Earlier today, EA Sports announced that ex-Alabama running back Mark Ingram will be on the cover of NCAA 12 (Update: As I expected, all four guys that were in the running will have their own alternate covers). We can be as mad as we want, but it came down to a fan vote and basically Alabama fans wanted it more…or had extra time for whatever reason. My whole argument was that he should have never even been up for the vote, but that’s for another post. What I want to talk about is the promotional screenshots that were released by EA Sports following today’s announcement.
Do you see it? Look right above Cody Parkey (K #36)’s crack. Yep. The infamous ‘War Eagle’ on the butt (belt actually) that I wrote about before the National Championship Game. In that post, I linked to an article written by Uni Watch where he confirmed that in 2011 Auburn would have ‘War Eagle’ on the butt of the pants along with new stripes that would match the stripes on the helmets and jerseys.
As you can see, the stripes are not different. They are the same as they have always been. But was Uni Watch right? How and why would EA Sports have them in their new game if it wasn’t true? It’s highly unlikely that they would just do this out of the blue, especially since a guy who knows all about uniforms has been saying it since December. That seems like too much of a coincidence to me.
To be honest with you, it doesn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. I just didn’t want it to look something like this.
So let’s just assume that EA Sports was told that the small ‘War Eagle’ will be on the pants next season. Let’s just assume they just accidentally ruined the surprise in these screenshots. Assuming those things, these pictures may really get you excited or really make you puke.
Yes, the blue pants are (unfortunately in my opinion) back. Will this ever go away? Is this just an alternate, just-for-fun uniform feature EA Sports is adding to this year’s version of the game? Maybe, maybe not.
I ask again, why would EA Sports just all of a sudden add ‘War Eagle’ to the back of Auburn’s pants on the same year where a prominent uniform-centric website claims they will? Do they know something? And if they do, does this mean that they know Auburn will wear blue pants on the road next year?
If the stripes had changed, like Uni Watch said they would, I would be sold on at least the ‘War Eagle,’ but of course this just adds more confusion and mystique to the every-year rumored uniform changes. The old stripes thing could just be a mistake. The game has been known to make many of those.
On another note, the game has added team-specific pregame activities/entrances this year. Will the eagle flight be included? Who knows? It certainly isn’t in the first video teaser.
So like I did last year, I’ll ask what do you think?
22 comments
I wasn’t sure how I felt on the blue pants until I saw these pictures. Not a fan.
It’s not the right blue in those pictures, though. It will look better in person, IMO.
The stripes on the blue pants have the same design as the helmets, just with different colors.
I’m getting nit-picky here, but I don’t think it’s exactly the same. There isn’t as much space between the stripes as on the helmet.
The stripes on the white pants look somewhat smaller than normal, but there is the spacing the uni watch guy talked about on the blue ones, which matches the jersey and helmet so I would suspect that is the change on the white one’s as well. I have to say I like the blue pants, for a game or two. I think that is what folks don’t get when this stuff comes up. They hear “new uniform” and don’t realize it is merely an alternate/option not a replacement for the classic. I have no problems maintaining the classic Auburn uniform and also having an option like blue pants for a road game or two a year. It’s no big deal in my book. No reason to get all holy on everyone about the sanctitiy of the Auburn uniform. WDE!!
My beef with the blue pants being worn on a road game is that those are the toughest to win anyway, and if we wore blue and lost some, people would be calling for Chiz’s head.
I have to agree and you said it pretty well. Maybe one single blue-out game would be fun (unless we happen to lose), but to have the occasional option is no big deal. People seem to think we will become the new Oregon if we “sell out” to the ideas of the Under Armour big wigs, but 2 pants options is not in the unthinkable. I think it could work out.
I would love to see an all navy alternate, but leave the road uniforms all white it looks amazing.
The War Eagle looks fine but the blue pants look terrible on the road, I really hope that it just goes with an alternate home attire where we have the option for all navy.
screw mark ingram and screw EA. what did ingram do for bama last year? not that much in my opinion. he did do us a favor now didn’t he? war damn eagle!
It’s not just your opinion. It’s fact. Mark Ingram did absolutely nothing for bammer last year. WE ARE THE CHAMPS NOT THOSE LOOSERS
I’m not a big fan of the “War Eagle” on the belt, but I hate the blue pants. Personally, I love the Away “Stormtrooper” unis.
