No Named Rosters Online in NCAA Basketball 09

A few days ago I stated I was struggling with finding much reason to anticipate NCAA Basketball 09 after hearing there would be no Be A Pro or Online Team Play included. Granted it sounds as if the gameplay has been vastly improved and the tempo feature sounds great. But still after the OTP, Online Dynasty, and EASHL experiences I have realized that I no longer have the same interest level in playing these games the old standard way. It is pretty clear that the online aspect of NCAA Basketball 09 was put on the back burner.

Now comes news via attendees of the recent community event such as Chris Jacobs of NCAA Strategies and Shawn Drotar of 5WG that despite allowing named rosters to be shared through the EA Locker those rosters won’t carry over into online play. This is a departure from what has been the case in the past and continues to be with NCAA Football. It is especially perplexing given that the last two years March Madness has gone as far as basically providing a roster update at tournament time which was unprecedented for a college game and also was the first to allow sharing of rosters from user to user in 07. It gave the sense that there was some more leniency on the basketball side compared to the football side. Whether this was an NCAA mandated move or just something they couldn’t get to work for some reason is unknown.

Not being able to see the names really kills much of the appeal of playing online to begin with for me. So I’m curious…is this a deal breaker for anyone or does it not make much of a difference?