Posted by bhouska on 5/2/2012 4:05:00 PM (view original):
I guess what I'm saying, using the formations that are comparable, you'd get the same results, even if you practice one or both formations.

For example,
Passing out of Trips or SG would be comparable

Running out of WB or NDBox would be comparable

Either out of Pro Set or IForm would be comparable

So, you can do whatever you want and still be successful.  You can practice one formation and only use that formation and do good.  You can practice no formations and use them all and still do good.  Or any combination of the 2.  I personally believe (to a point) that the actual personnel doesn't matter as much as it should, especially on defense.

Posted by bhouska on 5/2/2012 4:06:00 PM (view original):
Talent is still king.  Unless you're doing something really wrong.

Posted by bhouska on 5/2/2012 3:58:00 PM (view original):
With the new engine, I honestly don't see that it matters what formation(s) you use.

Posted by govolswoo on 5/2/2012 8:54:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bhouska on 5/2/2012 3:58:00 PM (view original):
With the new engine, I honestly don't see that it matters what formation(s) you use.

we have a new engine?

The best 2 teams in my conference both run nothing but Trips and in the last 5 seasons, they have 5 NC appearances combined and 2 NC's.  However, one of them doesn't practice formations at all so I don't think that's the big factor.  They can recruit to a very specific set of personnel though and don't have to carry many RB's since they never use a FB and don't have to carry a ton of WR since they never use SG.  Consequently, they are very deep up front on both sides of the ball.

Personally, I think  it's all a crapshoot... I love the game, but I don't think formation practice matters much and gameplanning unfortunately doesn't seem to either.  I don't spend much time on formation practice and I had more Average Team Growth than any team that made the playoffs in my conference... my overall team growth was 42 in 16 games.  Some of this may also be because my entire roster is all high potential guys, so I take that with a bit of a grain of salt.  In any event, that leaves you with talent and even that doesn't seem to matter all that much.  I played a guy in the second round of the playoffs and felt my team was either superior or better at about every position.  I gameplanned him down to a tee and he did everything I expected him to do.  The problem is that EVERY SINGLE thing he did worked, even though I was prepared for it at every turn.  Spent 2 hours gameplanning and took what was probably the worst beating I've taken since my first season, 54-6.  When I looked at the Game Analyzer, he did exactly what I expected and prepared for, yet every single thing he did worked.  The following game, another team in my conference completely dominated him.  So how much of it really matters?  I run multiple offenses and defenses throughout the course of a game with nice success. 

There is one advantage I've found in running a fairly solitary offense and that is this.  Let's say you run Pro Set as your only offense.  On 1st and Long can set up your first option as Always Pass - Very Aggressive and then the second option  for 1st and Long can be set as Always Run - Very Conservative.  Since there's only one defensive setting for Pro Set 1st and Long, you can't effectively gameplan (assuming gameplanning matters)...  Hopefully this will be addressed in the update if they're aware of it