TCY Academic Rating: How does it work?

[Ben E Lou]

If there's ever been in-depth analysis on this, I've missed it. My current team has had the highest GPA in the land during 13 of the 16 seasons of my dynasty, including the last 10 in a row. For the last 8 season, it has been significantly higher than anyone else's. Here are the Top 3 from each of the last 8 seasons (mine being #1 each time:

2011: 3.32, 3.05, 3.03
2012: 3.36, 3.12, 3.04
2013: 3.43, 3.04, 3.02
2014: 3.31, 3.10, 3.05
2015: 3.35, 3.16, 3.06
2016: 3.45, 3.14, 3.08
2017: 3.49, 3.22, 3.07
2018: 3.43, 3.08, 3.07

Somehow, my overall Academic Reputation has actually FALLEN each of the last two seasons, from #9 prior to 2017, and I'm down to #12 prior to 2019. Obviously, there's something more to it than GPA, but what? How can I get my Academic Reputation to #1 in the land?

[EagleFan]

Did you have any suspensions over that time period? I've noticed that my ranking had dropped with the same type of circumstances. The only thing negative that happened was an academic suspension by one of those dumb as a brick walk-ons (shouldn't walk ons actually be smarter than recruits since they made it to college based on their academic skills rather than their football skills?).

I've also wondered if there is some sort of penalty for graduation rate, like players leaving early for the pros (and if graduation rate counts, are the players who leave your team for personal reasons counted against that rate, though they may have stayed in school and graduated just not played football after leaving the team).

[Grego]

I believe a portion of the academic rating is obtained by averaging GPA in each major. For instance, you may be ranked 2 or 3 in Algebra, but your Physics ranking of 45 pulls you down.
I always keep an eye on my rank within subjects, as oppose to overall ranking. Recruits only look at the ranking in their particular interest anyway.
In your current universe, look at the team ranked number one in academics, and see where it ranks by individual majors. Methinks it will be ranked no lower than 4 or 5 in any one subject.
In my current sim, I only recruit players with test scores over 1200, have had the highest overall GPA for 25 years running, but the highest I've been ranked in any one subject is 6, with my lowest ranking around 40 or so.

[Ben E Lou]

OK...Looking at it that way makes it even more confusing. My highest ranking is #3, in Algebra, where I have a 2.64. I am also #2 in Geometry--2.88. There is more playing into it than that. Stanford is #1 overall, but they are even #5 in Algebra, with a "robust" 1.95 GPA. I'm ranked #14 in Random Number Theory, despite having a 3.80 GPA, which is the highest.

I have yet to have a player leave early for the pros in this career, and less than five have left because of low playing time, and I've never had a player suspended for academics, although I've had a very small number of crappy walk-ons on academic notice from time to time.

[damnMikeBrown]

I believe that Jim said once that the university itself effects the rating. In your example, Stanford is just systemicly a super strong school in Algebra, so a 1.85 there is still a superior GPA.

I'm not sure where he said it, actualy, if he even did. That's just a disclaimer though. I'm pretty sure that he did say something to that effect :)

[Leonidas]

Originally posted by damnMikeBrown
I believe that Jim said once that the university itself effects the rating. In your example, Stanford is just systemicly a super strong school in Algebra, so a 1.85 there is still a superior GPA.

I'm not sure where he said it, actualy, if he even did. That's just a disclaimer though. I'm pretty sure that he did say something to that effect :)

I don't know if Jim did say these things, but my experience with the game confirms it. If you coach a dynasty from Duke or Stanford you have a good chance to be number one in academics. But if you go to somewhere like Akron no matter what kinds of numbers you put up you will never be any better than somewhere around the 8-10 range. I tried it with Akron and the best I ever got was 8th, even though my overall GPA was nearly a half point above everyone else and I had the highest GPA for every academic field the school had.

I think what Jim did was to assign a permanent academic rating to each school that contributes to the bottom line. Just my theory. I have never played the game with random academics and prestige so I don't know if it still works like that in that mode or not. Would be interesting to here from people who play that mode if they notice similarities.

[ScottVib]

Isn't there an option to randomize the academic reputations along with the athletic reputations when you start a new career?

I would suspect that reputation set at the beginning modifies the figure in someway.

[Buzzbee]

SkyDog - Another thought: are there any majors that you don't offer? If so, that might count against you when the calculations are made. If Stanford offers a major in every subject, it might be enough to give them a higher rating. Just a thought.

[Buzzbee]

DOLA - When in doubt read the help:

Academic Reputations Screen

The Academic Reputations screen shows each school's reputation in every major offered in The College Years. You can show the reputation list by subject or by school.

Schools may not offer every subject. This is determined at the beginning of a new game. Schools with better reputations offer more subjects, though every school offers most. You will not be able to recruit players who wish to focus their studies in a major your school does not offer.

For each school, the game calculates a grade point average for every major. The GPA counts every student who's ever taken a class in that major. The overall reputation is a separate grade, based more on the academic reputation of the school than individual grades.

A school's ranking in a subject is a combination of the school's overall reputation and the grades individual students have achieved at that school in that subject.

Academic reputations at the beginning of a new game can be determined randomly or based on a formula loosely based on real-life reputations. These ratings are not meant to be definitive and should not be interpreted as anything terribly meaningful. No attempt was made to rate schoolsin different subjects.

{empahsis added}

[EagleFan]

Who reads help files? :D

[Ben E Lou]

The sad thing is that I've read the help file three or four times. Guess I missed that, huh? :(

[fantastic flying froggies]

bumpy bump for stickying.

Hope Ol' Skydog 's around...

[primelord]

Hmm SkyDog seems to have a history of not RTFM. ;)

[Huckleberry]

I like that feature of TCY.

Academic reputation of a university is not affected in real-life by the football team's GPA. I would like to see the academic rating for the purposes of a football sim be a composite of the institution's academic reputation - both overall and in the field of study, the football team's graduation rate (minus transfers, early pro guys, etc.), and the lowest factor being the football team's average GPA.

These are what real-life recruits look at when they're talking about a school's reputation. I also am a big fan of breaking it up by major.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by primelord
Hmm SkyDog seems to have a history of not RTFM. ;) I'll be the first to admit that Jim's help files annoy me. I want a one-click "print manual" button for online help (or a nice big beefy manual). I like to read the manual over breakfast or lunch, or in bed at night, not online. I've read all of the FOF/TCY manual pages, but there is so much info, that it is easy to forget. The Solecismic logo that generally wastes an entire sheet of paper when printing the online help files out is a further annoyance.

[Ben E Lou]

I'll be the first to admit that Jim's help files annoy me. I want a one-click "print manual" button for online help (or a nice big beefy manual). I like to read the manual over breakfast or lunch, or in bed at night, not online. I've read all of the FOF/TCY manual pages, but there is so much info, that it is easy to forget. The Solecismic logo that generally wastes an entire sheet of paper when printing the online help files out is a further annoyance.Bump for Jim to consider with whatever his new game is.