This is the response I received from someone at EA (so far, the only one to actually respond):

"Hi Jon/Patrick,

I received your inquiry regarding South Alabama and NCAA Football 13.

South Alabama was a provisional member of FBS last year and did not play a full FBS schedule. We did not receive confirmation that they were changing to a full FBS schedule this year until it was too late for inclusion in NCAA Football 13. South Alabama will be included in NCAA Football 14.

Please let me know if you have any questions.



Julie Foster| Communications Manager – EA SPORTS"


What a load of crap. Apparently EA doesn't have any search engines at their disposal. I hope there is some sort of legal recourse, and that we pursue it to the fullest extent possible.

(06-11-2012 10:45 AM)BLEEDITRED Wrote:  What a load of crap. Apparently EA doesn't have any search engines at their disposal. I hope there is some sort of legal recourse, and that we pursue it to the fullest extent possible.

With all due respect my friend, it shouldn't be up to EA to search who is going to be FBS when. The majority of non-AQ schools are an afterthought when it comes to these games.

As far as legal recourse goes...are you serious?

(06-11-2012 11:20 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 10:45 AM)BLEEDITRED Wrote:  What a load of crap. Apparently EA doesn't have any search engines at their disposal. I hope there is some sort of legal recourse, and that we pursue it to the fullest extent possible.

With all due respect my friend, it shouldn't be up to EA to search who is going to be FBS when. The majority of non-AQ schools are an afterthought when it comes to these games.

As far as legal recourse goes...are you serious?

Are you saying that EA Sports should not be responsible for the content of their game?
Also, if the contract with the NCAA requires them to put in every FBS program, which their inclusion of UMass and Texas State would define as transitional programs too, than USA may have a little leverage here. It's not out of the realm of possibility.

Who cares....Its a video game...

Maybe ill get pissed because they didnt put the basketball arena in the background next to the football stadium.

I'm not a gamer, either, but most high school kids are. This is another platform for potential recruits to hear about the establishment of a football program at South Alabama.

(06-11-2012 12:41 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  I'm not a gamer, either, but most high school kids are. This is another platform for potential recruits to hear about the establishment of a football program at South Alabama.

No I do play NCAA 12 on my xbox...But I dont get bent out of shape over something they dont include...

(06-11-2012 12:43 PM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:41 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  I'm not a gamer, either, but most high school kids are. This is another platform for potential recruits to hear about the establishment of a football program at South Alabama.

No I do play NCAA 12 on my xbox...But I dont get bent out of shape over something they dont include...

I think "getting bent out of shape" over the exclusion of your school is a bit different, I would certainly be disappointed if I were a USA fan, but any talk of legal recourse is beyond laughable.

(06-11-2012 12:46 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:43 PM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:41 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  I'm not a gamer, either, but most high school kids are. This is another platform for potential recruits to hear about the establishment of a football program at South Alabama.

No I do play NCAA 12 on my xbox...But I dont get bent out of shape over something they dont include...

I think "getting bent out of shape" over the exclusion of your school is a bit different, I would certainly be disappointed if I were a USA fan, but any talk of legal recourse is beyond laughable.

I would be too...But they started making this game probably back in 2011...USA will certainly be in 2014

(06-11-2012 12:43 PM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:41 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  I'm not a gamer, either, but most high school kids are. This is another platform for potential recruits to hear about the establishment of a football program at South Alabama.

No I do play NCAA 12 on my xbox...But I dont get bent out of shape over something they dont include...

If Troy got left out it wouldn't be a big deal because Troy is already a known FBS quantity. USA is just arriving and needs all the exposure it can get. This is a tangible detriment to USA, particularly in recruiting when an opposing coach can use their absence to belittle the program to a potential recruit.

(06-11-2012 12:46 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:43 PM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:41 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  I'm not a gamer, either, but most high school kids are. This is another platform for potential recruits to hear about the establishment of a football program at South Alabama.

No I do play NCAA 12 on my xbox...But I dont get bent out of shape over something they dont include...

I think "getting bent out of shape" over the exclusion of your school is a bit different, I would certainly be disappointed if I were a USA fan, but any talk of legal recourse is beyond laughable.

It seems very plausible that EA Sports may be required to have all FBS programs represented. I don't think anyone's anticipating a lawsuit here but EA may have to do something to placate USA.

I would think it would be hard to show in a court that USA has somehow been harmed by being left out of a video game. Especially if there was some deadline that you missed, as the email would imply.

Sucks for USA fans. Don't they have a create a team feature or something like that?

(06-11-2012 12:46 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:43 PM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:41 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  I'm not a gamer, either, but most high school kids are. This is another platform for potential recruits to hear about the establishment of a football program at South Alabama.

No I do play NCAA 12 on my xbox...But I dont get bent out of shape over something they dont include...

I think "getting bent out of shape" over the exclusion of your school is a bit different, I would certainly be disappointed if I were a USA fan, but any talk of legal recourse is beyond laughable.

Are you serious? Laughable? So, they can pick and choose what FBS teams they want to represent? Are they not under some contractual obligation?

