Thoughts/Suggestions for Improvement

[dbassitt6]

First off, I think this is a great game, but these are just a few things I think could help. Obviously these are just my opinion so take them with a grain of salt and some of these may be in the game already, but I overlooked them. All of these are observations after doing a 7 year play through as Ohio State and are not listed in any particular order.

1. Recruiting:
- I like the UI of a player/recruit page of CB22 better. Just my preference.
- Having a "big board" where I can rank recruits based on how much I value them.
- I like the depth of the recruiting system of CB22 a lot as well. Obviously in football you are trying to sign 20-25 guys not 2-4 so it may be too overwhelming/tedious. I've gone back and forth on this.

2. Evaluating Player Performance:
- Football is tougher than baseball/basketball because there aren't as many stats available to look at. However I would like more tools available to evaluate a player's performance better, especially for OL, DL & LB. I would think adding block success rate for lineman or giving the player a PFF score after each game would be nice. The current scoring/grading system seems to rate every player the same no matter who is starting.

3. Scouting:
- I like in CB22 how the perceived ratings for a player are different than their true ratings and are affected by your coach's scouting ability. I think something like this would be a great addition to the CF game.

4. Upsets:
- There seem to be too many upsets. Routinely, multiple 2 loss teams make the CFP. Currently no 2 loss team has ever made the CFP in real life.

5. Scheduling:
- The Big Ten scheduling is off. B10 teams play 9 conference games (6 within their division & 3 cross division) and then 3 non-conference games. Currently it is setup as a 8-4 split.
- Also teams in the B10 have their final game in week 13. Right now the OSU/UM game takes place in week 15 in the game.
- The scheduling logic is off for non-conference games. Too many power 5 teams are playing other power 5 teams. In my most recent save Ohio State played 2 SEC and 2 ACC opponents their first year. This also could be why 2 & 3 loss teams are making the playoffs regularly.
- Power 5 teams routinely play away against smaller schools.
- I know I can customize my schedule for the following year, but would be nice if CPU controlled teams followed more realistic scheduling logic.

6. More In-Game Management
- Pretty self explanatory, but more options would be nice. For example, if you are getting run all over, have the ability to prioritize run defense at half time at the expense of giving up more passing yards. Maybe a skill for in-game adjustments could added to coaches or maybe their flexibility rating could help affect how good they are at halftime adjustments.

7. Substitutions:
- The substitution logic I think is a lot better this year and I like that you can sub players out at certain fatigue percentages. I think being able to customize this for each position group would be nice.

8. QB srambles:
- In my 7 year save, I don't think my qb has scrambled off a pass play once. I have qb tuck and run set to default in the game strategy page. I only played as one team though with one playbook so I could be going off limited data with this.

9. Players Declaring Early:
- As Ohio State, I have 0-1 players declaring early every year. In real life they usually have 5 or more. I have a dozen guys that are 93+ and aren't declaring. May not be realistic for all of them to leave, but I would expect more to declare. If there was a slider for this like there is for the transfer portal that would be nice.

Again, overall this is a great game. Appreciate all the time put into it!

[JDB]

Agree with point 4. Just had a season where my top ranked team had 2 losses and every other power 5 team had 3 or more losses. I’ve noticed this from doing sims over multiple seasons as well. I’ve also seen a lot of G5 teams making playoff and even championship runs.In real life the higher prestige teams are usually able to survive close calls in games a lot more often then what they do in this game. I also feel there should a little bit more separation between the P5 and G5 teams.

[PascalsWager]

The upsets seem to have an easy solution. G5 and FCS teams (for those of us who want to include them) should have considerably worse players. Right now the absolute bottom end talents are about 65 overall. That makes sense on an even talent playing field like the NFL.

To capture the breadth and talent gradients in college football, you need the absolute bottom end talent to be probably ~25 overall to give you the results that are realistic.

For example SEC power Alabama in my mods are a 97 prestige team with an 89 average player ratings. That seems totally fair.
A upper middle class ACC team like NC State has a 68-72 prestige. They'll have a roster that averages 79-80 overall.
A bottom tier team like Akron has 38 prestige. Their roster will have an overall of 74.

That 74 overall team is going to beat Bama 2/10 times. when in reality they'd win maybe 1/10000. The NC State level middling P5 school also beats the true big boys at a much higher clip than reality because there's not enough of a gap in talent.

So I would keep Bama at 97 prestige and 89 overall
But I'd make NC state 68 prestige with 70 overall from 79
And Akron 36 prestige with 45 overall from their original 74

That's not only a fix to the problem of upsets, it mirrors the actual talent gap that exists between the top and bottom.

[dbassitt6]

I hadn’t thought about the players overalls at lower tier schools being too high so that’s a good point and probably part of the reason why there are so many upsets.

[Billdozer]

I am in the year 2041 using an 8 team playoff. Last season Hawaii lost to Michigan in the national championship game. Appalachian State also made the playoffs.
Utah, Alabama, and Michigan are the schools I notice making the playoffs most of the time. There are some other major schools that make it sometimes.

I am going to try and rebuild Wisconsin now after about a dozen years at Utah State. I had a good run in the middle when I made it to a new years 6 bowl 4 years in a row and was 2-2 in those bowls. I almost made the playoffs a few times but either lost in the conference championship game or had a bad loss during the regular season.

I would also like to see when an email when a player declares for the draft. Maybe I miss seeing it but sometimes players are just gone and I have more scholarships available in the transfer portal.

Also, is there a way to ask the Athletic director for better facilities and higher budget?

Finally, the assistant coach salaries feel like they are out of control and the good assistant coaches take a large chunk of the budget.

[rmoons24]

I would love for them to expand the postseason awards to include 2nd team All-Americans and 2nd team All-Conference.

[frankinho]

This might be controversial opinion, but the recruiting and some of the aspects of the game really needs an overhaul. Ive been saying it for years but the game just lacks immersion and the recruiting is just no fun at all, though i may be in the minority.