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Due to the way formatting looks I am going to break this into another post.
2) Roster Overall Thoughts by Position
I go position by position as broken down above and write a quick 1 sentence synopsis. Maybe something like
"Have 6, 1 graduates need 1/ Have 4 good young talent. Need 1 but low priority."
Or
"Have 6, lose none but 1 needs to be upgraded"
I find this invaluable because in season recruiting after a player signs and you suddenly have extra points, its easy to get shiny object syndrome. Or you find that 78 OVR WR and You HAVE to have him. Only when you look back you dont really NEED a WR but by contrast you dont have a starting C next year and none on your board. It helps keep me focused.
3) Lowest Common Denominator
This is pretty simple. I have a small grid with positions broke down and I list the lowest OVR by position. This allows a nice quick historical trending glance to see if I am improving my overall roster talent. Plus it allows me to make a quick go/no go decision on an interested player who doesnt fit my needs.
If a recruit is available that is better (OVR) than a player already on my roster I will always take him and make room for him. Given the +5 OVR annual bump it means he improve my overall talent regardless of individual attributes.
4) Needs and score brackets.
Next I make a list (before ever looking at available prospects) of what positions I intend to recruit, based on my position ideals above and graduating seniors. I never count on early losses unless they are obvious. Next beside each player I list the current OVR range of all projected returning players at the position. The idea here is I need to see if a player I am recruiting really fits into my roster. If I am looking at a WR who is a 63 for example and my 7 other returning WR will not be graduating and are 75-91..well it is doubtful that 63 will ever play. If he is the best I can do I might as well spend the scholarship somewhere else this year as it will be wasted here.
5) Weekly point tracking.
Next I set up my board by position and track my standing and the points I spend on each recruit. It is amazing the game throws out some really bad data. There are times when you will close 200 points but it will only say 50. There are some other hidden tells I've learned through this.
I will be limited in what I share here (in season) as it will directly effect my recruiting strategy but I will share one neat tip Ive found. CPU teams dont notice when you start recruiting a player. They do notice when you offer a player. So when you find that gem mid season that you trail by 2500...then you throw points at them and see yourself climb 600 the first week. If you keep the steady pressure you can take the lead and pull away without ever waking the sleeping giant. However if you offer now and try to get the quick point bump, the CPU will respond. Every. Time. and you will be in a dog fight. If you are in a big bonus deficit you will have no chance at this point. Likewise you can make a recruit sign with another tea through this same strategy. If you are watching closely enough and see a human closing on a player the CPU leads for and you cant out gain that human because of bonus points, you can offer the player and "wake" the CPU up to compete against the human on your behalf. The game within the game if you will.
Anyway hope any of this is useful and it will all start to make more sense as I post real data as the season advances.
Note the order above is not necessarily the order I'll be posting as, for example 1 & 2 create 4.
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