I don't make a habit of coming into the forums and whining like a little biatch... in fact, I usually try to take time to help guys out where I can because so many took the time early on to help me out and I love the fun bantering that happens in some of the threads. But at this point, I feel that I've been black-balled by WIS. My complaints about the game engine and the fact that I've made it very clear that they won't be getting anymore of my money after this, the final season that I've paid for, has made them flip the kill switch on me.
My complaints have centered around the fact that most passes that aren't short are either incomplete or intercepted and I'm forced to set up my offense so that any play that has ANY POSSIBILITY of passing is set to "very conservative", to limit deep and intermediate throws. Yet the engine decides to have my QB throw deep in the most inopportune moments (3rd and 2 and my settings are heavy run, very conservative... my QB lobs a 40 yarder that's intercepted). Yeah, I could always set it to ALWAYS RUN, but then I'm completely limiting my gameplanning more than I already have to in order to compensate for what the game engine does. And this isn't just happening to my QB this season. It started with my 5th year senior last season who was near the top of D-III in Tech, GI and STR. I started complaining last season after my qb started this nonsense of lobbing deep balls all the time even though my gameplan was very conservative. I can see one here and there, but in my only playoff game last season, he chucked up 6 deep balls, 4 were interecepted, 2 were pick-6's in a very conservative gameplan. It's bad enough that my senior kicker a couple season back (high potential, through the roof Tech, Str. and GI, ranked among the top in D-III by the time he was a senior) missed 9 (count 'em, NINE) extra points and even more FGs in chip shot range one season, but now I have to deal with QBs tossing INT's in unrealistic situations... and when I complained (not belligerently, but certainly heatedly and passionately) the black-ball flag went up.
Why do I feel I've been black-balled? I started the season ranked 17 and now sit at 1-3, all 3 losses to inferior teams. GD Reports has my overall team rating at #19. The teams I've lost to have rosters ranked at #59, #105 and a sim at #123. All but one of my players are at least "high potential" and I have a handful (yes, several) STL's on my roster. Currently on my roster there are ten 5-star recruits and eleven 4-star recruits (again, according to gdreports), most of which are starters (those that are not starters were in this years recruiting class, ranked #7 by GDreports). My vision is at or very near the top of the heap and has been for several seasons. My overall record is 107-33. My conference record is 66-12 (4 of the 12 losses in conference championship games, so 66-8 in "regular season" conference play). Until today I'd only lost to 5 sim teams in 10 seasons and 2 of those were D1A teams I scheduled in exhibition just to see how badly they'd beat me (it was ugly). My playoff record is 9-4 with this team, with back to back trips to the NC game just 2 seasons ago. My records for the teams I co-coach in other worlds are similar and the D1-AA team I co-coach just lost the NC by a missed FG in OT.
My point is that I think I have a pretty good grasp on gameplanning, and even giving credit to the human coaches that I've lost to for what must be excellent gameplanning, getting rolled by a sim team with a roster ranked at 123 really solidifies my belief that WIS can and does control outcomes of games and their message to me was "don't let the door hit you on the way out." I also find it strikingly odd that my compliant centered around interceptions and my qb has so far tossed 8 in 4 games while running everything very conservative and again, most of the int's are on medium to deep passes.
I realize it sounds like sour grapes, but I truly believe that WIS has flipped a switch on me. Losing to a superior team always stings, but I can live with that. Getting dominated by 3 inferior teams and particularly a very bad sim team seems very suspicious to me, considering I've been a perenial strong team. My very first season I took a team that had been sim coached for several seasons to a 9-5 record, losing in the conference championship game to the ultimate national champion. Since then, I've had seasons with records of 11-3, 12-2, 13-3, 7-6, 17-2, 17-2, 9-4 and 11-3 and now, after griping at WIS, I'm suddenly 1-3 and losing to sims? So, suddenly, I can't gameplan anymore? Suddenly all my 4 and 5 star STL juniors and seniors suck? Again, seems more than a bit suspicious to me.
So, I won't let the door hit me on the way out. WIS isn't going to go under because they're not getting my $10 every month anymore, but I've turned no less than 5 players on to this game and because of what seems to be WIS black-balling me, 3 of them have opted not to renew their teams. So my message is "buyer beware." If you **** off the powers-that-be, you might as well just go flush a $10 bill down the toilet once a month because you're not going to win.