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NCAA Football 14 News Post


It's official. According to GameZone, we will not see a playoff format in NCAA Football 14. Producer, Ben Haumiller states, "The BCS will continue as the post-season format for all years of Dynasty."

Quote:
"We don’t yet have all the info about how the playoff system will work, including who will make up the selection committee and what their criteria will be for picking the playoff teams, and it’s our policy to not include anything in-game that hasn’t been approved and finalized by the NCAA," he explained. I wasn't told if a playoff system would eventually be patched into the game once all of the details are finalized; however, EA seems content with keeping the current BCS intact, at least for this year.

Source - NCAA Football 14 Will Use BCS For All Years Of Dynasty

Game: NCAA Football 14Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 54 - View All
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Member Comments
# 21 The_Rick_14 @ 04/25/13 05:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by grabursock55
It would make the most sense to make it so the top 4 teams in the final AP polls make the playoffs. its simple. There isnt much else to it, because that basically what its gonna be like in real life.
You could do that but if that's not how selections are going to made then people would complain that it wasn't right. The other piece to figure out is how the bowl games that get the first round of playoffs will be rotated and picking the national championship game site.

I would have liked a generic playoff like you suggested, but the NCAA/BCS may not have allowed that option. It won't effect me enjoying the game. Gameplay determines that one.
 
# 22 aholbert32 @ 04/25/13 05:41 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBrothers24
One of the old NCAA games had the option for a playoff. I think it might have been NCAA Gamebreaker 99 or NCAA Football 99 but I'm not sure. It was on the original Playstation and I remember having the option to select a playoff or BCS before starting a season.
That was 15 years ago and two system generations ago. I have no idea why people would expect this when the system doesnt go into effect until next year.
 
# 23 The_Wise_One @ 04/25/13 05:49 PM
Doesn't matter to me. Would have been nice to have though. Could have sold more units promoting that.
 
# 24 bigbob @ 04/25/13 05:55 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by aholbert32
That was 15 years ago and two system generations ago. I have no idea why people would expect this when the system doesnt go into effect until next year.
You're right, it was 15-years ago. And 15-years ago, we didn't have a playoff either. That's why people expect it.
 
# 25 Hooe @ 04/25/13 06:14 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by bigbob
You're right, it was 15-years ago. And 15-years ago, we didn't have a playoff either. That's why people expect it.
What about the previous fourteen years then, or every single release between then and now? I assert that if one were to accurately form an expectation, one should form such an expectation from strong - and more importantly recent - trends rather than from one-off examples.

That anything should be expected from things that were done nearly two decades ago when both college football and the video games industry have changed dramatically over that timespan strikes me as illogical and ridiculous.
 
# 26 Exile04 @ 04/25/13 06:37 PM
how effing dare there. i cant believe EA did this. You guys are a joke EA not that you read this stuff anyways. multi million dollars and you cant figure out a playoff system.
 
# 27 smack23011 @ 04/25/13 06:39 PM
I can see both sides here.
1. People want realistic
- Unfortunately EA doesnt give us the most realistic aspect possible. (Madden 25, 2K, The Show)

2. It's been known for sure for some time now how the process was going to work.
- Some of us like me wouldn't care if they took the top 4 teams from the BCS formula because NO ONE is going to go back and look at every teams stats who they played how tough their schedule was to determine and make sure that the top 4 teams were right.

3. As much as I love NCAA they should've fought harder to put this in. Then gave us the choice between choosing Playoff or BCS and change it year in year out like we can do with changing conferences.

Also reason why people won't buy it because they're tired of the same old thing especially when EA only focuses on one thing. A lot of people want gameplay fixed and when you see 2K, Show you only want that. Realism and the choice to such things like a playoff.
 
# 28 Exile04 @ 04/25/13 06:40 PM
how hard would it be take the top 4 teams in the BCS system and have them play that was hard. maybe i should be paid a crazy salary for figuring it out.
 
# 29 Husker_OS @ 04/25/13 06:41 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by aholbert32
Why is that "malarkey"? Would you prefer they make up criteria? It is what it is.

