Ladder - Recruiting Boards/Redshirts/Scheduling - Deadline 6/13 at 11pm

[MacroGuru]

Sweet, shifted the 4 * OLB over to MLB because he has the size to play the spot and he transitioned straight across without a point loss and moved a few OLB's around.

I know where I need to recruit during the season and set this team up to be better, but first I must win...

[chesapeake]

Crap. I did what I could during the holiday but had the website scramble on me and then stop functioning entirely. I still had over half of my recruiting time left. My xbox is supposed to return today, so I was hoping to finish up tonight, but I guess the boat has sailed. That's going to hurt.

[gstelmack]

Landed a 4-* QB, 4-* WR, and a 4-* ATH who moved over nicely to HB in the last run, plus a bunch of scrap that will probably get cut when we have to trim the roster down. Biggest worry for this upcoming season is my offensive line, I see a lot of quick throws and scrambling QBs in my future...

[Kodos]

Oops, sorry Chesapeake. I figured some guys didn't have many recruits left at this stage, so when I saw you were partially done, I figured you just ran out of recruits to spend time on. Remember, if you need an extension, just let me know before the deadline.

[Kodos]

My class came together nicely in the offseason recruiting, after a disaster during the regular season. Landed a 4-star QB and two 4-star receivers. Didn't get as much help on defense, where I really needed it the most.

[chesapeake]

It was a crazy holiday weekend at my house. I had made the false assumption that the deadline would be today, so I can't blame anyone but myself.

[cartman]

Well, the ATHs I recruited ended up being useless on defense, which is where most of my needs reside. They graded out great as a QB, RB, and WR, but were horrible as CB or S.

[chesapeake]

Good news and bad news. I got an XBox back; just not my XBox. I made the mistake of leaving my hard drive attached when I sent it out and no hard drive returned with the new machine. No hard drive means no online play. M$ sent me an email yesterday saying that they were sending something back to me that weighs about a pound with an estimated arrival date of next Monday. I will try and get through to them to find out if that is, indeed, what they are sending my way. If not, I'll buy a new HD so we can get the show on the road.

tl;dr: I still can't play the game. I hope to by next Monday night.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

Good news and bad news. I got an XBox back; just not my XBox. I made the mistake of leaving my hard drive attached when I sent it out and no hard drive returned with the new machine. No hard drive means no online play. M$ sent me an email yesterday saying that they were sending something back to me that weighs about a pound with an estimated arrival date of next Monday. I will try and get through to them to find out if that is, indeed, what they are sending my way. If not, I'll buy a new HD so we can get the show on the road.

tl;dr: I still can't play the game. I hope to by next Monday night.

Wait? Can't you use Cloud Storage for the game? It's what I am doing..

[chesapeake]

Dunno. All I know is that it won't let me access my XBox live account without any storage on my console. It doesn't give me any other options.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

Dunno. All I know is that it won't let me access my XBox live account without any storage on my console. It doesn't give me any other options.

Storage could include a USB flash drive or a memory card. However, if you had not turned on cloud saves before, you won't have anything saved to it to use now.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Storage could include a USB flash drive or a memory card. However, if you had not turned on cloud saves before, you won't have anything saved to it to use now.

No but he should be able to turn it on and login to his live account and run with the Dynasty and play other games with minimal saves.

[chesapeake]

When I try to set up the LIVE account, it immediately says that I can't do it because I have no storage. It gives me no options to set anything else up. I'll try putting a flash drive in there tonight.

[Kodos]

We'll hold off on advancing until you can get things taken care of.

[chesapeake]

I tried a couple of flash drives I dug up around my desk at home. The XBox didn't recognize them as memory. They may not have been big enough.

Regardless, tracking indicates that my HD is in or around NoVA, so there is a reasonable chance it will be at my house when I get home.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I tried a couple of flash drives I dug up around my desk at home. The XBox didn't recognize them as memory. They may not have been big enough.

Regardless, tracking indicates that my HD is in or around NoVA, so there is a reasonable chance it will be at my house when I get home.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/storage

Looks like you need 1 GB or larger. But with any luck the HD arrives instead...

[MacroGuru]

How are we doing here?

