[FM18] NCAA College Football Database - USA - v2.1 Out Now

[kandersson]

1 hour ago, samba23 said:

Glad you're finding it ok. The large squads is actually deliberate on my part as College Football teams have 85 scholarship players (and plus walk-ons regularly exceeds 100 player rosters) so I have my chairman and DoF's tendencies to "have large squad = 20" though I'm not exactly sure how much impact this actually has in practice. 

I think it's particularly overwhelming when you first start because you don't know any of the names but it gets easier as you get more familiar with the squad and who your good players are.

I can look into adding a reserve team to all clubs as a "practice squad/scout team" but I have no plans to add a reserve league as real-life College Football does not have a reserve league, so the reserve team would just be a dumping ground for the worst players.

Yeah I think having reserve squads (even with no reserve league) could be useful as first team screen tends to become a bit problematic with more than 30-35 players, so maybe this could be something for future releases. Also I noticed that every year we get an automatic full youth intake (15-16 players) i.e. no option to sign or release the youth candidates, while apparently other teams sign only 5-6 every year (probably the best prospects of their intake). Not a big deal really as terminating contracts of youth players isn't expensive at all especially for these super rich schools!

A couple of minor issues I have noticed: apparently teams below division I-A (including my BYU team) don't assign shirt numbers for the season; also several teams have not chosen their seasonal best eleven at the end of first season (not sure if this happens in future seasons too).

Very minor stuff really, all the teams with their data, logos, plus league structure and the various tournaments are a thing of beauty.

[podunkboy]

asking for a friend: Um, when is the yearly youth intake? Because even with "add players to playable teams", Kansas University only has a 17-man roster, and with 2 injuries in the friendlies, that leaves me only 15 players fit to play and no center midfielders. 

[samba23]

July 1st every year. I would recommend holidaying through at least the first year. Second season you get a full-youth intake, several of whom are usually first-team ready straight away.

Squad registration is now added for all divisions, July 25th deadline. There is an dropdown menu on the squad page for player registrations and squad numbers. You get a news item to remind you to register the players before the deadline. Squad numbers can be added any time before the first match. Any players not assigned numbers will prompt a message asking to assign squad numbers.

I can add reserve teams. I am thinking - make them U19 (i.e. Freshman and Sophmore team) and will all be named "[Team name] Junior Varsity". This will enable managers to place all youngsters not ready for the first-team into it but all senior players will stay with the first team unless sold or released.

No idea about the seasonal best XI unfortunately, I think it's something out of the data editors control.

Any more bugs noticed; let me know and I will do my best to fix. I've already changed KO times and TV coverage that was missing for some comps and I'm certain there's other stuff I'm missing.

[gmilitao_scr]

4 hours ago, samba23 said:

July 1st every year. I would recommend holidaying through at least the first year. Second season you get a full-youth intake, several of whom are usually first-team ready straight away.

Squad registration is now added for all divisions, July 25th deadline. There is an dropdown menu on the squad page for player registrations and squad numbers. You get a news item to remind you to register the players before the deadline. Squad numbers can be added any time before the first match. Any players not assigned numbers will prompt a message asking to assign squad numbers.

I can add reserve teams. I am thinking - make them U19 (i.e. Freshman and Sophmore team) and will all be named "[Team name] Junior Varsity". This will enable managers to place all youngsters not ready for the first-team into it but all senior players will stay with the first team unless sold or released.

No idea about the seasonal best XI unfortunately, I think it's something out of the data editors control.

Any more bugs noticed; let me know and I will do my best to fix. I've already changed KO times and TV coverage that was missing for some comps and I'm certain there's other stuff I'm missing.

You're planning a update with reserve teams?

[samba23]

Update news:

U19 "Junior Varsity" teams included for all 120 teams. There is no U19 league but teams will be able to arrange as many friendlies vs other U19 teams as they choose.

Varsity teams to be managed by Head of Youth Recruitment. No new staff created for U19 teams.

Training grounds created for all teams i.e. "University of Texas Practice Fields". Will also be used as U19 team stadiums. 

Youth intake will now go into "Youth Candidates" squad, with players set as "on trial". Therefore, managers can choose to sign as many of the intake as they choose, enabling greater control on squad size.

Player registration now added for season. First prompt is 1st day of new season, managers have one month to register players. 

Squad numbers can be added any time from 1st day of new season up until 1st competitive match that un-numbered player appears in.