They made up criteria for the Playstation version.

Just saying.

I think EA's not doing this due to the many other problems and the criteria for picking teams shouldn't have much weight on their decision.
 
# 30 blkrptnt819 @ 04/25/13 06:42 PM
Thank You EA. Long live the BCS!!!
 
# 31 T-Moar @ 04/25/13 06:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CM Hooe
What about the previous fourteen years then, or every single release between then and now? I assert that if one were to accurately form an expectation, one should form such an expectation from strong - and more importantly recent - trends rather than from one-off examples.

That anything should be expected from things that were done nearly two decades ago when both college football and the video games industry have changed dramatically over that timespan strikes me as illogical and ridiculous.
This. Plus, after they openly said that they don't put stadium renovations in before they're finalized, why would anybody expect that they would include an actual dramatic modification to the college football season's framework before it was complete? They JUST released the list of bowl sites. As bad as rankings and schedules are now, can you imagine if they forced a playoff system in too?

Is it disappointing that they didn't include the playoff this year? Yes.

Is it surprising or unwarranted? Absolutely not.
 
# 32 Hooe @ 04/25/13 06:43 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseySuave4
So what's the big deal with creating some sort of way to pick the 4 teams for the playoffs?
From Tiburon's standpoint, it's more cost-effective to do the design and implementation exactly once at a time when all the specifics of how playoff team selection will be handled are tacked down.

If they made up something this year and it turned out to be a fundamentally wrong approach, they'd have to scrap and redo it, which is time and money that could have gone to implementing a different feature in the previous year for this current version.
 
# 33 Hooe @ 04/25/13 06:51 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseySuave4
No they wouldn't, they go to new systems soon anyway so they won't be worrying about this current gen for much longer, the new systems will become the priority and they can rework it on those.
I'm 99% sure that Cam Weber is on-record somewhere saying that the next-gen versions of Madden and NCAA will not be code base restarts; this was in response to how the transition from Gen 6 to Gen 7 was handled when the legacy code base was scrapped. Whatever is written for this current generation of systems for NCAA's career mode likely has implications on what we see in NCAA Football 15 next year on Gen 8 consoles.

To that end, yes, it absolutely is more cost-effective for Tiburon to wait and implement the new playoff system exactly once, correctly, and with a design based on known real-life parameters rather than speculation.
 
# 34 T-Moar @ 04/25/13 06:56 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JerseySuave4
No they wouldn't, they go to new systems soon anyway so they won't be worrying about this current gen for much longer, the new systems will become the priority and they can rework it on those.
You're implying that once the next gen systems come out, they'll immediately drop all support for the current consoles, and that hasn't been shown to be the case.

The first Madden/NCAA set to make it to Xbox 360 was 06. PS3 and Wii both got 07. The last NCAA game to come out on PS2 was 11, and the last Madden to do so was Madden 12. Obviously, they didn't make updates to those like they did to the 360/PS3 counterparts, but if anything, that should mean that they should want to get the playoff system right immediately so that they don't have to spend time on fixing it for PS3/360 that they could be spending on the next consoles.
 
# 35 jmik58 @ 04/25/13 07:02 PM
No one outside of the tight inner circle of the BCS knows what all goes into it, yet it's in EA's game. So why does EA have to have all the details on the playoff selection committee before including it?

Just use the exact same formula already in the game to determine the top 4 teams and apply it to the playoff setup.
 
# 36 Ziza9Noles94 @ 04/25/13 07:04 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by CM Hooe
No, individual media members are not represented in the game. My point is that there is a certain methodology that the selection committee will use when making determinations as to who gets into the playoff. How much does rank matter? How much does strength of schedule matter? How much does strength of victory matter? How much does conference prestige matter? Will winning one's conference be a virtual requirement to appear in the playoffs?