Just wanted to give you guys a heads up, I am on a trip next week leaving Tues and not coming back until Sun late.

[Kodos]

I'm in hold mode until Chesapeake can resolve his issue.

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I'm in hold mode until Chesapeake can resolve his issue.

No worries...just wanted to bring up my trip next week...

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I'm in hold mode until Chesapeake can resolve his issue.

My machine is back together and I made my position changes, so I am good to go. Thanks to everyone for your patience.

They wrapped my HD in one small sheet of bubble wrap, tossed it into a small box and stuck it in the mail. The casing is now cracked, but it runs.

[Kodos]

Yikes. Glad it still runs.


I'll move us forward tonight.

[Kodos]

We're on to cuts.

[Kodos]

Promoted Teams

Tier 2
Big 12 champ: Virginia Tech to SEC
Big 12 runnerup: TCU to Big Ten
PAC-12 champ: Miami (Ohio) to SEC
PAC-12 runnerup: Tennessee to Big Ten
Big East champ: Illinois to SEC
Big East runnerup: Maryland to Big Ten
ACC champ: Penn State to SEC
ACC runnerup: Alabama to Big Ten

Tier 3
MWC champ: Kansas to PAC-12
MWC runnerup: USF to Big East
C-USA champ: USC to Big 12
C-USA runnerup: Rutgers to ACC

Tier 4
MAC champ: Washington State to MWC
MAC runnerup: Western Michigan to C-USA
Sunbelt champ: Central Michigan to MWC
Sunbelt runnerup: Clemson to C-USA
WAC champ: UCLA to MWC
WAC runnerup: Ohio University to C-USA

[Kodos]

Relegated Teams

Tier 1
Big Ten (Div1): Mississippi State to Big 12
Big Ten (Div1): Hawai'i to Big East
Big Ten (Div2): Arkansas to PAC-12
Big Ten (Div2): Michigan State to ACC
SEC(Div1): Boise State to Big 12
SEC(Div1): University of Miami to Big East
SEC(Div2): Michigan to PAC-12
SEC(Div2): South Carolina to ACC

Tier 2
Big 12: Southern Miss to MWC
PAC-12: Missouri to C-USA
Big East: BYU to C-USA
ACC: Louisville to MWC

Tier 3
MWC: Army to MAC
MWC: ECU to WAC
MWC: Temple to Sunbelt
C-USA: Northern Illinois to MAC
C-USA: Kent State to Sunbelt
C-USA: Cincinnati to WAC

[MacroGuru]

Sweet Army and Northern Illinois....

I compete against Army for recruits a lot...this could be good for us if we can win.

[Kodos]

I'm still ticked about finishing in 3rd twice in a row.

[cartman]

Wow, I had to cut 12 people. A lot of them were dead weight from takeover time. But I am very deep at QB, WR, and DT.

[gstelmack]

I was only at 72, so 2 cuts. One was trivial, a 44-rated FB that got added as a walkon to fill out the roster last year, I have 2 much better ones now. The other was trickier to figure out, as I had a fair chunk of fringe HB/QB/WR, each with some useful skill. I ended up going with HB J Hills, who had 92 speed but was a 63 OVR, just no other skills to go with the speed. I thought about keeping him as a returner, but I had other HBs in the high 80s, and some WRs above him, so he seemed the most superfluous. But also thought about some young WRs and two young QBs.

[MacroGuru]

I had to cut 5. Dropped a senior QB that just wasn't there in terms of the talent I acquired. The rest were pretty easy...

My dilemna was at the kicker level...I have two, one is a junior and the other is a freshman. The JUCO guy has a little better overall talent than the Freshman but I wanted them both...so I kept them...going to be interesting this season.

[Kodos]

My cuts were pretty easy. Lots of guys who suck.

[Kodos]

Reminder: Deadline is tonight. Please let me know beforehand if you can't make the deadline.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

Congrats, EF. Well earned.

That said, is it a little screwy that even great teams from lesser conferences can play for the national championship? Once you lose one game and are out of the title picture, there is a significant disincentive to finish in the top two in your conference and advance to better competition. My national title hopes are actually better for next year because I lost to Rutgers this year.

