I Work for EA

[kawkeye]

Just kidding. I don’t. But I wanted to put myself in the shoes of someone who did to try to get a clear picture of what some of the biggest question marks about this game look like. Here it goes. And yes, it’s really long, sorry.

Lots of opinions out there on what everyone wants in the game. I think a lot of people are getting stuck on what they want and not thinking about how it would work from a coding and financial perspective.

As far as the “can’t create players who opt out” goes. I do think there will be roster editing and sharing. What I think EA will do to prevent this is if, say, Travis Hunter opts out, there will be a generic player with an overall of +/- 10 of what Travis Hunter would have been, but with totally randomized vital info including name, skin color, jersey number, height, etc. His tendencies would also have to be random. EA will just need to be able to prove from a coding standpoint that they built these generic players using a random algorithm should they ever be taken to court over it.

As far as editing those generic players, some have mentioned those players will be totally locked. I don’t think that’s the case. I think that they will simply insert literally only a couple of lines of code into the roster script that essentially says “when you edit this player, if user submits “Travis Hunter” as name, return an error code.” Prompt pops up that says “Warning: you are trying to name this player a prohibited name. Please use another name.” They may go as far as to not allow you to name him “Travisss Hunter,” Travis Hunterr,” etc. My hope is that they don’t go to that length, but I also know they really don’t want to get sued, so all bets are off.

As for the NIL being incorporated into Dynasty: They will make it work like a poor-man’s salary cap in Madden. Each school, based on their prestige, will have a “NIL Cap” (they will call it something else). That NIL cap is the total amount of money you can spend on players on your roster. Each recruit has an initial NIL value based on their recruiting ranking. The 5 star recruits will be somewhere between $500,000 and $1,000,000 with a randomized standard deviation. 4-star recruits will be somewhere in the $100,000-$500,000 range with a randomized standard deviation. 3-star recruits will be in the $10,000-$100,000 range with a randomized standard deviation. 1-star, 2-star, and walk-ons will be in the $1,000-$10,000 range with a randomized standard deviation.

A school like Ohio State might have a NIL Cap of $17,000,000. They might have a total of 12 5-stars eating up a combined $10,000,000 of their NIL and 23 4-stars taking up $5,000,000 of their NIL, so the remaining 50 players have to stay under $2,000,000.

On the other end of the spectrum, Northern Illinois may have a NIL Cap of $740,000. That means they will never be able to afford a 5-star player, and if they choose to take a couple 4-star players, 90% of their NIL will be used up. So, they will have to settle for a lot of 2 and 3 stars, and try to identify and develop diamonds in the rough.

Where this will get really interesting is how it meshes with the Transfer Portal. There will undoubtedly be a “morale” factor built in for each player that in takes into account playing time, etc. That will be one part of the transfer portal. That end of the Transfer Portal will only include guys with low-morale. It will probably look like NCAA 14 where you can convince them to stay and make promises, except there will be somewhere between 10 and 30 guys on your list each year. I think each player will have a visible “morale meter” as well, so it’s not a total surprise when they transfer. They can make it so a couple players totally blindside you every few years, but for the most part, it won’t be a surprise.

The other side of the Transfer Portal, likely an entirely different screen, will be a “NIL Growth” part of the transfer portal where if a player has a breakout year, their NIL value may go up. After the season ends you will get a screen with a handful of players who’s NIL value has gone up and you will need to decide if it is worth paying them the extra $ and in-turn, sacrifice some money you could otherwise use for high school recruits. If you decide they aren’t worth it, they will go into the portal.

How the Transfer Portal looks for each user will be largely dependent upon the type of school they are coaching at. Ohio State will have a ton of guys on the “Low Morale” screen, but Northern Illinois will have a ton of guys on the “NIL Growth” screen.

As far as roster management goes, you will be able to over-recruit and over-spend, however your NIL Cap and 85-player limit will need to be met each preseason. You’ll do this by cutting players. Once cut, a player will go into the transfer portal, and there will be one “mini-portal” each pre-season. Most of the players in the pre-season portal will be lower ranked and if they don’t find a landing spot, they will just be removed from the roster altogether. Think of this like them going down to the FCS level. Cuts will need to happen for a lot of teams each season, but if you make a habit of it, you “trustworthiness” will take a hit and it may affect your recruiting.

You’re naive if you don’t think EA will incorporate micro-transactions into the game, and NIL will be how they do it. In dynasty, you will be given the opportunity each off-season to pay real-world money to increase your team’s NIL cap.

