Recruiting at "Very Low" Prestige schools.

[SkyDog]

Anyone tried recruiting with a Very Low prestige school? If so, what is recruiting like?

[GridironGamer]

Would love to know this also. How awesome it would be if you could never really build a power at a low or average prestige school, i know sounds ridiculous to say. But it really adds to the realism of BBCF. Be also interested to find out later how tough a task is it to revive a once great program. I think of current programs such as Nebraska and Washington.

[Chappy]

Skydog, I was hoping your new dynasty report would clue me in. :)

[SkyDog]

[QUOTE=Chappy]Skydog, I was hoping your new dynasty report would clue me in. :)[/QUOTE]That's why I asked. I'm doing my dynasty right now, during recruiting, and I'm seeing some things that I'm curious if others have seen, and how they react to them. If any of you could sim to recruiting with a Very Low prestige team and go through the process, I'd love to get your impressions. I don't want to skew the results by telling what I'm thinking, but I'd like to give Arlie the proper feedback on some matters, and not just with my opinion.

[FSUfan]

[QUOTE=GridironGamer]Would love to know this also. How awesome it would be if you could never really build a power at a low or average prestige school, i know sounds ridiculous to say. But it really adds to the realism of BBCF. Be also interested to find out later how tough a task is it to revive a once great program. I think of current programs such as Nebraska and Washington.[/QUOTE] I think never being able to build a power at a low prestige is school would not be awesome at all. I think is should hard as hell yes but NEVER, that's alittle much. I think you should take a school like UCF for instance 0-11 last year and fighting in for a conference championship the next year is awesome. Be able to build from there, maybe 10 yrs later making them a powerhouse in their conference, then a couple years later making them a powerhouse school like USC. That would be AWESOME. Your thoughts. :D

[cody8200]

Well I have. The thing is you must go after 2 star players I played with Idaho and was able to get several players interested. They were 2 star players but I was Idaho and in a crappy conference. You can occasionally get a 3 star here and there. I think overall that the recruiting works fairly well for a low/very prestige school. I play nearly always a a low prestige school (Indiana). Over at least 25 years of consective playing I can say the model works fairly well. I can usually get 8-10 3 stars a year and occasionally 1-2 4 star players. I can usually get as many 2 stars as I want or am willing to offer a scholarship to.

[SkyDog]

[QUOTE=cody8200]Well I have. The thing is you must go after 2 star players I played with Idaho and was able to get several players interested. They were 2 star players but I was Idaho and in a crappy conference. You can occasionally get a 3 star here and there. I think overall that the recruiting works fairly well for a low/very prestige school. I play nearly always a a low prestige school (Indiana). Over at least 25 years of consective playing I can say the model works fairly well. I can usually get 8-10 3 stars a year and occasionally 1-2 4 star players. I can usually get as many 2 stars as I want or am willing to offer a scholarship to.[/QUOTE]That's great, but I'm asking about Very Low, not Low. Tell me more about your experiences with Idaho.

[cody8200]

Well since most of the other teams in the divison had 2 star players and I was able to land on average about 10 2 stars a year, 2 3 star and a couple of 1's I did quite well in the few years that I played. I was over .500 every year. Idaho doesn't have a ton of money to recruit so most of your recruits come from around the region and sometimes your able to get guys from California. Basically what I'm saying is that even at a very low prestige school if your good at recruiting (which after playing the game for 3 months, I am very good) you can get quite a decent team compared to the rest of your division.

[FSUfan]

[QUOTE=cody8200]Well since most of the other teams in the divison had 2 star players and I was able to land on average about 10 2 stars a year, 2 3 star and a couple of 1's I did quite well in the few years that I played. I was over .500 every year. Idaho doesn't have a ton of money to recruit so most of your recruits come from around the region and sometimes your able to get guys from California. Basically what I'm saying is that even at a very low prestige school if your good at recruiting (which after playing the game for 3 months, I am very good) you can get quite a decent team compared to the rest of your division.[/QUOTE] This is very comforting to know.

[GridironGamer]

FSU, yeah "never" is a little too strong. I was wanting the model to closely reflect what you would see IRL. Where (using the example from above) a school like Idaho could build a program and compete with it's conference members. But would not see them ever compete for a National title i.e. the NCAA series by EA where it is much easier.

[mauboy]

I'll give it a try with UL-M.

[mauboy]

At the beginning of the season, I've got two top 100 players who are YELLOW interested in my school. I have one top 1000 player besides the two in the top 1000 that is interested in me in the GREEN. I am guessing I'll have a very tough task ahead of me if I want to get more interest.

[Bryan Swartz]

I think it should be possible, but take FOREVER, as in at least 20 years or more, to make a FAU or Idaho or whatever a national power. Based on what I've seen, the game does a pretty good job of this.

[Cooleyvol]

How will the transpire in an online league? Who'd take a lower prestige team knowing they couldnt recruit decently at all with no chance of every truly becoming a winner.

[Bryan Swartz]

That depends on how you define 'becoming a winner'. The lower prestige teams shouldnt' have their immediate goal to be national champion. They should want to become competitive in their conference, then work up to being a top team in their conference, and then they can consider more national aspirations. If the people in an online league all want to compete for a national title, then they should take higher prestige teams. Certainly it makes no sense to me to throw realism out the window and make it easier for small schools to recruit so that people in an online league can satisfy their egos by being able to unrealistically recruit too well, an arcade-like fanstasy.

[Cooleyvol]

My question is this: If someone takes UL-M, for instance, and gets better over the years, will their prestige rise, making them more able to recruit competitively?

