How difficult is it to program defensive AI that allows for a team to play great defense but also to have breakdowns? I know most hardcore fans want to play against an AI that plays good defense but also makes 'mistakes' from time to time, just like a real college team. How do you try and provide that mix?

Good question. Our first priority is making sure the team plays great team defense – but you have to find that right balance between “perfect defense” and introducing some element of error. We really focused on allowing the user to take advantage things like of ball reversals, dribble penetration and kicking out to the open shooter when the help defense comes over (really focused on getting the defense moving). As in real life – the more you do that, the more likely you are to get better opportunities. It's really about getting the defense to break down.

What can we expect from the sim engine in both the Top 25 ranking AI, the NCAA tourney selection AI, as well as the believability of the simmed games? I think this is always a tough part to nail down as you don't want too many shocking upsets but at the same time they still need to happen. How do you balance that?

We invested a lot of time into tuning the sim engine this year. It's really a matter of keeping all the ratings working together in the right way. As the game changes each year, the simulation engine needs to grow to keep up with how the game works. We made up a lot of ground from last year and the results in rankings and NCAA Tournament results are much more reflective of how these games would play out in real life given the personnel we have in the game.

Has the recruiting model been tweaked at all? If so, in what way? Will we see diamond in the rough freshmen, one and done freshmen, will the top schools lure more 5-star players than mid majors?

The biggest change to recruiting this year was the increased difficulty in landing 5 star recruits. There are less to scout and pursue and means recruiting will play a bigger role than last year in keeping your program consistently competitive in future years.

Aside from recruiting, has Dynasty Mode in general received any attention? How’s it different from ’09?

I've mentioned two of the biggest improvements so far, improved simulation logic and less 5 star recruits. We’ve also made some UI enhancements to make it easier to navigate.

One element of dynasty that was enhanced by the broadcast presentation is the ability to surface dynasty stats in broadcast graphics. Player and team season stat averages, national rankings and conference standings, home and away records, are all tracked and presented exactly the way you see them on a live broadcast. It adds a nice element of immersion to the game seeing the stats and results you have worked for in your dynasty games framed the way they do it on the broadcasts. Having the 2 broadcast packages really does add another cool element to Dynasty. We have ESPN games during the week and then CBS Broadcasts the big games on the weekend. We also have the conference tournaments televised either CBS or ESPN. And then the NCAA Tournament is of course on CBS.

Will the game continue to support roster sharing?

Yes, roster sharing is in game in the same way as last year. Players will be able to share rosters through EA locker and we made it easier for them to share the roster publicly and not just with someone on your friends list.