All competitions now fall under NCAA disciplinary rules. I.e. bookings will be accumulated across all competitions and bans can be served across all competitions.

TV dates and kick off times fixed for Early Season Games.

National Invitation Tournament - Team seedings fixed. Now highest placed league teams will play lowest placed league teams in 1st round, was previously seeded wrong. 1st and 2nd round fixed draw is perfect. Still some issues with quarter finals not always drawing correct seeds, and attempting to fix this. Higher seeded teams play at home.

College Invitation Tournament - Fixed draw now perfected for all rounds. Seedings now not used for semi-finals (re-bracketed for this stage in real life). Semi finals now played at real-life bowl game venues - Toyota Stadium and FAU Stadium. Higher seeded teams play at home (not including semi-final).

College World Series - Bracketing still not working as intended. I believe this is because teams are given byes (which seems to corrupt the seedings). Therefore, 1-2 rounds each year are usually drawn incorrectly. I am testing "draw using local regions" in conjunction with seedings which may help force correct draws. If not, this will have to be released unfinished.

Invitational tournaments - Three-letter names altered for all comps.

Expected release date - This Thursday

[kandersson]

Ace stuff @samba23, fans of college sports will find this DB absolutely stunning though I'd recommend anyone to give this a go especially fans of youth only saves.

A possible feature/request for future updates (maybe FM19!): while I don't follow much college soccer, checking real teams rosters I've noticed they tend to have a few foreign players from Africa, Europe or South America. I was wondering maybe there could be a way to simulate these scholarships for foreign players? Like allowing 1-2 transfers from abroad per season only for under-19 players, not sure if it would be possible with the editor or if you feel it would go against the spirit of this DB!

Amazing work anyway, can't wait to play next update - leaning towards UCLA this time!

[gmilitao_scr]

2 hours ago, kandersson said:

Ace stuff @samba23, fans of college sports will find this DB absolutely stunning though I'd recommend anyone to give this a go especially fans of youth only saves.

A possible feature/request for future updates (maybe FM19!): while I don't follow much college soccer, checking real teams rosters I've noticed they tend to have a few foreign players from Africa, Europe or South America. I was wondering maybe there could be a way to simulate these scholarships for foreign players? Like allowing 1-2 transfers from abroad per season only for under-19 players, not sure if it would be possible with the editor or if you feel it would go against the spirit of this DB!

Amazing work anyway, can't wait to play next update - leaning towards UCLA this time!

Interesting... all teams could sign 2 or 3 international players... it's possible?

[kandersson]

8 hours ago, gmilitao_scr said:

Interesting... all teams could sign 2 or 3 international players... it's possible?

I have no idea. I'm absolutely useless with the editor and it's likely an absurd suggestion, but for someone who had the skills to build such a complex league structure plus all teams and logos maybe it can be possible!

[gmilitao_scr]

14 hours ago, kandersson said:

I have no idea. I'm absolutely useless with the editor and it's likely an absurd suggestion, but for someone who had the skills to build such a complex league structure plus all teams and logos maybe it can be possible!

Just a suggestion, i don't know if this is possible.

 

[Timetxu]

I really, really love what you've done with this. This is something I'd been hoping for for a long time, but unfortunately I suck balls at using the editor.

Can you give some insight in the value certain tournaments have to the board? Generally it looks like your conference and the Bowl game that goes with it is the most important. The College Football Playoff Bowl Games/Invitationals is the continuation of it, in which you play competitive games against teams from other conferences at the same level. The NCAA Tournament/March Madness feels a bit like a cup tournament, because it has teams from lower conferences involved as well. The College World Series is just kind of a celebratory tournament for conference winners.

 

Btw, I noticed an error in the College World Series with teams being able to be eliminated while only losing 1 game. 

This is an example of a simulation I ran. You see that New Mexico and Florida State get eliminated after losing only one game. It feels like in the lower (losers') bracket, Kentucky and Kansas State should have played a game first with the winner advancing to play the loser of a Florida State - New Mexico matchup. The winner of Florida State - New Mexico would eventually play the winner of that game in the final.

Edited April 11, 2018 by Timetxu

[samba23]

1 hour ago, Timetxu said:

I really, really love what you've done with this. This is something I'd been hoping for for a long time, but unfortunately I suck balls at using the editor.

