BLOOMINGTON – In late April, Mark Skirvin came to Andrew Mascharka with a job that no one had tackled in at least eight years.
Skirvin, IU’s senior assistant athletic director for marketing, needed Mascharka to take some time off between the women’s basketball postseason and spring soccer practice to take a checklist to Memorial Stadium and snap what turned out to be about 800 photos. to be.
Photos, panoramic shots, even full 360-degree spins, from yard lines on both sides of and including the 50-yard line. Mascharka had to capture the stadium from different depths and from multiple specific angles, shot after shot on the incredibly detailed list Skirvin provided. Mascharka, the photography director for IU Athletics, had to include photos of everything unique to the stadium, such as Hep’s Rock, the impressive five-story press room and the distinctive spires of IU’s North End Zone facility.
More:No, IU’s Memorial Stadium is not getting any flash renovations. But maybe new pipes.
Skirvin needed everything for April 15th. That was the tough deadline he’d been given to give all the photos to Electronic Arts, as part of the video game giant’s revival of one of its oldest—and most desired—game series: “NCAA Football.”
“They were very specific. They had a sheet that basically guided us through what they needed,” Mascharka told IndyStar. “They’re focused on making this as detailed and accurate as possible.”
EA’s NCAA football franchise — which started out as “Bill Walsh College Football” before evolving into its more modern vintage — was at its peak among the most popular sports-based video games in the country. Even now, eight years after it was partially discontinued due to legal concerns over its use of similarities, game users annually produce and share detailed rosters for every team in the game, downloadable as long as a gamer has an “NCAA 14” disc, an Xbox 360. (school sports games have not been made backward compatible) and an internet connection.
What led to the discontinuation of “NCAA Football” and other college sports video games like “College Hoops 2K” is the same thing that is now opening the door for its return.
Perhaps the most prominent early challenge to the NCAA’s ban on athletes’ compensation actually arose from a video game, when former UCLA star Ed O’Bannon realized that his likeness was still being used in college basketball games long after his career ended. . O’Bannon claimed he should share in the profits from such use.
From 2009, when his lawsuit was filed, until today, O’Bannon v. NCAA has remained one of the most recognizable challenges to the NCAA’s athlete compensation policy. It led to a variety of further legal actions, some of which expedited the approval of the name, image and likeness last year.
EA’s original franchise died after its 2014 iteration, when the NCAA and other entities pulled out of licensing deals in an increasingly weakening legal environment.
Now that NIL is allowed – and in some cases state laws – a closed door is now opening again. On February 2, 2021, five months before NIL activity was officially legalized, EA tweeted a photo of a confetti-strewn football field, with the message, “For those who never stopped believing, College Football is coming back.”
The long-awaited relaunch is scheduled for July 2023.
“He’s a coach’s dream.”UNC Transfer Emery Simmons Adds Intrigue To IU Receiving Corps
“He worked his tail off.”James Head hopes to give IU D-line the game it was missing
There are still a number of hurdles to restart the franchise, not least of which is organizing licensing deals with all athletes involved. In some cases, athletes from schools have already entered into group licensing agreements that could speed up the process, but the broader effort likely remains complicated.
What EA has asked of the schools are details – as much as humanly possible.
“They have given us a whole set of guidelines,” Mascharka said. “They wanted to get as close to a render as possible.”
That included the long, detailed checklist of shots of specific yard lines, points in the stadium, and corners of an empty Memorial Stadium. Mascharka had to take the same shot of say 22.5 degrees and 45 degrees in some cases, with EA specifying 21 locations around the field it would need to complete the rendering.
Additionally, the company requested those stadium-specific landmarks to add depth to their reconstruction. Mascharka said designers asked for even minor comments, such as the placement of a rain drain near the pitch, to get even the tiniest details in their final rendering.
“Then they needed us to take the important places in the stadium,” he said, “to make sure they make it.”
At the same time, Jeremy Gray, IU’s Senior Associate AD for Strategic Communications, compiled an equally detailed list of possible sound effects specific to Memorial Stadium. For example, what music should the band play down first instead of third, or if it would do something different after a touchdown compared to following an extra point. Plus, the company wanted audience reactions and traditions — like IU’s first-down march — all to build the most realistic recreation possible.
Gathering all this information was an important part of the franchise’s reboot process, which had built a strong reputation for its attention to detail. All of this gives EA plenty of time to build out those renderings and game day recreations, as schools across the country provide the same information that IU did.
For fans, it’s another welcome step to get “NCAA Football” up and running again, possibly within the next year.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.
0 Comments