TCY2 Recruitment: How should it be handled?

[Dutch]

Whenever TCY2 is released...

How would you like to see TCY2 Recruiting handled?

[Huckleberry]

I voted hybrid/different because I'd like to see it mimic real life. Recruiting should be a yearlong process. You should have at least three recruiting periods: preseason (includes summer camps, etc.), season (official visits get a bonus if it's a home game that you win), and postseason (the recruiting endgame).

I don't like that committing is final. If a recruit is committed but a more attractive offer comes along he should switch depending on loyalty or other traits. If the school he's committed to gets too many commitments at his spot, he could bail if he thinks those guys are better.

Coaches' recruiting skills should be varied, too. There should be the Mack Brown type recruiter - gets them early and can hold on to them. The Bobby Bowden type - fantastic finisher. I would simply like to see more depth to recruiting.

[WSUCougar]

What the Texas dude said.

[Swaggs]

Agreed. I want recruiting to last from just after LOI day (late Feb./early March) until the following LOI day.

[vex]

All year as well.

[vex]

Coaches' recruiting skills should be varied, too. There should be the Mack Brown type recruiter - gets them early and can hold on to them. The Bobby Bowden type - fantastic finisher. I would simply like to see more depth to recruiting.

And A&M. Gets them early and can't hold on to them.

[digamma]

I voted hybrid/different because I'd like to see it mimic real life. Recruiting should be a yearlong process. You should have at least three recruiting periods: preseason (includes summer camps, etc.), season (official visits get a bonus if it's a home game that you win), and postseason (the recruiting endgame).

I don't like that committing is final. If a recruit is committed but a more attractive offer comes along he should switch depending on loyalty or other traits. If the school he's committed to gets too many commitments at his spot, he could bail if he thinks those guys are better.

Coaches' recruiting skills should be varied, too. There should be the Mack Brown type recruiter - gets them early and can hold on to them. The Bobby Bowden type - fantastic finisher. I would simply like to see more depth to recruiting.

I'm sold.

[WSUCougar]

I'm sold.
Tramp.

[Passacaglia]

Maximum recruitment customizability. I want to be able to decide when signing day is. I want to be able to set how many visits I can schedule for each player, and how many visits a player can schedule. I want my recruiting actions to sometimes correlate with a player's interest, and sometimes not. I also want to use the teleportation device to be able to visit recruits across the country while I'm also coaching a game in my own stadium.

And in the end, I want the user to be able to decide which school each recruit signs with.

[Franklinnoble]

I want the option to do both. Maybe I'd prefer an isolated recruitment period. And maybe I wanna micromanage it all year long.

[timmynausea]

I also think year round recruiting would be ideal.

[scooper]

season (official visits get a bonus if it's a home game that you win),


I like this idea a lot and I will take it further. There could also be a bonus for atmosphere. Meaning the more prestigious the opponent, the better the visit looks. A visit during a rivalry week could give a boost as well.

In real life, a close loss can mean more for recruiting than a win over a lesser team.

Just to cite an example, the weekend of Notre Dame's close loss to USC was a huge recruiting weekend for the Irish and the atmosphere was huge. It did a lot more for recruiting than blowout home wins over Navy and BYU.

[Emiliano]

Definitely all year long. Hell, recruiting is half of the college game!

[dawgfan]

Recruiting is a year-long process, and it should be in the game as well. One of the things I liked about BBCF is how Arlie did a pretty accurate job of breaking down the tasks a coach has to do over the course of a year.

The season should end after signing day in February, and the start of the next season should begin with scouting the next wave of recruits and beginning to contact them and sending offers to the studs. Adding "team camps" as a way to get an up-close evaluation of recruits would be cool, allowing a coach to get a much better idea of whether a recuit is worth a scholarship offer. A few of the recruits will commit during this period, the ones that already have strong preferences for a school and get an offer from that school.

Once the season starts, recruiting picks up steam as coaches now have player performances to add to their scouting reports on prospects. Official visits begin happening, and more guys start pulling the trigger on a commitment if they are offered.

Once the season ends, recruiting is in high gear - a lot of guys will have commited already, but many top names and also-rans will still be holding off on a commitment, with some waiting till signing day to make their choice. Once that happens, coaches can then offer remaining recruits to walk-on if there's room on their roster.

[MizzouRah]

I thought TCY2 was announced. :)

[WSUCougar]

I see you viewing this thread, Arles! :D

[Arles]

I'm always open to new and potentially better ideas. ;)

[hoopsguy]

Bringing juniors into play would also be interesting - at least the top-rated ones (Top 200?). It would give the top-rated programs more targets to spend their higher budgets on, perhaps creating better opportunities for the smaller schools to win on middle-tier recruits who they target as compared to the increasinly wide nets for the power schools. Or create scenarios like this - Would USC be able to steal a stud QB from the state of Washington away from WSU if the Cougars began recruiting him a year earlier than the Trojans?