Can you give some insight in the value certain tournaments have to the board? Generally it looks like your conference and the Bowl game that goes with it is the most important. The College Football Playoff Bowl Games/Invitationals is the continuation of it, in which you play competitive games against teams from other conferences at the same level. The NCAA Tournament/March Madness feels a bit like a cup tournament, because it has teams from lower conferences involved as well. The College World Series is just kind of a celebratory tournament for conference winners.

 

Btw, I noticed an error in the College World Series with teams being able to be eliminated while only losing 1 game. 

This is an example of a simulation I ran. You see that New Mexico and Florida State get eliminated after losing only one game. It feels like in the lower (losers') bracket, Kentucky and Kansas State should have played a game first with the winner advancing to play the loser of a Florida State - New Mexico matchup. The winner of Florida State - New Mexico would eventually play the winner of that game in the final.

Thanks for the reply. I was already aware of this and it is a problem that cannot be fixed. It is double elimination up until the semi-final but in real-life if the team that loses in the semi-final has not already lost a game then the teams play a 2nd game to determine the finalist. In game, however, there is no way that I know of to tell the game force a replay but only under those conditions so therefore the semi-final stage is just a straight knock-out.

Edited April 11, 2018 by samba23

[samba23]

Competition reputations;

175 - College Football Playoff

165 - DI-A conferences, NY6 Bowl Games, NCAA tournament Final Four

150 - DI-AA conferences, NCAA tournament regional brackets, College World Series

140 - NIT

135 - DII conferences

120 - CIT, non-conference schedule, early season games

90 - Invitational competitions

 

So the playoff is the most important, Bowl Games are same importance as top conferences. NCAA tournament less important than Playoff but still important.

[samba23]

As for allowing transfers of players;

I would like to be able to have a limited number of transfers per year, maybe 2-3. This would allow for some transfers between NCAA teams (which does happen occasionally in real life) or to sign non-US players (i.e. offer scholarships to foreign players).

However, there's no way that I know of to limit the number of transfers a team can make so allowing transfers would likely hugely affect the competitive balance of the teams, i.e. the super rich teams could buy all the best DII players. Therefore, I have decided just to keep the hard-ban on transfers.

The good news is that teams can get non-US players through their youth intake. I would assume this depends on scouting range, but setting up a foreign affiliate should also help this.

 

[Timetxu]

Are the Varsity teams already included in the download file in your first post? I don't think it appeared in my test save. 

[samba23]

Not yet. Update likely tomorrow.

[Timetxu]

I was just reading up on all the info you provided on the various competitions. I saw that you encountered a minor problem which made you decide that only 8 (instead of 64) teams qualify for the College World Series. Which 8 teams are these precisely? The 8 DI-A and DI-AA conference winners?

[samba23]

Yes. In real-life the College World Series is the final 8 teams of the larger 64-team NCAA baseball tournament.

I already have a 68-team NCAA tournament (March Madness) and the calendar is already full so it's better just to have an 8-team tournament but it's just frustrating that I couldn't figure out a way to make a 64-team double elimination tournament that would work properly.

[samba23]

Varsity teams update;

All reserve teams are now created, with first-team training grounds created and used as home-venues for reserve teams. Teams now add more U19 players at the start of the first season to help fill out the reserve teams. This means that each team will have more than the 16-18 players previously at the start of the fist season, making the game more playable from the start of the first season.

I can create a reserve league structure that copies the conference structure. This would mean that the varsity teams would play 16 "competitive" matches per season, during the regular conference season of Oct-Feb.

That's easy to do. However, I want to try and create a regional reserve structure. This would mean that the divisions do not copy the main conferences. I.e. no promotion and relegation and the divisions would always stay the same. I feel like this would be more realistic, e.g. Texas teams would play all other Texas teams plus Oklahoma teams but no "competitive" games against teams from other states. I feel like this would be more realistic as a varsity competition as teams would only play local games and the travel would be far less. 

 

[Timetxu]

1 hour ago, samba23 said:

Yes. In real-life the College World Series is the final 8 teams of the larger 64-team NCAA baseball tournament.

I already have a 68-team NCAA tournament (March Madness) and the calendar is already full so it's better just to have an 8-team tournament but it's just frustrating that I couldn't figure out a way to make a 64-team double elimination tournament that would work properly.

Can't you split it up like you did with the NCAA Tournament? I.e. divide everything in 4 regions and then make four 16 team double elimination tournaments with the winners going to a fifth "final four" tournament? Or maybe even more split up, like 8 regions with 8 teams, so you can literally use the same structure as in your NCAA Tournament, but with double elimination.

