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As expected, former Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram of Alabama has been named winner of the public vote to be the cover athlete of NCAA Football 12. The result was confirmed by EA SPORTS Senior Director of Athlete Relations Sandy Sandoval and also officially announced on ESPN First Take this morning.

Ingram leaves Alabama as the program's only Heisman Trophy winner and helped the Crimson Tide win the 2010 BCS National Championship. Ingram joins Shaun Alexander (NCAA Football 2001) as former Alabama players who have graced the game's cover. ...

EA SPORTS has posted a new blog from NCAA Football Executive Producer Roy Harvey. Continue on to read the full blog and then share your thoughts with the community.

While gameplay improvements will be announced soon - Roy mentions a 'big push' defensively this year - his blog features two new game screenshots and that users will be able to utilize custom entrance music in NCAA Football 12 via the Stadium Sounds feature.
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According to an article on Operationsports.com, Bowl Patches will make their first appearance on this generation of consoles in NCAA Football 12.

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That’s right NCAA Football fans, bowl patches will be making their triumphant return in NCAA Football 12.

If you have read any of my articles concerning the NCAA Football series over the years, you know that I put a big emphasis on the little details in the game, especially details that were present in the years when the series was flourishing on the PS2 and Xbox in the early to mid 2000s. This small jersey presentation addition blew my mind when I first saw it in NCAA 2002, and it quickly became one of my favorite aspects of the series.

The patches themselves gave each bowl game the feeling that you were participating in something much bigger than a regular season game. Plus, I'm one of those geeks who loves everything about the pageantry and tradition of college football, so seeing the patches in a video game representation of my favorite sport was nothing short of a dream come true.

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Click here to read the rest of the article and let us know what you think. ...

Straight from the EA SPORTS Season Opener event in San Francisco, Operation Sports has posted some new off-camera screens of NCAA Football 12. While we currently lack information behind the photos, it appears that along with the already announced visual improvements, more team specific entrances and elements will be coming to the game. Additional photos highlight snow on the field and colored gloves. After visiting OS and checking out the screens, make sure to come back and share your thoughts with the community. ...

- More of the new plays coming to NCAA Football 12 were announced this week. View the offensive plays in this thread and defensive plays here.

- This week, Kirk Herbstreit visited EA SPORTS for a NCAA Football 12 voiceover session. While Herbstreit stopped by a Build Review to take a look at the game, his thoughts leaving the studio focused primarily on the men's water closet.

- This year, the NCAA Football development team has asked the community for more direct input and information than ever before. This week they asked for help in determining which school utilize cannons as part of their game day experience. They previously asked for info regarding bands and cheerleader chants.

- NCAA Football franchise developer director Jason French has posted a blog discussing some behind the scenes info regarding NCAA Football 12 going alpha, which was reached on March 11.

- Pastapadre.com is reporting that several high level members of the Madden NFL development team may be joining a new studio that is being founded by a former Tiburon executive. At this time there is no word if this will result in any changes to the NCAA Football development team.

- The Tailgate Golf Association will tee off on April 18. In the meantime, work on building up your golfer and sign-up in this thread. Both X-Box 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers are welcome to join our Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters league.

- Keep in touch with The Gaming Tailgate and all the latest NCAA Football 12 & sports gaming news. Follow us on all of our social channels: Facebook - Twitter - YouTube. Also, don't forget to bookmark our legendary NCAA Football 12 Information Central. All game news & media in one central location! ...

The NCAA Football team is reaching out to the community once again and wants your help in gathering team reference details for an item that will be included in NCAA Football 12. After asking for info on Cheerleader Chants & Band Locations several months ago, they now want your help in acquiring more team specific info - cannon locations.

The team is looking to find out what type of cannons a school uses at their home stadium (either the modern military style, or the classic “western” style), if the cannon is fired after every touchdown, and if the cannon is located inside the stadium (i.e. on the field).

Share your team - or any team you know - info in this thread with a video or photo reference, if possible. A written description would also work, but obviously a photo reference would be more beneficial. Continue on to read the request from the NCAA Football dev team. ...

While voting ends tonight for the NCAA Football 12 cover athlete, the four candidates have all taken part in their photo shoot should they be on the game's cover. The winner will be announced April 19 on ESPN's "First Take."

Click Read More to see behind the scenes video of Nick Fairley, Mark Ingram, DeMarco Murray, and Jake Locker at their NCAA Football 12 campaign & cover photo shoots. ...

College basketball gamers find themselves without a college basketball franchise in spite of the immense popularity of March Madness and the Final Four. In recent years, both 2K Sports and EA SPORTS have dropped their college basketball franchises. 2007 marked the last year of 2K Sports' popular College Hoops franchise while 2009 was the last year for EA SPORTS' re-invigorated NCAA Basketball franchise.

Despite the gaming success of another college sport (EA SPORTS' NCAA Football) and immense NCAA Tournament viewership (across CBS & Turner Broadcasting as well as March Madness On Demand), hopes for either franchise returning appear slim. Forbes blogger John Gaudiosi weighs in on how we've reached this point and also the possibility of a college basketball franchise returning in the future.

Continue on to read Gaudiosi's blog and then share your thoughts with the community. What would it take for a college basketball franchise to be successful in the future (in terms of sales and community reaction) and why haven't they been so in the past? ...

- We've reached the final days of voting for the NCAA Football 12 cover athlete. At last word, Alabama RB Mark Ingram still held the lead despite hard campaigning by the UFC for Oklahoma RB DeMarco Murray and frequent tweets from Auburn DL Nick Fairley. With no social media presence, Washington QB Jake Locker is relying on the west coact vote to carry him through. Voting ends April 4 with the winner announced April 19 on ESPN's "First Take." Click here to vote via the EA SPORTS NCAA Football Facebook page.

- More new plays have been announced for NCAA Football 12. Click here to view the announced offensive plays and to see the unveiled defensive plays, click here.

- Don't get bogged down with fake stories around the web on April Fool's. Bookmark our world-famous NCAA Football 12 Information Central for all of the latest game-related news, information and media. Share this easy-to-remember link with your friends: http://www.tinyurl.com/NCAA12info

Continue on for more news. ...