though. For instance if you give the BCS status to the WAC and take it away from the Big 12, the non-BCS bowl tie-ins are still better for the Big 12, but the game doesn't make any meaningful difference in bowls, since it doesn't track money for the schools, money from bigger TV ratings/contracts etc. Playing in the Papa John's Pizza bowl is for all intents and purposes the same as playing in the Cotton bowl. I do agree I'd prefer to be able to control the non-BCS bowl tie ins but it's not a game breaker without a monetary system in place.

The problem with the bowl tie-ins is the matchups and amount of bowl bids. If you were to make the old SWC as C-USA your non-BCS conf champ would play either the the Big East's #5 or SEC's #8 or 9. If you wanted to make the SWC in the Sun Belt you would only get one bowl bid and that would be against C-USA's #4 team.

I really liked this idea until I started trying to figure out conferences. With 16-team super conferences you'll get 2 and 3-star programs in the MWC, WAC, C-USA and MAC getting auto bids while potentially better teams miss out on bids. On the other end, trying to re-create a former conference landscape from the 70's or 80's leaves you putting a traditionally good conference in poor bowls matched up with inferior opponents and/or giving up bowl bids.

Unless you can change non-BCS bowl affiliations (which they haven't announced), this feature is really pointless accept for changing real world affiliations as they happen. That would be fine if they marketed it that way. However, they are marketing you being able to re-create the old Big 8 or SWC, which you can, just at the expense of bowl prestige for your teams...

# 84 majesty95 @ 05/30/11 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zmcman1


	https://spreadsheets.google.com/spre...thkey=CIip9rMH My attempt at realigning by Regions. I just used Independents as a collection of schools I couldn't work in. Didn't see the point in attempting to make 12 conferences. Figured it's pretty likely we won't be able to treat Independents like an actual conference with its own schedule. edit: And here's my realignment I think I may use for most of my dynasties. https://spreadsheets.google.com/spre...thkey=CK3Zv88P

Very nice! Just an idea, putting UTEP and Rice in the WAC would balance those divisions a bit giving you 8 and 6 teams instead of 10 and 4.

# 85 dpw1717 @ 05/30/11 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dochalladay32


	You said you would have 10-team conferences with 9 conference games; that is a round robin. Everyone plays every body else. You didn't say it, but you sure described it And you can only have 32 independents. So technically, with your system, one conference would be independents and you could control them and make them play each other, but it would not happen by default. Conferences cannot be added or deleted. You cannot change their names. You cannot go below 4 teams or above 16.

I'm sorry I thought you were talking about having the playoffs a round robin my falt

As far as any of the "rules" go if I'm not mistaken they are made up by the NCAA so they could toss out the 32 independent team rule and for that matter having to have 12 teams for a CC game. I really think the NCAA needs a commissioner. We all know it's about money and with my system each team could make a great deal of money and it all be better for the fans to crown the true champs each year.

# 86 Da Hype Iz Real @ 05/30/11 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by majesty95


	I think editing generic FCS schools is possible and would be a passable alternative in the meantime. However, I can see how capping the teams FBS at 120 is necessary. To allow the league to expand to 130 ro 140 ro even more teams there would have to be a complete overhaul of the system. The coding that it would take to accomodate that would be enormous. They would have to account for adding new conferences (which may be easier now), adjusitng schedules and scheduling logic, bowl selection, poll logic, etc. It seems like ti wuld atake an awful lot of resources to code that ability and would significantly detract from new features. With that being said, I think the things they are adding like complete custom conferences and changes to scheduling logic will make that possible and easier to implement down the line. It is something we may see in two years after adding custom bowls and improving the custom conferences and schedules based off of this year's feedback.

I think those factors would stay the relatively the same , 6-6 and better teams go the bowls and outside of conference and rivalries game schedules tend to be random. I think the problem would probably be rosters and recruits. I have no idea how many recruits are generated but with each team having 25 scholarships a wild guess of mines is 25 players created per school and at 130-140 schools that would be 250-500 more players in the dynasty.

# 87 LionsFanNJ @ 05/30/11 06:31 PM

Outside of rebuilding the Big East, Hawai'i to the pac 12 instead of Utah and aligning ND with a conference, I'm not going to mess with thed small conferences so I'm not going to come across the fcs issue. I'm glad its in this year and I fully expect any wonkyness to be fixed sibsequent years

sent from parts unknown

# 88 cbuhl79 @ 05/30/11 06:41 PM

A few people have commented about how the game will fill in with FCS games if you make your conference really small. I actually worked on this feature, and I can tell you exactly why we did it this way.

Originally, we were going to require Conferences to be 8 teams or larger, simply because there are real-life NCAA rules that force conferences to stay at that size. However, as it became clear that the WAC was going to go below 8 (current FBS) teams, and was going to replace those teams with FCS teams, we decided to lower the limit, and simply replace conference games with FCS "placeholder" games. Obviously, when those teams elevate to FBS status, we will add them as real teams, but that wasn't possible this for us this year.

