As we pass the five-year mark of no NCAA Football, SB Nation's Richard Johnson takes a look at how no college football video game ultimately hurts the Madden NFL franchise, at least in one regard - namely, the option.
Throughout the years where EA Tiburon developed both NCAA Football and Madden NFL, gameplay aspects and features could be shared helping to make each game better. With the option being a part of the NCAA Football franchise dating back to its predecessor Bill Walsh College Football, the code and legwork has existed for EA to share and incorporate it into Madden NFL.
However, now that NCAA Football is on ice, the investment that would have been necessarily made for the plethora of teams that run some form of option football - traditional, RPO, spread, etc. - such as Georgia Tech, Navy, and Nebraska would have been added to Madden. Whereas now devoting the time for Madden to do solely for what amounts to situational (or gimmick) playcalls have proven not to be worth the monetary or time investment.
Johnson's article states that the Ravens with rookie QB Lamar Jackson will have zone-read plays in their playbook in Madden NFL 19.
Continue on to read some excerpts of the article,
available here in full.
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