Edited April 12, 2018 by Timetxu

[samba23]

Theoretically yes. But it would require 16 separate regional tournaments of 4 teams to get it exactly right, so wouldn't be very user friendly having to scroll through 16 different competitions.

[Timetxu]

42 minutes ago, samba23 said:

Theoretically yes. But it would require 16 separate regional tournaments of 4 teams to get it exactly right, so wouldn't be very user friendly having to scroll through 16 different competitions.

Yeah, I get that. To be fair, as a potential player, the NCAA Tournament already looks quite like the way you want to work out the College World Series, but with double elimination. So tbh, I wouldn't really miss a 64 team College World Series. Besides, only having 8 DI-A and DI-AA "champions" gives the tournament a more unique feel and gives you a reason to push for that first place. 

[ifogey]

Restarting my save after got through 10 seasons will be a bit blah but love the DB and think the junior teams will help the squad pages look less cluttered as it can get pretty cluttered if you get a few good regen intakes back too back but as before excited too try the new version when its out

Thanks for the good work again

[samba23]

Update is very nearly ready. But in the meantime here's something that I've wanted to add for ages but hadn't been able to get working until now.

 

Awards

There are many awards in College Football. The most prestigious is the Heisman Trophy, given to the best player in College Football. There are also awards given for the best player in every position, named after great former-players. The team of the year is also chosen, known as the "All-America Team". There are also several different awards for coach of the year. Each conference also picks its own best player, team of the year, coach of the year and some conferences also award best players in each position.

 

In this database I have end of year awards given for best player (Heisman), top goalscorer (Maxwell), coach of the year and awards for every position (GK, RB, LB, CB, DM, LM, RM, CM, AMC, ST). I have tried to match awards as best I can e.g. defensive awards in real life are given to defensive players in game. Also, there are teams of the year for each division. 1st XI for DI-A, 2nd XI for DI-AA, 3rd XI for DII. These are chosen from players across all conferences in each division.

Each conference also gives out player of the year, coach of the year and All-Conference team of the year. These awards are given out at the end of conference play. The NCAA Tournament also selects All-Tournament teams at the end of each regional bracket and after the Final Four. Finally, I have All-Tournament team and Most Outstanding Player for the College World Series.

 

Edited April 13, 2018 by samba23

[samba23]

Junior Varsity Teams

By popular demand all 120 teams now feature a reserve team in the form of an U19's. Teams are known as [full team name] Junior Varsity Team, shortened down to [short team name] JV. These teams are for U19 players only and are designed primarily to reduce the squad numbers for the first team. It is for U19's to try and mimic real-life where Freshmen often do not play at all in their first year of college.

The 120 teams are split into 8 groups of 15 teams by region. Each team plays every in-state opposing team and teams from nearby states. The groups are;

Group 1 - Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, North Dakota,  South Dakota & Idaho

Group 2 - California, Hawaii, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico

Group 3 - Texas, Oklahoma

Group 4 - Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Wyoming

Group 5 - Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Wisconsin

Group 6 - Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina

Group 7 - Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana

Group 8 - Florida, Georgia, North Carolina

Teams play each team in their group twice and no teams from other groups (28 in total). I would have preferred for teams to play opponents only once and to play some matches against teams from other groups. Sadly, there is less flexibility in rules when making reserve competitions so this was not possible. 

Also, if there was no U19 competition then teams would hardly arrange any friendlies but when a 1-round competition (14 matches) was added teams would arrange friendlies all the time. This means that the Varsity teams could play 40+ games per year, whereas the first team might play only 27 competitive matches. Obviously this was far from ideal, therefore all teams now play 2 rounds for each competition (so that teams at least play more local games). There is nothing in the editor to control the number of friendlies arranged so teams can often play several friendlies before and after the U19 competition matches. There is a setting in game to set how frequently reserve matches can be arranged so I would recommend using this option to limit the number of friendlies played by your team.

In real-life Freshmen are allowed to not play in their first year, without losing a year of eligibility to play (standard eligibility is 4 years). This is known as being "redshirted" and is very common for all but the best Freshmen, who are ready to play right away. A freshman can be unofficially red-shirted at the start of their first year and this redshirt can be "burned" if the player is needed for the first team due to injuries or because they have performed well in practice. If a player's redshirt is burned then they lose their extra year of eligibility. To try and mimic this in-game all U19 players are eligible to play for the Varsity Team at the start of each season but once they have played more than 15 games (the smallest number allowed by the editor) for the first-team then they are no longer eligible for the Varsity team for that season.

