Thursday, August 12, 2010

NCAA: The Brokening

Bill Abner put up a post today that indicated kickers were still entirely broken in NCAA 11, even after two "tuning packs" and two patches.

He's right, and it should be embarrassing for EA, because anyone who actually plays Dynasty mode would have seen this.

Details: beginning the second season of Dynasty mode, I saw twenty freshman starting kickers who were rated 55 or below, and many of these guys were below 50 overall. Starting, mind you.

So how crappy are these guys? Let's find out.

First, the official NCAA kicking stats for last season are here. Last season, kickers in the FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) made 88% of field goals in the 20-29 yard range.

Nine out of ten, basically.

I tested a 48 overall kicker (53 kick power, 45 kick accuracy) in practice mode. This was letting the CPU kick the ball 25 times each from three positions: left hashmark, center, and right hashmark. This was also in a dome, with no wind (optimum conditions).

What percentage of 25-yard field goals did the kicker make? 67%.

What percentage of 30-yard field goals did he make? 52%.

Ouch.

In case you're wondering how many of these kinds of kickers exist in the real FBS, here's your answer: zero. These kind of stats wouldn't even be credible for an average high school kicker.

Seriously, EA, I'd like to play a Dynasty, if you'd just fix this.

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