I think everyone loves the current uniforms, I know I do. I don’t know anyone that advocates ditching them. Having an alternate pair of pants for road/home games just means the team can mix it up every now and then. That seems perfectly fine for me. So 95% of the time everyone is happy, and the other 5% the folks who hate the new options will gripe, unless we win of course.
Our uniforms are the best in the nation, home or away. Classic and sharp. I am against the blue pants. We don’t need to turn into Florida on the road.
As far as Ingram on the cover, that is some total crap. the bammers had to do something so they could claim a “14th”. I think you should come out with an aftermarket cover with AC knocking the ball out from behind and sell it on here. I will accept 10% royalties for the idea. WDE!
I have to say, forget the changes that are shown in these pictures. What I’m noticing is that a bammer is gonna be on the f’ing cover of a game about college football,not the reigning championship team….. Furthermore in the advertisement for said game the first team shown is the f’ing losing team of the championship game. I thought we got no respect before winning. This is ridiculous!!
The pants striping being too then is probably due to the limited amount of space on the polygon model devoted to stripes. All the players in the game are made from virtually the same template to save on disc space. It’s just a matter stretching the polygon model to the proper size of the player needed to be rendered and then filling that player the right coat of paint (or the right ‘skin’). Auburn and Alabama’s pants stripes in those pictures are roughly the same size, which we know isn’t the case and honestly Auburn’s pants stripes have looked ‘off’ since the jump to 360/PS3. But I would have to say that there are a lot of incongruities in those pictures than just the pants and with Auburn’s uniform, this seems to be the case with EA every year (who already have a varied history of flubs to begin with).
Look at the size of the jersey numbers on the Auburn players and then look at Alabama’s. There is no comparison: Auburn’s guys look like they were made on the create-a-team. (Plus look at the mammoth sleeve striping where the spacing is also off.)
I always though that this was more of a corporate thing, as Nike had signed a deal with EA to put its logos on Nike-furnished teams way before they signed on with Under Armour. Look at the video with Oregon, USC, Bama: their model’s unis simply look better than Auburn’s and I’m sure the same could be said for S. Carolina, Maryland, etc (It doesn’t help that the template for the pants appears to be the Pro-Combat model this year, even for the non-Nike Teams. See: the seams on the back of the white pants)
As for the cover, don’t worry. I fixed it: http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e65/kkinnus/NCAA12.jpg
As for your comment about the “maybe they’ll have the eagle flying” for pregame? Umm they better sure as heck have that for AU. Are you kidding me? They’ll have a shot of GA Tech coming on the field with their jallopy, and BU players touching some trophy or rock- -but they won’t have the national champ’s (and the best intro in all of sports) intro? no way. It’s gotta be in the game- -blue pants or not.
I think the fans voted on the Cover of the game. But EA will be putting out alterbate covers that you can print out and insert into your Game Case.
Im not from Auburn or Alabama but i’m from Texas so i pretty sure my opinion doesnt count that much, but as far as the blue pants go. I kind of like the idea of switching up styles, I love the All white though dont get me wrong, its bad ass but the blue just gets a different feel to the team instead of seeing the same white pants every saturday. Just my opinion, maybe the blue pants will have to take some time to get used to, I read an article that Aubrun was suppose to wear All blue (Helmet,Jersey & Pants) against clemson last year but they didn’t. But i know all schools have to send in their jerseys to EA and has to approve them before they can appear on the game.
I think that those blue pants are hideous, leave the unis alone.
[…] stars that were spotted on the replica jerseys in Auburn's bookstores. A few months ago it was the 'War Eagle' on the belt line of the back of the pants that was spotted in the EA Sports NCAA 12 preview. I come to tell you today that all are real, and […]
[…] stars that were spotted on the replica jerseys in Auburn's bookstores. A few months ago it was the 'War Eagle' on the belt line of the back of the pants that was spotted in the EA Sports NCAA 12 preview. I come to tell you today that all are real, and […]
[…] Do you see it? Look right above Cody Parkey (K #36)'s crack. Yep. The infamous 'War Eagle' on the butt (belt actually) that I wrote about before the National Championship Game. Read the rest… […]
[…] Do you see it? Look right above Cody Parkey (K #36)'s crack. Yep. The infamous 'War Eagle' on the butt (belt actually) that I wrote about before the National Championship Game. Read the rest… […]