Updated Rosters and Ratings
New rosters come with a lot of labor hours
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In the first part of this series of articles, we scratched the surface in sharing that there are updated rosters for the EA Sports NCAA Football 14 Video game series that keep the game current. What this means is, with an updated roster of players, so too are updates to overall team ratings. And just take a minute looking on the Operations Sports Forum that houses the communication updates of this project, and you will see that every team is over-rated, yet at the same time everyone’s favorite team is under-rated. Tongue firmly planted in cheek.
With the turnover of rosters being what it is in the college game, along with the development of talent on the field, there is no full-proof way to really have an exact rating system to start each season. Similar to the preseason top 25 rankings that many publications release before fall camp. These are seemingly educated guesses at best if your talking about any team not named Clemson or Alabama.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t a very systematic approach used to render the most authentic rosters- and thereby gameplay, possible.
“This is how we do it”- Montel Jordan
Contrary to a some observers (who are begrudgingly using these rosters) beliefs, team and player ratings are not arbitrary. There is a very consistent process and approach to building these rosters.
Every new season starts the same on this project, and 2019 was no different. Ironically, the new season rosters begin by updating the previous season’s rosters to reflect player awards, all-conference recognition and statistics which will be the foundation to the final ratings for that given season’s rosters. Most of this is going on during bowl season and into the offseason immediately following the National Championship.
Consider 2019 in this case; In late 2018 and into January of 2019, the editing team updates all of the rosters by adjusting the ratings of players based on statistics and end of the year recognition. This is a process that goes on all year round. However, an end of the season push is made to bring all teams end of year or ‘final’ ratings.
So in essence, the finalization of the recently completed season’s rosters is the beginning and very foundation for the new or upcoming season.
How Players and Teams Grade Out
Using 2018 Purdue Freshman Wide Receiver, Rondale Moore as a player example; to start the year he was four-star prospect coming out of high school and was created on the roster at the start of the year with an associated rating based on his prospect status. By the end of the season, he was one of the most decorated players in the country, therefore his rating was updated at the end of the year to reflect all of his accolades, which included being a consensus All-American.
This is why it is critical the 2018 year-end rosters are accurately updated as they create the foundation for the next season (2019 in this case) rosters building point. So now as the 2019 rosters are started, Mr. Moore starts the season as one of the most highly-rated receivers and players on the game.
This very same process is applied to every single player on every single team. As seniors and underclassmen alike graduate, declare for the NFL draft or enter the transfer portal, these changes get reflected in the updated rosters. So between these transitioning players and the incoming freshman class which is created and loaded onto the roster, the game is a complete overhaul each season. And with this individual player and rating changes, so too do the team ratings change.