[ifogey]

The addition of awards and the junior teams look too make this good DB even better, hopefully testing goes smooth for you this time around

[samba23]

NCAA.CollegeFootball.v1.1 is out now. Check the link on the opening post for the download.

 

New Features;

U19 "Junior Varsity" teams added for all teams

U19 league added

Awards added - includes team of the year, player of the year and coach of the year for all conferences, NCAA Tournament and College World Series

Training grounds created for all teams, used as home venue for varsity teams

Squad registration and squad numbers for all conferences - teams can have maximum of 85 players

 

Fixes/Improvements

Seeding for National Invitation Tournament fixed

Fixed draws improved for NIT and College Invitation Tournament

Kick-off times and TV fixtures for some competitions corrected

Youth intake now comes as "youth candidates" managers can choose to sign or release youth intake players

Hashtags added for all teams - many featuring a famous team slogan/fight song/alternate nickname etc

Reputations altered for invitational competitions - highest now 120, lowest now 90

History added for Coach of the Year

Expansion capacities removed for most stadiums - this was not working and was stopping teams from building new stadiums

Recently announced sponsorship deals added - e.g. Washington to Addidas

Some sponsorship deals changed to future dates - e.g USC stadium sponsor to come into effect in 2019

New California Director of Football added

Various name changes - e.g. American Athletic Conference short name now AAC (previously American Athletic)

Bob Stoops and Les Miles changed from out of contract managers (would never get jobs) to retired 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2018 by samba23

[samba23]

Also fixed is the U19 competition.

Competition now runs from September to December (mirrors real life College Football season). Groups remain the same but teams now play 14 fixtures (1 round, home or away). Matches are all played on Friday at 8:30. Each team now has 1 bye week. Also fixed is the propensity for teams to arrange friendlies, teams now only arrange friendlies before the season, none during the season and none after the season ends in December.

Players who have played 15 matches for the first team are still ineligible for the Varsity Team. In reality this has little effect due to the short Varsity season.

Edited April 14, 2018 by samba23

[Timetxu]

Awesome! So I get that the original file on the first page has been updates with the u19s? (Can't wait to start playing :D)

[samba23]

Yes. That should be correct.

[kandersson]

Top work, starting a new save right now!

[dit3456]

Awesome work, starting new save right now!!!

[Chockers1]

THIS IS THE BEST DATABASE I HAVE EVER SEEN - CANT WAIT TO PLAY

[samba23]

On ‎08‎/‎05‎/‎2018 at 08:41, Chockers1 said:

THIS IS THE BEST DATABASE I HAVE EVER SEEN - CANT WAIT TO PLAY

Thanks. I really appreciate that.

Anyone else still playing this? Any problems found at all? Through two seasons the only thing I have found is that the Non-conference schedule doesn't record team or player stats (it always says "this competition has not been played yet"). I think this may have something to do with the lack of ranking levels but haven't tested any fix yet.

 

I'm planning an update soon that will completely overhaul the post season competitions. Basically I have finally figured out how to get rankings working for multi-stage competitions. Therefore, the NCAA Tournament, NIT, CIT and College World Series are all bracketed properly to ensure that the fixtures for all rounds are drawn correctly and played in the correct stadiums. I have also expanded the CWS to 12 teams and matched the format to the SEC Baseball tournament. All 12 conference champions are now entered, the DI-A teams receive a 1st round bye and DI-AA and DII champions play a single elimination 1st round, with the remaining tournament unchanged from before (double elimination).

I have also condensed the NCAA Tournament, NIT and CIT into less time (2 ties per week rather than 1 previously for the NCAA Tournament). This aligns the schedule more closely to real life and ensures less of a wait until the College Football Playoff for teams that are knocked out early in the NCAA Tournament.

Finally, I have figured out how to add all of the remaining bowl games into a single competition (will actually be split into 3 competitions to make it more easy to navigate on screen). The New Years Six bowl games will remain but will no longer be "conference championship games" or added to the main conference page. Qualifying teams for each bowl game is also changed to be closer to real life (although 100% accuracy is impossible) e.g. the Rose Bowl will feature PAC-12 and Big Ten champions.

