With the success of the relaunch of the EA Sports College Football series with College Football 25 it was natural for fans’ minds to begin thinking about other college games that may soon be refreshed and even more natural that the higher ups at both the NCAA and gaming companies would see it as a great way to cash in. With the announcement that EA will be releasing a new College Basketball game, it’s now time to start thinking about what to include, and one sure fire winner would be an Ultimate Team mode based on the wildly popular March Madness championship tournament.
EA Sports College Basketball Is Back!
With players in college sports finally able to effectively bank on their star status financially, it opened the pathway to companies like EA to once again explore the popular college sports market, and bringing back college basketball should be a raging success if well executed. College sports have some of the strongest fan bases in all of sports, and shorter seasons and higher-stakes playoff structure makes for an intriguing video game option, too. Just as fans flocked to lead their favorite teams on the gridiron again, college hoops fans who’ve been in the cold since NCAA Basketball 10 will be begging for a strong debut for the relaunch to make the wait worth it.
March Madness Is A Unique Sporting Event
The college basketball championship tournaments, commonly known as March Madness, are among the most beloved sporting events of the year on the United States calendar. Featuring 68 teams, with eight of them playing in four play-in games to yield a 64-team field, the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments are a single-elimination seeded bracket where the 31 conference champions and 37 at-large entrants battle to be called national champion. The term is so synonymous with college ball it was once the name of EA’s college hoops franchise.
The single-elimination format brings high stakes to every game, while the tradition of filling out prediction brackets makes it so that even people who otherwise ignore sports often find themselves drawn in, particularly in the chaotic first week where the field is whittled down to just 16 teams. Transferring this excitement into Ultimate Team mode should be a no-brainer.
Could March Madness Be Coming To Ultimate Team Mode in EA College Basketball?
With Ultimate Team modes being such an important part of EA sports games’ online communities, it would be shocking if March Madness was absent in College Basketball 26. What will be interesting is to see what modes the game uses. Just as early online play in FIFA Ultimate Team mode incorporated the idea of promotion and relegation, integrating the most famous element of the college game is a must. Here are two ways they may choose to do so, and a hybrid approach that may offer the best of both worlds.
Option 1: The Battle Royale Approach
The first way to go about bringing March Madness to online play would be the most taxing on players, and that’s with a true Battle Royale approach. Players would be entered into a lobby of 64 teams and tasked with winning the six games required to become national champion at the end of the tournament. The first pro to this is obvious, it most closely replicates the real experience of March Madness, with an established 64-team bracket to play through. The game could even use online ratings to seed the bracket to provide the thrill of real world bracket busting upsets.
The cons are also probably apparent, in that even with short half lengths you would need to play through 12 halves of online ball to win a title, even before considering any potential overtime match-ups. While this could be a hurdle the developers opt not to tackle, it’s worth considering that half the field is eliminated every time. Literally half of all players would play just once per tournament, and three-quarters would be done in about a half hour. Players might be more willing to sign up for the long haul knowing that if they have to actually do it they’re on a great run.
Option 2: The Seasons Cup Approach
An alternative option would be to abandon the fun of getting to see your whole bracket and play through it from the jump and instead taking the approach EA took to having cups in online modes. Under this system when a player would log on to play a first round match of the Cup they were paired with another first round player. The winners then have the option to play their next round game at their leisure, receiving a match-up with another second-round opponent, and so on.
Using this style would allow players to progress through the bracket on their own pace without needing to set aside a couple hours just in case their run goes deep. By keeping pairing based on where each player is in their own virtual bracket the game essentially builds out the 64-team bracket as you play and maintains suitable difficulty escalation as each round sees you playing someone on a comparably impressive streak against comparably impressive opposition.
Option 3: The Hybrid Approach
Perhaps the most elegant solution would be a fusion of true bracketing and “play as you go” matchmaking by taking a page out of the real world tournament’s book. While it is true that March Madness is a 64 (or 68, depending on your views of when it truly begins) in practicality it plays out as a series of four-team tournaments, with teams tasked with coming out of a pod of four teams three straight weekends to become champion.
By using this in online play, EA could match players up with three other online players when they jump onto an online game. Winners of that quartet would then be on to the Sweet 16, and free to progress from there when they want, where they will be paired with three other Sweet 16 teams. Survive that and you’re ready to jump into your Final Four whenever you’re set to go for your championship. This shrinks the matchmaking groups from six to three while also respecting players’ time for a healthy balance.
What are your thoughts on March Madness in College Basketball? Will it make the cut in Ultimate Team play and if so, what do you think is the best approach to running it?
