How to Bring Back the NCAA Football Series Part 3: Major Conferences Deal - thescoop's Blog

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How to Bring Back the NCAA Football Series Part 3: Major Conferences Deal

Posted on December 28, 2016 at 08:14 PM.

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Another cover for the fictional NCAA 17

We all miss the NCAA Football series. The the summer wait until Madden's release became much longer after we had our college football series stolen from us. No longer did we have the endless "are the rosters ready yet" posts on the forum. (Not that those are truly missed.) No matter how you feel about the lawsuits that led to the end of the series, we gamers were and still are the biggest losers.

Does it have to be this way? Some would say yes. Others would point out that with a little imagination, we could see a return of not just college football but a return of college video games as a whole.

In my new four part series, we will discuss the different option that one could use to bring back the NCAA or College football series. Those options include: No official licenses, limited licensing, deals with only the major conferences, and new agreement with NCAA and players.

This is Part Three. If you missed Part One or Part Two, please read them at the following links and leave feedback as well: http://www.operationsports.com/thesc...cial-licenses/ and http://www.operationsports.com/thesc...ted-licensing/

Part 3: Major Conferences Deal

I must be honest. This is my least favorite option. But I also know it is possible. Every time NCAA has moved to a new generation of consoles (with the exception of the move from Genesis to Playstation), we've lost something. The move from Playstation to Playstation 2 saw us lose the Playoff mode and D1AA teams no longer had their stadiums and could only be played in Dynasty mode after removing a D1 school. Also, their rosters were rarely updated. The move from PS2 to PS3 (please note I am aware they were on Xbox and Xbox 360 as well. Just was easier to use on system as an example.) saw the D1AA teams removed completely. We saw other items disappear as well, but the point is there is history for teams going away or being more useless once the move to the next gen console is made.

The NCAA is struggling to hold power as the super conferences have become more and more the norm. They are still in charge, but the feeling is a time will come when the Major conferences like the SEC, PAC 12, Big 10, Big 12 and ACC (and Notre Dame on their own independent deal.) will decide they want to control things and answer to no one. They have the money to do it now. They pretty much are the ones controlling the playoff, more so than the NCAA.

There are those that believe the time will come soon when they decide the NCAA shouldn't be telling them what to do. If this happens, it will become a new world. They will come up with some pay for players because they can. And if this happens, they could bring back the NCAA Football series but without the NCAA and without a lot of schools you're use to seeing in the game.

Since this would be something the major conferences would put together, you can expect to see the mid majors left out. No CUSA, no American conference, no Sun Belt, no MAC, etc. These conferences, much like the D1AA schools years ago, wouldn't be in the game. Sure, you could see generic replacements to balance out the schedules for Dynasty. So while you'll get Ohio State and Alabama, you'll be losing Ohio and Boise State (unless they get an invite to a Major conference before this happens.)

The series resumes but with far less schools. The teams you get are all the major players you'd expect to see in the National Championship race. But gone are the days you could take a mid major and build them to a major player.

Want to take a school like Southern Mississippi and turn them into a major player and get an invite to a larger conference? You can't because their smaller conference isn't going to be invited. Basically, all of us who love mid major schools will feel the same sting that the fans of the D1AA schools felt back when they were dropped from the series.

If the Major conferences decide to drop the NCAA and govern themselves, this would be the norm. And since they already don't like sharing with the smaller schools, they would just eliminate them from these types of deals. This options is more possible than I think a lot of us want it to be.

While I would be happy to have a form of a college football game back in my library, as a mid major fan, this is the option I would be least excited about. Not being able to play as my school anymore would kill some of the enjoyment for me. Would I purchase it? Most likely, but I am not sure it would be an annual purchase for me anymore.

We do live in more uncertain times with regards to the NCAA. The major conferences might decide to make a power play and if they do, the NCAA won't be able to do much. And if this happens, they would be more willing to work something out with the video game manufacturers as they could make sure the players were taken care of in some fashion.

This option is possible but I do feel a lot of folks will agree it is the least attractive due to how much we'd give up.

Comments

# 1 dtlm6 @ Dec 29

I've also considered this format as the most viable way that the NCAA series returns. However, how the players are compensated (if at all) remains the major stumbling block even with using only the Power 5 conferences.

# 2 thescoop @ Dec 29

In the scenario I'm playing out here, the Power 5 break free from the NCAA and pay the players themselves. That is the key to this scenario playing out. Hope that clears it up for you, dtlm6.