 

I also wanted to completely rewrite the qualification rules for the CFP. Ideally this would combine all 12 conferences into 1 table and include non-conference schedule and would pick all 24 qualified teams from this table. Each conference would be weighted in order of importance i.e. DI-A teams would take 100% of points, DI-AA would take 66% and DII would take 33% of points across to the combined league standings. This would mean that a DI-AA team could qualify for the CFP but that it would favour DI-A teams. I'm able to use "transfer standings" to take the weighted conference points across but using the method to take stage results into a new stage (i.e. the way the game works apertura and clausura leagues) does not work because I have to create 12 new stages to move the weighted points across before combining them into one table and the new stages that I have made do not actually have any results to process into the combined table (basically "transfer standings" allows leagues to set up "starting points totals" before a new round of fixtures is played. Sadly therefore, I am 99% certain that what I wanted to achieve is impossible to do in FM.

[Fmfan00]

whats the age limit for the players 16 yrs old to what 21-22?

[samba23]

No age limit. As stated in the OP this is a fantasy database of colleges as top professional teams in America.

An update on the update: It's a more extensive update than originally planned but will be ready in the next 2-3 days. Every competition has been changed, mostly minor things that are hardly noticeable but there are some significant changes and new competitions added that I'm very excited about.

[Fmfan00]

On 28/05/2018 at 16:10, samba23 said:

No age limit. As stated in the OP this is a fantasy database of colleges as top professional teams in America.

An update on the update: It's a more extensive update than originally planned but will be ready in the next 2-3 days. Every competition has been changed, mostly minor things that are hardly noticeable but there are some significant changes and new competitions added that I'm very excited about.

i mean like you don't have 30 year old in college

[samba23]

I understand but this is not a representation of real life universities but rather recreates them as professional teams. The only actual references to universities is in the training/reserve ground names.

[samba23]

Update is very nearly ready. I think the best way to explain all the changes is to work through them chronologically.

Invititationals - unchanged except for possible minor kick off time and venue changes

Early Season Games - the cross-conference challenge games have been removed (e.g. Pac-12 vs Big Sky) these matches didn't work exactly as intended as I wanted closer geographical ties e.g. Texas Longhorns always playing a minor Texas school. I was able to combine the games with the main non-conference schedule but this messed up the competition expectations for managed teams so has been entirely removed.

Non-Conference Schedule - Big changes. Teams still play 7 non-conference games, drawn into 15 groups but those groups are now part of a hidden stage, which are combined into an overall league table of all 120 teams. Teams are therefore ranked out of the entire 120 teams and the club's competition history shows the placing out of 120 teams. The biggest change is that the non-conference games now matter as part of the whole season (more on which later), as opposed to being separate, glorified friendlies.

 

[samba23]

The basic structure of the conferences remains unchanged. There are still 12 conferences each with 10 teams playing 18 matches. The changes that have been made however are quite significant. For fans of college sports they will be quite easy to understand but for a non-college fan they will appear quite complicated.

As mentioned previously, each conference now includes the non-conference results for each team. This is shown in a separate table from the main league table and does not affect the conference standings. Promotion and relegation is still decided from the 18 regular season games only. However, all post-season tournament (except the College World Series) teams are selected from the combined conference and non-conference results.

The most obvious change to the conferences is the addition of conference tournaments for all 12 conferences. In real life most conferences have post-regular season tournaments in most sports. These usually feature most or all teams in the conference, seeded by their regular season conference standings. For example in college baseball all major conferences except the Pac-12 have a conference tournament, the winners of which automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament.

In-game the top 6 teams from each conference qualify for the conference tournament. The top 2 team receive byes to the semi final. The first round ties are 3rd v 6th and 4th v 5th. The results from the conference tournament are added to the overall conference standings. Therefore, the maximum number of games a team can play that count towards the overall standings is 28.

The conference tournaments replace the previous bowl games that counted as "conference championship games" e.g. Cotton Bowl previously played 1st vs 2nd in the Big 12. The Bowl Games remain in game but are now more closely aligned to the real life Bowl Games (more on which later). Where applicable, the conference tournament final is played at the real-life College Football Conference Championship Game venue e.g. Lucas Oil Stadium for the Big Ten. Where no real-life Conference Championship Game exists, I have chosen a neutral venue from the region to host the conference tournament final annually e.g. Camping World Stadium hosts the Conference USA Tournament final.

The winners of each conference tournament qualifies for the College World Series, more on which later. Also, the competition history for each conference records winners for the 18-game regular season and the conference tournament separately.