[WSUCougar]

Would USC be able to steal a stud QB from the state of Washington away from WSU if the Cougars began recruiting him a year earlier than the Trojans?
Never! We'd steal their horse.

[hoopsguy]

Why am I not surprised at the first guy to respond to this? :)

[IMetTrentGreen]

i'd like more depth too, as long as the depth adds to decisions and not button clicking.

i'd like to see more types of players, if you are recruiting as a mid or low level team. if you are tcu or somebody like that, you have a ton of players to choose from, its just a matter of getting the right guys for your style in there, along with winning them over, of course.

i'd also want some way to find diamonds in the rough without it being totally random. a way that you the user can see 4 or 5 star potential in a 3 star player. i have no idea how i would handle this though.

[AlexB]

I'd personally like to the TCY2 recruitment handled after all the necessary tweaks to the next edition of FOF :)

[dawgfan]

I'd personally like to the TCY2 recruitment handled after all the necessary tweaks to the next edition of FOF :)
FOF has had two revisions since TCY came out. I think it's fair for the FOF crowd to wait for TCY to finally be revised, since we've been waiting for nearly 5 years now for a new version.

[Ben E Lou]

HERE (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showpost.php?p=755567&postcount=152) is how it should be done. ;)

And for those too lazy to click...
I'd like to see a realistic calendar. I *love* the way FBCB moves seamlessly from one month to the next, with logical actions for each month of the calendar year. I'm writing this in April 2005, and in real life, recruiting has been going on pretty much since the first Thursday in February. Kids are being recruited NOW for next February's signing day. Junior days have already happened at several (if not all) SEC schools. *Tons* of recruits are heading to the G-Day game in Athens this weekend, and a bunch were there watching practice last weekend. Texas already has 16 verbals. Most top-tier teams will have 16-20 verbals by the time the season starts. The December-February period may have a few blue-chippers left in it, but most of the big schools will have their classes 70-90% full by then. For big schools, Dec-Feb. is spent mainly making sure all those verbals don't de-commit, and then focusing on the small handful of target guys left. I like the FBCB model of having a continuous calendar, especially for college football:

January 2005: finish Bowl (or playoff) section, mop-up recruiting for 2005 Signing Day if you're at an elite school, heavy recruiting for 2005 signing day if you're a non-BCS D-1 school like a Tulane, a Memphis, a Miami of Ohio.

February 2005: Signing day! Some verbals change their tune on you. News of which underclassmen decide to declare for the NFL Draft.

March 2005: Hold Junior Days for 2006 recruits, visits to high schools, first verbal commitments for Class of 2006.

April 2005: spring practice (work on new formations, some particularly smart incoming signees already enrolled in school and can practice, getting a boost in development, chance of injuries if you decide to have a spring game, but if you DO have one, can increase alumni donations and loyalty, as well as be a showcase game where Class of '06 HS players check out your school, players who were injured in the season and can't practice, like Kregg Lumpkin, get minimal/no boost in development, )

May 2005: visits to high school spring practices to evaluate players (can't tell you how many recruiters I saw at Tucker's spring practice last year....probably 6 or 8 different D1 schools every day), find out if any of your returning players will be academically ineligible for 2005 season.

June 2005: summer training for current players and incoming freshmen, host summer camps for high schools (would give a BIG boost to attendees in both propensity to sign with you and in accurate evaluation of talent)

July 2005: new weight room, 40 times, etc. recorded for returning players and new players. (UGA usually does this the last week of July.), more summer camps to woo/evaluate 2006 recruits

August 2005: Practice! Players can potentially get injured, (see Kregg Lumpkin again...out for the year in '04 in a non-contact drill), potential for "breakout" players at this point (guys who perform well in practice unexpectedly), first "accurate" evaluation of football skills of incoming freshmen

September-December 2005: play games, host official visits, call players, go to high school games anywhere on off weeks (within budget), go to high school games within x number of miles of your location on game weeks...going to high school games increases likelihood of coming to your school, and gives you a more accurate picture of the player

Furthermore:Use the calpreps.com national rankings (just about every single high school in the country is in there) to determine "athletic preparation" ratings. This could be a toggle for those who don't care ("randomize high school prestiges"). It bugs me to see Top 100 players come from high schools that have stunk in football for more than a decade, and to rarely/never see recruits from the big-time high school programs because they're randomized with every gamestart.

[Franklinnoble]

Who is "Ol' SkyDog"? Is this like one of those Eddie Murphy movies where you play multiple characters?

[Kodos]

No question. It should be separate and out of season. :)