Incidentally, we actually lowered the number several times, as the WAC kept losing members, we finally settled on 4 :-P

Also, in case you're curious, you can lower the Independents to 1 team. We had to leave 1 team in there because our game doesn't know how to handle an "empty" conference, and we didn't have time to fix that :-(

# 89 moylan1234 @ 05/30/11 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cbuhl79


	A few people have commented about how the game will fill in with FCS games if you make your conference really small. I actually worked on this feature, and I can tell you exactly why we did it this way. Originally, we were going to require Conferences to be 8 teams or larger, simply because there are real-life NCAA rules that force conferences to stay at that size. However, as it became clear that the WAC was going to go below 8 (current FBS) teams, and was going to replace those teams with FCS teams, we decided to lower the limit, and simply replace conference games with FCS "placeholder" games. Obviously, when those teams elevate to FBS status, we will add them as real teams, but that wasn't possible this for us this year. Incidentally, we actually lowered the number several times, as the WAC kept losing members, we finally settled on 4 :-P Also, in case you're curious, you can lower the Independents to 1 team. We had to leave 1 team in there because our game doesn't know how to handle an "empty" conference, and we didn't have time to fix that :-(

thanks cbuhl, any word on whether or not conference patches on jerseys will update as well?

# 90 majesty95 @ 05/30/11 07:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Da Hype Iz Real


	I think those factors would stay the relatively the same , 6-6 and better teams go the bowls and outside of conference and rivalries game schedules tend to be random. I think the problem would probably be rosters and recruits. I have no idea how many recruits are generated but with each team having 25 scholarships a wild guess of mines is 25 players created per school and at 130-140 schools that would be 250-500 more players in the dynasty.

Not if you added new conferences. Think of it like a Monopoly board. All of the squares are even on each side and fit nicely. If you wanted to add a new property, you would need to add four (one for each side). Then you would need to decide to either shrink each of the other squares or increase the size of the board. Either that or you have one side that looks different than the others.

Relating that to coding, you would have to go in and code new conferences or change how the AI looks at the conferences and relating schedules. You would have to do that in a way that not only appeases the fans and makes logical sense but do it in a way that does not destabilize the current "board" creating bugs and crashes.

You would have to adjust the scheduling logic since there will be more teams and more non-conferene games to schedule. You would have to adjust the bowl selection because there will be more "qualified" teams so you have to decide how to decide ties or consider adding a feature to allow users to require 7 wins for bowl eligibility. You would also need to look at poll logic since there are more teams and the wins and losses would be weighted differently.

I'm not saying it is not possible it is just that a lot of work would have to go into making it right and I don't think they had the time to dedicate to that with all of the stuff they added this year. That could be something they are looking to add next year with a broader bade to work from now that the conferences have been made fluid.

The other thing you have to keep in mind is that the series is limited to the Xbox. Even though the Blu-Ray can handle 3x as much data as the 360, the series will always be limited by what the weaker system can handle.

# 91 zmcman1 @ 05/30/11 09:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheRealCar10ck


	Slidell, LA? My whole family, literally my WHOLE family lives there. Big Ups to Slidell.

Yeah. Pretty crappy city lol

# 92 dochalladay32 @ 05/31/11 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by majesty95


	The problem with the bowl tie-ins is the matchups and amount of bowl bids. If you were to make the old SWC as C-USA your non-BCS conf champ would play either the the Big East's #5 or SEC's #8 or 9. If you wanted to make the SWC in the Sun Belt you would only get one bowl bid and that would be against C-USA's #4 team. I really liked this idea until I started trying to figure out conferences. With 16-team super conferences you'll get 2 and 3-star programs in the MWC, WAC, C-USA and MAC getting auto bids while potentially better teams miss out on bids. On the other end, trying to re-create a former conference landscape from the 70's or 80's leaves you putting a traditionally good conference in poor bowls matched up with inferior opponents and/or giving up bowl bids. Unless you can change non-BCS bowl affiliations (which they haven't announced), this feature is really pointless accept for changing real world affiliations as they happen. That would be fine if they marketed it that way. However, they are marketing you being able to re-create the old Big 8 or SWC, which you can, just at the expense of bowl prestige for your teams...

The matchups are going to suck, but just hold up for a bit. In my classic setups, the SWC is either C-USA or the Big 12. The C-USA gets 5+2 bids already. It's not like they won't go to bowl games. And SWC teams have been selected to play in the Liberty Bowl before. Maybe not the champion, but someone still went occasionally. Also like was said, the bowl game is just a game. Half of these didn't even exist 20 years ago so just go with them. It is going to suck in the years after '91, but prior to that, I have the SWC in the Big 12 and put the Big Eight in the Big East. The SEC is also down to 10 teams so I highly doubt they produce 8 bowl eligible teams, or at least that is my hope.

