Is anyone having real trouble winning games?

[QuikSand]

Just out of curiosity... the more I read abotu his game, the more it seems like [u]everyone[/u] is leading their teams to wild success. One guy's Notre Dame team can't land a solid recruit and is perplexed, but he's coming off a threepeat national championship. My weak schools on autopilot have run into immediate and profound success, well beyond any expectations for the school. Others have noted stories with a similar theme. Just in terms of wins and losses... is anyone out there realy struggling? Is that even a possibility with this game?

[Condors]

i was struggling with Temple for a while but i stopped letting the AI do the offseason training and off and def gameplans and i can see the team has made marked improvement but we still have a long way to go.

[QuikSand]

Good to see it's at least possible.

[AZJAZ]

I am 1-3 with Army right now and even the game I won came on a 46 yard TD strike with 30 seconds to go.

[Honolulu Blue]

I spent 19 seasons at Troy and had no real success with them, getting to a high water mark of 5-6 (first season, and three seasons after that). I let the computer handle academics and gameplanning, and I quick simmed through the seasons. I was bad at recruiting for the first several seasons, then got somewhat better. I found it very tough to recruit at Troy. The top Alabama prospects always chose Bama or Auburn. The second tier went to UAB if they liked location, or some other C-USA or SEC school if they didn't. That left me competing for the third tier with the other Sun Belt schools, and I often lost those battles.

[flanman]

Ive been using San Diego state. Played 6 years so far and have had 1 winning season. I simmed most of the games. I have a feeling my record would be better if I played them out but who knows.

[DoctorJ]

It's really hard to win road games in big conferences. I've got Kansas State and every now and then I'll drop a turd against someone like Baylor. Going undefeated is damn near impossible IMO. Recruiting is really hard when you just start out the game, but after 5-6 recruiting classes you should get a good handle on what works and which recruits to take chances on and when to go with safe bets.

[BYU 14]

I have found success much harder to come by in BBCF than TCY, my best Season in probably 20 + is 9-4, with a whole bunch of 6-5, 6-6 Seasons. I do find I do better though when really spend some time on the gameplans and training myself.

[SkyDog]

I'm in my fifth season with Columbus State (replaced NTSU in the Sun Belt, Prestige set down to 20): We're 4-6 (3-3) this year. Our past four seasons: 2005: 6-5 (5-2) 2006: 3-9 (3-4) 2007: 7-5 (4-3) 2008: 2-10 (1-6)

[Gorgonian]

Made it to 2014 with Arkansas. Finished 2-9 in 2005. Got them to one bowl game in 2011 with a 6-5 record. I feel like the team was steadily improving, but the toll of injuries and just some bad luck led to some really bad seasons (like my most talented team going 1-10 in 2010 due to injuries and losing some very unexpected games). This game is far from easy. My second dynasty (I started over due to a strange bug corrupting my initial dynasty) is in its infancy, but finished my first season 5-6 and was 4-7 in 2006. EDIT: I think the strength of the SEC is a big reason for my difficulties. I'm sure it is tougher to win in than whatever league you were in with Kent State or whatever. FWIW, Georgia won the national championship 5 of the first 6 seasons in my original dynasty (lost to Wisconsin in championship game in 2009).

[Guest Nukester]

I went 5-6 with Army (playing all games) and ended up ranked #100 (I believe) for whatever thats worth. I got blown out by teams I should have been blown out by (Notre Dame and Ohio State) and had good ghames against Hawaii, SMU, and Air Force (I got crushed by Navy)

[Hallospensa]

I started my first Season ever with calling nearly all my games myself with just 1 win in 7 games with California and lost the rival game againts Stanford. Maybe it went better now. But i think i will get fired at the end of the season. :-(

[Toddzilla]

I ran 10 years with Wyoming with 5 years at 6-6, a few 4 win seasons and a few 7-8 win seasons thrown in. The 10th season played out alost the same as the last - same prestige, same lousy recruits, etc - so I punted.

[MizzouRah]

I'm currently 3-4 with Troy. :) ..and it's been hard with the pathetic lineup I have right now.

[Miral]

Rutgers has been a struggle, one winning season in 7 seasons, 3 wins most of the time. As I eluded to in another post, I play the inconference big boys well half the time, and play pathetically to the bottom feeders most of the time. The team has slightly improved but so have the rest of the conference.

[wareagle]

My first season with Baylor went 2-10 Followed by another season going 3-8. Tough to compete with the likes of Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma in recruiting. Heck, I have been getting beat out by TCU, Houston in recruiting.

[Wolfpack]

SMU has definitely been a challenge. You can read my report on it in the dynasty forum. Only through a season so far, but I don't see things improving any time soon.

[Wibber]

Two 500 seasons in 12 seasons with Stanford. Sure would be nice if one of you passed along the secrets of success...

[ICBUAB]

What is wrong? [QUOTE=Honolulu Blue]I spent 19 seasons at Troy and had no real success with them, getting to a high water mark of 5-6 (first season, and three seasons after that). I let the computer handle academics and gameplanning, and I quick simmed through the seasons. I was bad at recruiting for the first several seasons, then got somewhat better. I found it very tough to recruit at Troy. The top Alabama prospects always chose Bama or Auburn. The second tier went to UAB if they liked location, or some other C-USA or SEC school if they didn't. That left me competing for the third tier with the other Sun Belt schools, and I often lost those battles.[/QUOTE] Isnt that how it is in real life?

[GaryStephen]

I'm playing my first season with Florida Atlantic, and I'm 2-5 thus far. And we haven't played Tennessee or Texas A&M yet.

[Pembroke]

Overall, I think it's pretty realistic regarding success. Perhaps a bit more variation because of the impact of injuries in the game (toned down in recent patches) / academic problems, and not as much depth as in real life for power teams. But while that allows some seasons up and down, across the seasons, I think it's pretty accurate. I think you're just seeing that people are more likely to talk about it when things are going well. They want to share success more than losing seasons. ;)

[scoman]

Ive had mild success but nothing great im 61-36 after 8 yrs at tennesee,im 5-4 in the postseason with 1 playoff apperance that i made it to the final four,and i have never won my division or conference.

[GeoWar]

I started a solo league with Indiana ... just starting 4th season ... I have total control .. Season 1 record == 2-9 ... season 2 == 3-8 ..... season 3 == 4-8 . Hardest part is that each year the funds are cut .. I recruit high endurance and high GPA players but injuries have wiped out my teams by conference games. So I question the importance of endurance as related to injuries. .

[Alazius]

Durability is more important than endurance as far as injuries go, if I'm not mistaken. It's just that endurance effects how quickly they get worn down, because worn down players get injured more easily.

[CapnPitt]

I certainly haven't had wild success. I keep churning out "Same Ol' Pitt" teams. 7-5s, 8-4s seem to be the norm with a 5-6 and 6-5 "no bowl" season thrown in for good measure. I'm dropping some horrible games against lousy in-conference competition. Seriously, I think UConn's coach reads my mind. From an earlier season when I took the job at Michigan, things were much easier. I think the game replicates the "rich stay rich" atmosphere of college football. I suspect all the success that the OP is seeing regarding national championships comes from people playing the big prestige schools and making small improvements through coaching and training.