Should the national title game be played between the champs of the top two conferences? Then getting to and staying in one of the top conferences becomes critical. Can the game even be set up this way?

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I know you can change the BCS Bowl assignments during the off-season. Can you simply make the 10 BCS bowl slots conference specific? Give 3 each to the two top conferences and allow the champion of the 4 second-tier conferences to get the remaining bids. I haven't tinkered with these settings, myself, so I don't know that it would work; but it may be worth checking out.

Unfortunately, each conference can only be assigned one bowl. So I can't just assign all the bowls to the Big Ten and SEC.

I ended up doing this:

Big Ten Champ - Rose Bowl
Pac-12 Champ - Rose Bowl
SEC Champ - Sugar Bowl
Big 12 Champ - Sugar Bowl
ACC Champ - Orange Bowl
Big East Champ - Orange Bowl
MWC Champ - Fiesta Bowl
C-USA Champ - Fiesta Bowl

Here is a diagram of the structure of our League. It helped me decide how to set up the bowls.

[Kodos]

We're getting near to finishing the offseason. Right now, we have:
1. Set up your recruiting boards
2. Redshirt players
3. Depth charts
4. Custom schedules

I won't force it, but it'd be nice to see everyone play at least one other human team during the regular season. Post in this thread if you're open to adding a human opponent in your out of conference games.

[gstelmack]

My number one scheduling priority is an away game at UCF for rivalry. After that I am open to playing a human.

Out of curiosity, why don't the Big Ten and SEC champs meet in a bowl, as the two "top" conferences?

[Kodos]

I figured it was better to have them knock off a lower-tier pretender team rather than each other, and that the SEC and Big Ten champs would meet in the BCS championship game if they were the best.

I hope '13 allows a little more flexibility for setting up the bowls.

[Eaglesfan27]

I will play any one, but would prefer someone who can play around 9 eastern.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I figured it was better to have them knock off a lower-tier pretender team rather than each other, and that the SEC and Big Ten champs would meet in the BCS championship game if they were the best.

I hope '13 allows a little more flexibility for setting up the bowls.

Ah, I missed that we had a plus one setup. That's fine then.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I will play any one, but would prefer someone who can play around 9 eastern.

That's my ideal time to play, with a start time between 8:30 and 9:30 eastern.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

That's my ideal time to play, with a start time between 8:30 and 9:30 eastern.

Sounds good. We can play at either place. I don't care which week either.

[MacroGuru]

Alright,

Done and I will be gone from Tues until the 18th.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Alright,

Done and I will be gone from Tues until the 18th.

Thanks for the heads up, Macro! I'll try to schedule your games later so you don't miss any games.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

My number one scheduling priority is an away game at UCF for rivalry. After that I am open to playing a human.

Sorry. It looks like UCF is only free during the early weeks of the schedule, and in Weeks 1 thru 8, your schedule is locked.

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Sounds good. We can play at either place. I don't care which week either.

USC at USF in Week 12. Check.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Sorry. It looks like UCF is only free during the early weeks of the schedule, and in Weeks 1 thru 8, your schedule is locked.

Wow, usually I've got tons of early open dates. Alas, they must be scared because we've beat them every season so far...

[TRO]

KSU and Mizzou please.

[MacroGuru]

Also, if I don't play UConn or BYU can you get one or both of those scheduled for me?

[chesapeake]

I forgot to check my schedule this weekend. As always, I'd like to play UNC, and I think it is their turn to host this year.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by TRO

KSU and Mizzou please.

KSU in Week 3. Unfortunately, Mizzou is not available any week on your schedule. The pussies.

I picked Kentucky in Mizzou's place. A basketball rival. Let me know if that doesn't work for you.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by MacroGuru

Also, if I don't play UConn or BYU can you get one or both of those scheduled for me?

At BYU in Week 3.

Hosting UConn in Week 6.

Done.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I forgot to check my schedule this weekend. As always, I'd like to play UNC, and I think it is their turn to host this year.

UNC will host you in Week 2. I also have you at NC State in Week 4.

[Kodos]

Cartman: I replaced your FCS opponent with UTEP. I also gave you Houston (in game rival) and SMU. Let me know if you don't like any of those choices.