If you want to know so bad email EA sports....Thats about as far as its going to go or even should go.

(06-11-2012 12:56 PM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  If you want to know so bad email EA sports....Thats about as far as its going to go or even should go.

You must have the reading comprehension of a gerbil. One, already did. That was the response received. Two, again, South announced its FBS intentions the earliest of any of the FBS programs joining the ranks this year. Timing is not a reason for the research to have been done for the others but not for us.

(06-11-2012 11:20 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 10:45 AM)BLEEDITRED Wrote:  What a load of crap. Apparently EA doesn't have any search engines at their disposal. I hope there is some sort of legal recourse, and that we pursue it to the fullest extent possible.

With all due respect my friend, it shouldn't be up to EA to search who is going to be FBS when. The majority of non-AQ schools are an afterthought when it comes to these games.

As far as legal recourse goes...are you serious?

And that's just plain stupid. Of course it's up to them. Especially in this day and age of conference movement and FCS to FBS movement. So, each team that has moved conferences needs to contact them? Please. Of course they have an obligation to do their due diligence.

(06-11-2012 12:55 PM)RaiderDoug Wrote:  I would think it would be hard to show in a court that USA has somehow been harmed by being left out of a video game. Especially if there was some deadline that you missed, as the email would imply.

Sucks for USA fans. Don't they have a create a team feature or something like that?

Maybe. And I'm no lawyer, but one would think that the misrepresentation of exclusion here would be of some significance.

Yes, they do have team builder function. But the exclusion is the point.

(06-11-2012 12:54 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:46 PM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:43 PM)Atlanta Trojan Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 12:41 PM)AtlantaJag Wrote:  I'm not a gamer, either, but most high school kids are. This is another platform for potential recruits to hear about the establishment of a football program at South Alabama.

No I do play NCAA 12 on my xbox...But I dont get bent out of shape over something they dont include...

I think "getting bent out of shape" over the exclusion of your school is a bit different, I would certainly be disappointed if I were a USA fan, but any talk of legal recourse is beyond laughable.

It seems very plausible that EA Sports may be required to have all FBS programs represented. I don't think anyone's anticipating a lawsuit here but EA may have to do something to placate USA.

The only people EA needs to placate are those who are buying millions of copies of the game. How many copies of NCAA 12 did USA fans buy? If you can show that as a significant number then i'm sure they would drop all the other pre launch work they are doing to get your roster rated and stadium detailed.

I know it sucks but you are going off the deep end with some of those statements.

Hmmm, I played 10+ seasons with a South Alabama team that someone created last year and it was probably a hundred times better than any team EA would create for you.

That being said, I can think of only a billion things that are more significant than this issue. One of which being whether or not I'm getting the "XXX" vitamin water or the "power-C" one. I know, it's a tough call...

(06-11-2012 12:59 PM)BLEEDITRED Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 11:20 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote:  

(06-11-2012 10:45 AM)BLEEDITRED Wrote:  What a load of crap. Apparently EA doesn't have any search engines at their disposal. I hope there is some sort of legal recourse, and that we pursue it to the fullest extent possible.

With all due respect my friend, it shouldn't be up to EA to search who is going to be FBS when. The majority of non-AQ schools are an afterthought when it comes to these games.

As far as legal recourse goes...are you serious?

And that's just plain stupid. Of course it's up to them. Especially in this day and age of conference movement and FCS to FBS movement. So, each team that has moved conferences needs to contact them? Please. Of course they have an obligation to do their due diligence.

Well considering none of the aforementioned schools are championship or postseason eligible, I wouldn't say they have an obligation to include any of them.

You're conference movement isn't really a good comparison either as I'd imagine the conference offices take care of that.

And again, not to downplay USA or the Sun Belt in general, we're just not that important to the success of the game. If they botch something in regards to a Sun Belt school, it doesn't really hurt the game one bit. How many South Alabama fans/students do you really think won't buy the game specifically because they can't play as the Jags? Most will either create the team, or just play as one of those other schools a couple hundred miles north of you that they probably rooted for(or still root for). EA has a history of shortchanging the non-AQ schools. I believe the first year on 360 and PS3 was just a slightly updated version of the last PS2 version, that first year on the current consoles that they built from the ground up, they only put like 60 or stadiums in the game as that was the year they started doing the satellite rendered stadiums that were supposed to be accurate down to the square inch or something like that. The rest of the schools just played in a generic stadium, I believe even the second year they still only had like 110 or so stadiums, it took three years to get every school's stadium in there. That second year MT got in, but not all the Sun Belt schools did.

Lastly, unless they changed how they do things, having USA included this year would just be a tease, as even in dynasty mode, pending changes to FBS status and conference alignment don't take place. I remember WKU being included in the year that was the final year of their transition, but in my dynasty mode ten years down the road they still weren't Sun Belt members. In the most recent version, there were future conference moves that had already been announced before the release of the game, that did not happen in the game down the road in dynasty mode. So even if USA were included in this version, it's likely they would have been permanently stuck in FBS limbo.