[mauboy]

After a miracle 7-4 season, we're going to a bowl game. I imagine my prestige may raise a little if I win. We played Utah State(6-5) in the South Louisiana Bowl. We were picked to lose by 15 points. We end up losing by twelve, so at least we beat the spread! Yay. Onto the recruiting now..... Give me an hour. Our prestige still stays at very low.

[mauboy]

Well.. I got two players that were rated as 2, and the rest of the players were 1's. The players all ended up being around 2.0-2.5 stars. One of my players rated 2 ended up being a 2.0/3.0 potential. Ooooh. What is it you were looking for SkyDog? I had no chances at any guys rated above 3. I had slim shots at guys rated as 2 even.

[Miral]

Interesting how quickly a good or bad season effects a team. For kicks, I took #2 Miami, and swapped all the player positions so that I have all 1 star players (don't ask why, I was bored). Starting with Excellent prestige, and now 0-9, I checked the recruits and the highest influence anyone is showing me is yellow. So I can see where a poor or moderate team has an above average season would be more likely to land recruits *that* upcoming recruting season.

[jbmagic]

skydog posted this at FOFC forum [QUOTE=SkyDog]Well, I'm ready to talk now. I was being coy about it because I realized that the problem I was perceiving would require a pretty significant 11th-hour change...but I've just been informed that Arlie has agreed to make that change: there were, in my estimation, FARRRRR too few 1-star prospects. Specifically, in my first season as FIU, there were only 5 one-star QB's in the nation. I was trying to set up an option offense at FIU, and it should be very easy to find some kid from Florida or Georgia who runs a 4.55-4.65 and played QB in high school in an option attack. Those kids grow on trees down here. ;) I was worried that it would be no fun to basically have no decisions to make when recruiting in a Very Low prestige program. Hey, I'm fine with those schools having sucky players, but I want to have a choice as to what kind of sucky players I recruit. :p[/QUOTE]

[Twincitiesfan]

How about North Texas as “low-prestige” school? I just completed playing a season, prestige is low, season record was 3-8, and I selected an average recruiting service. My goal for recruiting was to get as many two-star players as possible, since most players on the roster are one star guys. My method in recruiting was to identify players with strong interest (7 or better) add them to the watch list and scout them in the first week. By the second, third, or fourth week I zero in on players, offer visits, assign recruit effort, and offer scholie. I have to tell you working with 20k a week is not easy, you really have to plan out were to spend your money. I love that aspect of the game, nice touch Greydog! Since not everybody is jumping at a North Texas offer, interest remained high for almost all players but no one committed until week 13. A two star TE committed week 13, then I had two players commit in week 16 (2-star QB and 1-star ILB). At week 16 I was still feeling good, a bunch of two star guys that I targeted still had interest of 9 or better and I thought they would commit week 17. So I advanced to the final week and no one committed!! So my recruits consisted of 3 recruits and the several other players don’t seem to have signed with anyone?? So my questions are this… 1) Did the above example happen because we are using the demo? Or is this the way it is supposed to work? 2) What expectations (number of recruits) should we have at a low prestige school? 3) The high school players that had a 10 interest in North Texas, visited, had a scholie offer, and the recruit action matched there preference. They never signed with anyone, were did they go? Overall I think the game is great, Greydog has done a fantastic job, I hope the final release is out soon.

[dime]

there have been some bugs fixed in regard to recruiting where, in arlie's words, some recruits didn't take your offer into account when deciding where/when to commit. that sounds like it could be what you described there.

[BYU 14]

Skydog explained in his Dynasty thread that you will still get many of the recruits you had on your watch list after the final email is sent, assuming they do not get offers elsewhere. I checked this and found it to be correct. In fact the AI did a pretty good job with these players in regards to addressing needs. I even got a 4* Center out of the deal. Still, overall this end process is way too vague in my opinion and there needs to be some type of notification of who your final signees are, instead of having to check your Roster for them. I guess I don't see why these players can't be included in the final summary. That would actually add some nice suspense...I.E. You complete the final week with only 5 definite commits, then get some surprises on Signing day...... Also I would like to see the ability to accept of deny walk-ons. I had 2 walk-ons in my last run with the Demo and it would be nice to have the ability to turn them down if they were not needed. Here is the summary of my last recruiting class with BYU (below avg prestige)which I feel is very realistic and close to what BYU usually gets IRL. 4 Stars-1 (This was my surprise, a nice Looking Center, which I needed badly) 3 Stars-6 (2 commits before the final week) 2 Stars-9 (1 Walk-on, 2 commits before the final week) 1 Star-2 (1-Walk-on) Pretty much in line with what it should be in my opinion. Four of these guys (including the Center) will compete for starting jobs/significant PT in Camp, also pretty realistic looking at my overall talent.

[Old Boiler]

[QUOTE=Cooleyvol]My question is this: If someone takes UL-M, for instance, and gets better over the years, will their prestige rise, making them more able to recruit competitively?[/QUOTE] I'm wondering if any beta-testers can speak to this after running many season? I'm hoping there's some ability to change prestige, but it should be a difficult process. Real-life examples, to illustrate how hard it should be: So. Cal had many medicore season through the '90's, yet quickly regained national prominence. Northwestern broke out with a couple Rose Bowls, but is still considered a middling Big 10 team, at best. Fresno State and Boise State can crack the Top 25, but it would take perfect alignment of the planets for one of those schools to generate a single top 5 team. How closely is prestige connected to one's conference and schedule strength? I note that Terry Hoeppner left a winning MAC program for a losing Big Ten program (from Miami to Indiana). And recruits who can't play for Texas or Michigan will often want to play [I]against[/I] them.

[Old Boiler]

Another idea: could the initial roster include a star-rating for each player when he was a HS senior? A new coach could use that as a starting point in his own recruiting.