Which this gets me to your next point. If you are making 16 team super conferences, your other conferences are going to be small. Let's say you have 6 16-team conferences. That will leave you with 5 4-5 team conferences. This is probably the extreme, but you are going to see 1, maybe 2 teams each from those small conferences. Who cares if a couple of them squeak through. 5-6 North Texas has also gone to a bowl game as a conference champion. This will open up a ton of at larges to satisfy the teams from the 16-team conferences. The same thing will happen in classic matchups. I've already taken it into consideration in my setups. I already mentioned the Big Eight and SWC. The other conferences were all smaller and did not send many teams to bowl games, like the Big West, MVC, Southland. They are also small conferences, 5-8 teams. No conference will ever use all of their automatic bids. The Big East (Eight) has 6 bids and 8 teams. The Mountain West (PCCA/Big West) has 5 bids and 5-6 teams for the most part. They won't use them all. The SEC has 9 bids and 10 teams. This should open up a ton of bids for independents, or at least that is my hope.

And is bowl prestige even factored in? If you do it the way I do, you lose little prestige. The SWC and Big Eight in the Big 12 and Big East? Seems fine. MVC, Big West, Southland in C-USA, Mountain West, and Sun Belt? And the C-USA and Sun Belt are only used if enough conferences existed, which isn't always true.

If you do go back to pre-1991. Do not send the Big 12 to the BCS and you'll always go to the cotton bowl unless you make the BCS title game. Send the SEC to the Sugar against an at large. Rose is obviously Pac 12 vs. Big Ten. Send the Big East to the Orange to get a Big Eight team in. Leave the rest as at larges. Fiesta took teams from all over the place. Leave 4 at larges and this hopefully gets several independents into the BCS.

So yes, being able to edit all bowl bids is ideal, which means more work. But I'd like to think my setups would accomplish what it is supposed to. Only thing I'd have to check is if my non-1A conferences do what they are supposed to.

# 93 Microsoft_Works @ 05/31/11 01:19 PM

I guess I'm just going to scrap the 1991 setup because I can't figure out a good way to fit 7 "major" conferences into the current 6 BCS conferences + 1.

I'll probably go back to 1990 and have the Big Eight in the Big East and then Miami, VT, etc. will still be independents.

# 94 dochalladay32 @ 05/31/11 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Microsoft_Works


	I guess I'm just going to scrap the 1991 setup because I can't figure out a good way to fit 7 "major" conferences into the current 6 BCS conferences + 1. I'll probably go back to 1990 and have the Big Eight in the Big East and then Miami, VT, etc. will still be independents.

1991-1995 is the only part of mine I'm not completely happy with. I have the SWC champion in C-USA only because it gives the most bowl bids (5+2 contingency if the game recognizes them). The SWC wasn't a major conference any in the sense that it's champion went to the Cotton Bowl. I'm almost tempted to keep the SWC in the Big 12 like I have prior to 1991, do not give them a BCS bid so they go to the cotton, and put the Big Eight in C-USA and send their champion to the Orange like always. As a matter of fact, I will do that. Thanks for the idea!

# 95 Tovarich @ 05/31/11 03:44 PM

I hope it's possible that we can give some teams protected rivals and some not. Also, I didn't hear it say two protected rivals like the California schools in the PAC-12 will. It says everything is correct on the default, but considering the PAC schedules have been wrong forever, I don't believe that yet.

# 96 ODogg @ 05/31/11 11:28 PM

So I read this article and glanced through a few pages but didn't see my question answered.

In Online Dynasty can you only edit what teams are where at the start or can you edit later on where they are between seasons?

I ask because in our OD for NCAA 11 we originally had 12 people so I put 6 in the WAC and 6 in the MWC. But then we had some people quit and we had 5 people in the WAC and one guy sitting in the MWC alone. For the last 3 years we've had to play with him setting in the MWC alone while the rest of us are in the WC Very frustrating!

# 97 dochalladay32 @ 06/01/11 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	So I read this article and glanced through a few pages but didn't see my question answered. In Online Dynasty can you only edit what teams are where at the start or can you edit later on where they are between seasons? I ask because in our OD for NCAA 11 we originally had 12 people so I put 6 in the WAC and 6 in the MWC. But then we had some people quit and we had 5 people in the WAC and one guy sitting in the MWC alone. For the last 3 years we've had to play with him setting in the MWC alone while the rest of us are in the WC Very frustrating!

Yes, you can make changes at the end of each year. It can be found in multiple threads if you wish to verify.

# 98 CollegeFootball4Ever @ 06/30/11 08:54 AM

Don't know if anyone else is considering something like this, but my plan for the custom conferences feature is to develop 4 16-team super conferences based primarily on region, and use the other conferences as "feeder" conferences, and basically set up a relegation system kind of like what they have in many of the European soccer leagues. So, basically, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 10 have 16 teams each, and every year, if a team wins a "lower" conference, they replace the last place team from the big four conferences.

# 99 patsfan1993 @ 06/30/11 09:05 AM

Here ya go. All kinds of scenarios being talked about including several relegation ideas.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...-you-make.html

# 100 Brandwin @ 06/30/11 10:01 AM

This sounds real cool. I like to keep things as close to real life as possible, but if dynasty starts to get a bit stale, it's nice to know I can freshing things up but changing teams around.

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