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by samba23

[samba23]

In my original database I only had the six most important Bowl Games, known as the New Year's Six. However, they weren't true to real life as the first four Bowls were quasi-Conference Championship Games. In this update I have included 36 out of the 39 real life bowl games (I have not included minor Bowl Games that have a more important Bowl Game at the same venue).

The Existing NY6 Bowl Games have now been combined into one competition "New Year's Six Bowl Games". However, they still exist and work as separate Bowl Games (e.g. if you search for Fiesta Bowl you will still be taken to the competition page). The remaining Bowl Games have been divided into three competitions, DI-A, DI-AA and DII Bowl Games. The top 8 DI-A teams qualify for a Bowl Game, the top 6 DI-AA and the top 4 DII teams also qualify. All Bowl Games are played cross-conference between teams that finished in the same positions in the overall standings (inclusive of non-conference results), therefore a team's entire schedule (or resume) is considered when Bowl selections are made. Each Bowl Game will always feature teams from the same two conferences (e.g. the Rose Bowl features #1's from the Pac-12 and Big Ten conferences) This is intended to mirror the Bowls in real life, most of which have conference affiliations but the teams actually chosen for each bowl game can often be fluid.

The NY6 Bowl Games still count as trophies won and will show up on the winning club's competition history. The remaining Bowl Games do not count as individual trophies. Therefore, no history is recorded on each competition page for individual Bowl Games and the club histories will show each Bowl Game under each parent Bowl Competition that the team has played in each year.

Bowl Games also pay out money to each team that is chosen to play in them. This varies Bowl-by-Bowl. In game I have tried to stay as true to real life as possible. Therefore, for the Citrus Bowl teams receive $4.25m. However, for some Bowls (mostly the DII Bowls) I have given more money to participating teams to make payouts more equal at each level. For example, the Frisco Bowl only pays out $100k in real life.

The Bowl Games are played following the conference tournaments and before the NCAA Tournament, NIT and CIT. There are 3 Bowls per day starting with the DII Bowls and ending with the NY6 Bowls. This is similar to real life where most bowls are spread out over two weeks in December.

[t27]

this update looks amazing cant wait for you to post it

[samba23]

The basketball tournaments that follow the Bowl Games are largely unchanged. They still have the same number of teams, teams are seeded the same and the draws are seeded the same. The main difference with the seedings and draw is that teams are chosen from their overall standings rather than just the 18 conference games. Also the 3rd and 4th rounds of each competition has the seeded draws working perfectly whereas this was previously not always the case.

The next change with these tournaments is that they are now played in a shorter window. This doesn't affect the NIT and CIT as much (which are still largely one round per week). However, the dates for the NCAA tournament (regions and Final Four) are changed to more closely align to real life. Teams progressing will now play two matches per week throughout the tournament.

Each tournament is now divided into multiple stages. This is done to enable the brackets to be seeded properly e.g. 4 brackets seeded 1-8 in the NIT and for the NCAA regional tournament matches to be played in the correct venues i.e. teams will play at the same venue for rounds 1&2 and then the Sweet 16 & Elite 8. The stages for each NCAA tournament region is named after the city they are played in e.g. "Houston, TX" is a stage for rounds 1&2 in the Midwest region.

The final for the CIT is now played over two legs at each home venue, with a 3rd match possible if the two legs end in a tie (the two legs are decided over aggregate points rather than the usual aggregate goals). This is done to match the real life College Basketball Invitational on which the tournament is based. This change has also been made because all Bowl Venues now have a Bowl Game and there was no need to force a post-season match at minor bowl venues.

[samba23]

15 minutes ago, t27 said:

this update looks amazing cant wait for you to post it

Thank you. I'm expecting to have it uploaded later tonight

[samba23]

v2.1 is out now.

OP is updated with the download link for the new database.

For maximum enjoyment please download these updated graphics files;

Extinct teams

competitions

trophies config file

Please see the OP for instructions on how to download and extract these files and for all other graphics.

 

[samba23]

The College Football Playoff format is unchanged. The only change is that the top 6 teams from each conference are now selected from the overall conference standings (including non-conference words).

I did want to have it so that all DI-A conference standings would be combined into one 40 team overall table, from which the top 24 teams would be selected. This would mean that differing numbers of teams could be selected from each conference. This would give a more accurate representation of the top 24 teams in DI-A. Sadly, I have not been able to successfully combine all DI-A conferences,

I didn't like that the only tournament after the NCAA Tournament, NIT and CIT was the College Football playoff (except for the even later College World Series) and I wanted to add at least one more tournament parallel to the College Football Playoff. The next most significant College sport is Ice Hockey and I considered adding the Frozen Four. However, the teams competing in Ice Hockey are almost all Northeastern based.