Are you trying to build up a lowly G5 program like Northern Illinois? Unfortunately, $740,000 won’t cut it. Another $100,000 would let you take a few more high-3-star recruits each season, so you can just pay EA $1.

Are you trying to return Nebraska to its glory days? $9,000,000 isn’t gonna allow you to keep pace with Ohio State. $5,000,000 more in NIL will only cost you a smooth $50, bringing your total up to a competitive $14,000,000.

Of course, you can grind for NIL Cap increases too, but it will take hours and hours and your gains will only allow for small gains. EA knows most people get impatient and they will make huge money on this.

As you progress through your dynasty, you may have the opportunity to experience marginal NIL Cap gains every year, without needing to spend extra money. This will be somewhat random, somewhat tied to success, and will include prompts such as “Congratulations, Coach! An alumni has pledged $250,000 to your schools NIL!”

Other teams, however, will experience losses in NIL funds. Poor seasons, not meeting expectations, etc. are going to lower fan support. After a poor season, you may get a message that says “Coach, fans and boosters are getting impatient, and you are now on the hot seat. As a result, your team’s NIL Cap has been decreased by $300,000.”

The other ways EA will capitalize on micro-transactions:

In Road to Glory. In NCAA 14, you had to grind for skill points. You can still do that, but you can also just buy some skill points.

In coach skills. Your coach skills will increase very slowly if you grind. If you are at a G5 school that is hard to recruit to, you can pay real world money to advance your recruiting skill-tree and open the door to higher-caliber recruits.

[canes21]

EA has already confirmed that if a player opts out, they are taking the last 10 years worth of production for that position at that school and creating a generic player based off that data.

There are too many things they could do to limit us from attempting to add real players into the game. That will hopefully be cleared up before release.

NIL will be interesting to see how they handle it. I don't personally see it being like a salary cap. I see them rolling with it like just another recruiting pitch that has a grade. The schools themselves are not involved with NIL in real life, so I won't be surprised if one stipulation they've made with regards to NIL is to keep it that way in game meaning the user won't be choosing how to spend the NIL money since it doesn't work that way in real life... officially.

I expect to see a morale system similar to Madden's along with something similar to their Player Tags and Motivations system. I expect that will be what is the primary driver for who enters the portal and why.

Over-recruiting I am not sure if that will be in. Technically the NCAA has tried to make that illegal now by opening the class limits up from the 25 it used to be, but you still must stay at or below 85 kids so that you don't over recruit. I won't be surprised if EA does something similar where when you are recruiting HS players or portal players that your scholarship offer amount is purely limited by how many spots you have before you hit 85. Once you hit 85 you can no longer get anymore new players. We'll see.

Coach skills I assume will be similar to how the skill trees are in Madden now, they'll just be more relevant to the college game meaning a tree or multiple trees dedicated to recruiting, scouting, portal acquisition, etc. Other trees for position specific development like Madden has now.

I tried to reply to each topic you touched on.

[Razor Hogs]

Yes the players opting out thing is interesting, although as of Thursday evening over 5,000 players opted into the game which is actually insane. I think they really want to be in this game regardless of the compensation they will receive.

People are worried they will be a workaround to this and im sure EA has a plan in place to prevent this, they dont want a repeat of the O Bannon lawsuit.

Btw I think Travis Hunter opted in already, dont know about Silo or Shadeur Sanders but im guessing they will opt in eventually.

[jerwoods]

honesly i think 97% will opt in
assuing Navy Army and Air Force all are made up guys 99% of everyone else will be in the game the only Q will be high 2025 pjod 1st round Picks
biggest holdout couild be Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas

[grangdj77]

Quote: Originally Posted by jerwoods

honesly i think 97% will opt in assuing Navy Army and Air Force all are made up guys 99% of everyone else will be in the game the only Q will be high 2025 pjod 1st round Picks biggest holdout couild be Quinn Ewers, QB, Texas

He opted in the first day. https://www.instagram.com/p/C3qioI_ul0H/?hl=en

[Razor Hogs]

Quote: Originally Posted by grangdj77

He opted in the first day. https://www.instagram.com/p/C3qioI_ul0H/?hl=en

Yes same with Jalen Milroe, Brady Cook, Garrett Nussmeir, Jaxson Dart, and many more.

I found a EA Sports College Football Player Opt In Tracker lol, this may help you.

https://collegefootballnetwork.com/e...pt-in-tracker/