In a recent article evaluating how next-gen sports titles fared in their first edition, Polygon's Owen Good included some previously unknown information on a game feature being worked on for the now cancelled EA SPORTS College Football 15.

Designers he chatted with indicated plans for a new MMO-like feature within Road to Glory & Online Dynasty mode. Upon completion of RTG, users would see their recruits, as well as those of others in the OD and around the country, now in the pool of recruits to pursue. Users would then be able to see how their recruit fared in the 50 or so Online Dynasties where the player was seeded.

Continue on to read more of the excerpt from Good's article and what could have been in College Football 15.


Let's speak a word of charity for the NCAA Football series, which was working on a next-generation version right up to the day it was canceled in September, in light of the ongoing litigation former college players have brought over the use of their likenesses in products such as video games. Designers I've talked to since then were already sketching out some unusual features that borrowed a page from Madden NFL's Connected Franchise Mode.

The game — likely to have been called College Football 15 — considered but didn't have the time to implement a true connected dynasty mode, allowing people to play either as a single performer or a coach controlling the entire team in the same online league, as with Madden. But it did have a novel idea for an MMO-ish experience. Players in the Road to Glory career suite would go through a high school career, exit it rated at a certain level, and then see their stars form the recruiting pool in the online dynasty they joined (as well as others.)

So when they took over as a coach in an online dynasty, players would effectively be recruiting themselves, their friends, and hundreds of other real people they never heard of. (The potential for seeing awesome names on your big board seems stratospheric.) The high school career could be replayable to give someone better attributes, a better recruit ranking, or other unlockables. Players would be able to see how their high school performers progressed in the 50 or so dynasties where they were seeded.

It'd be around this time of year we usually heard about new features for EA Sports' college football game. This year, though, it's only to hear what could have been. It's a shame. I was putting friends in custom NCAA Football recruiting classes 10 years ago; this concept sounds like an even more fun version of that.


The game also more than likely would have included the new College Football Playoff, significant graphical improvements (with the move to PS4/XB1), new FBS programs, the gameplay leap (and then some) from Madden 25, and more. It's a shame the game couldn't have been published at least one more year to see the major leap it appeared would be coming to franchise.

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