Therefore I have decided to add the most obvious College competition, the College Cup, which is a soccer tournament.

 

Only approximately half of Division One Colleges run College Soccer programs. In fact the SEC and Big 12 do not sponsor men's soccer at all. Once the regular conference schedule and conference tournaments have been completed the top 48 teams qualify for the College Cup (all conference winners plus at-large teams). The top 16  teams are seeded 1-16 and are given byes to the second round. The remaining 32 teams are paired by geographical proximity for the first round. All rounds before the semi final are played at the home ground of the highest seeded team. The semi finals and final are played at one neutral venue.

In my database DI-A teams placed 7-10 (i.e. those not in the College Football Playoff) receive byes into the second round. DI-AA teams placed 1-8 play in the first round and are paired with teams in their conference (e.g. ACC 1st v 8th and C-USA 3rd v 6th). The rounds before the semi final are split into four 12 team brackets. The winner of each bracket qualifies for the semi final, to be played at a neutral venue, selected from a pool of stadiums smaller than those used for the CFP and NCAA Tournament Final Four.

 

[samba23]

The final new competition I have added runs parallel to the College Football Playoff and the College Cup. Those two competitions are for DI-A and DI-AA teams so unsurprisingly this competition is for DII teams.

My database's version of the College Football Playoff took the 24 team format from the real-life FCS Championship (DI-AA) so it was an obvious choice to use the same 24 team format for this database's DII Championship.

The top 6 teams from each conference (using the overall standings) qualifies for the tournament. The top 8 teams, 1st and 2nd in each conference, receive a bye to the second round. Unlike the CFP all matches prior to the final are played at the home ground of the higher seeded team. The final is always played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, TX and is played on the same day as the CFP final, at an earlier kick-off time.

[samba23]

The final tournament to be changed in this update is the College World Series. This tournament has been expanded from 8 to 126 teams (1 from every conference plus 4 at-large teams) and the qualifying teams for this tournament are the winners of each conference tournament, as opposed to using the conference or overall standings. In this way this enables the College World Series to more closely resemble the real life tournament, which starts out as a 64 team field in 16 regional brackets before culminating in the 8 team College World Series. By using the conference tournaments to determine the qualifying teams, this means that each conference tournament is effectively a pre-qualifying round and therefore 72 teams (12 conferences x6 teams) effectively play in the expanded tournament.

This 16 team tournament format is the same as the College World Series from the Super Regional stage onwards. In real life the 16 regional bracket winners are paired up into 8 Super Regional ties. These ties are played as a best-of-three with the 8 winners progressing to the 8-team College World Series.

In game, the regional 64-team stage is not used. Instead there is the 72-team pre-qualifying stage outlined above (12x6 team regional tournaments). In the Super Regional round the DI-A tournament winners are paired with the DII tournament winners and the DI-AA tournament winners are paired with the DI-A tournament runners up (the 4 at-large teams). Ties are played at 8 pre-determined venues and are played as a two legged tie, with a replay if the aggregate points total is tied after two games. All 3 super regional ties for each team are played at the same venue. The 8 Super Regional winners then advance to the 8 team College World Series bracket.

The 8 team tournament stage is unchanged from the previous 8 team configuration (double elimination until the semi final) except for the fact that it is separated into two 4-team brackets. This means that teams stay in their designated bracket until the Championship Game, which makes the draw the same as real life. The final change is the addition of extra baseball stadiums  (almost all of which have featured college football matches) to play the extra matches in.

Edited June 14, 2018 by samba23

[dit3456]

Hi, haven't had time to check out the new update, but looks very good! I noticed the dl-link of the updated graphic files have expired

Keep up the good work!!! Best USA fantasy database I've come across so far.

[noah08]

Looks incredible will have to give this a shot

[darkfred93]

thanks Samba for this fantastic work !
I have tried many times to create an update like that, without ever succeeding.

I modified some detail (like some reputation or color), but your base are near to perfetc !

I add also age limitation for all tournament (no player under 18, and no player after 22), because I prefer play like that.

I still have a slight problem. The teams seem to keep their older player.
Not a big problem, but the player are unhappy, and is not a good thing for computer team...

I haved try with option "players not registered are immediately waived" on editor,
but that does not seem to work properly.

Have you an idea to fix that ?