Development of whatever algorithm Tiburon uses to implement the playoff selection is going to require input and research that hasn't happened yet. I'd rather they spend time to get something that's a grounded representation of whatever is going to exist rather than have something haphazardly thrown in.
I feel what you are saying and I'm not usually the guy who complains a lot. However, on this I have to disagree. If EA had spent the entirety of this console generation focusing on getting everything exactly right and as realistic as possible I'd say yeah they shouldn't have things just thrown in and reworked the next year. But they do that with other aspects of the game every year. There are camera angles that don't exist in real life broadcasts. You can add and subtract teams, build up to a conference championship game, etc. via custom conferences without following the exact way it is done in real life. Recruiting, a huge part of dynasty, is nothing like real life. EA simply came up with their own method that tries to incorporate some real life aspects. In Dynasty we don't get a vote in the coaches poll if we are the HC of a team. How they come up with the poll results, as well as the media poll is unknown. Their BCS formula is not the same as the one used in the real world.

I could go on, but the point is that wanting them to implement an algorithm to select four teams based on ranking, SOS, and three or four other criteria, then tweaking it next year for NCAA 15 so that it perfectly represents the way it will be next season doesn't seem so far fetched. We (the buying public) still won't know for sure how the algorithm and criteria analysis will work under the hood next year to mimic the real life selection. So adding it this year and creating what they think would go into it wouldn't have bothered people as much as moving into the 2014 season in Dynasty and still being locked into the BCS format will.

Not a deal-breaker for me, but I did hope they would have added it into this year's game.
 
# 37 T-Moar @ 04/25/13 07:07 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmik58
No one outside of the tight inner circle of the BCS knows what all goes into it, yet it's in EA's game. So why does EA have to have all the details on the playoff selection committee before including it?
Because:
1. EA still has to answer to the NCAA. That's also why we don't have player discipline or storming the field.
2. If it wound up not being exactly like its real life counterpart, this board would RIOT. If you don't believe me, just use the search function and look up "rankings."
3. As Hooe has said, doing it now basically means they do a ton of work for nothing. Time spent coding a playoff system into the game trades directly off with other stuff. And time costs money, which EA doesn't want to have to spend.
 
# 38 Hooe @ 04/25/13 07:12 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmik58
No one outside of the tight inner circle of the BCS knows what all goes into it, yet it's in EA's game. So why does EA have to have all the details on the playoff selection committee before including it?
This isn't true.

The three components of the current BCS formula are the Harris Poll, Coaches Poll, and an average of six computerized ranking systems. Each of these three components comprises one third of a team's total score in the BCS standings. These components are all known entities and may be simulated, regardless of knowledge of exact implementation. For example, the means of computation for a team's score in the Sagarin rating, which is one component of the computer average, is not public knowledge, but exact knowledge of the Sagarin rating isn't needed to attempt to create a reasonable representation of the total computer average portion of the BCS formula.

In contrast, there are absolutely no specifics as to how team selection will take place for the college football playoff. Any attempt to simulate it at this juncture will have no basis in reality.
 
# 39 Ziza9Noles94 @ 04/25/13 07:14 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by T-Moar
Because:
1. EA still has to answer to the NCAA. That's also why we don't have player discipline or storming the field.
2. If it wound up not being exactly like its real life counterpart, this board would RIOT. If you don't believe me, just use the search function and look up "rankings."
3. As Hooe has said, doing it now basically means they do a ton of work for nothing. Time spent coding a playoff system into the game trades directly off with other stuff.
That's a good point. It does, however, just reinforce what he was saying. They make up their own BCS selection criteria and it has, as far as I know (which admittedly is not much, haha), has not gotten better or closer to real life over the last few years. So would they really have to tweak the playoff formula or add in other criteria if none of us would ever know what they were including in the first place? They could tell us they are looking at x, y, z, but in reality the algorithm may just always look for x and then compute the result.
 
# 40 TorreyG @ 04/25/13 07:17 PM
Wow it amazes me how people are getting mad on how the playoff system is not in the game are you serious. The playoff system has not debuted in real life and of course without NCAA permission they could not put it in the game. It is disappointing to a certain extent but I already knew it would not be in the game common sense really. If your not going to get the game just say that, no playoff system as a dealbreaker come on. Sometimes you just have to be realistic.
 


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