When to offer scholarships?

[Strings74]

I usually offer in week 2 or 3 but just for the sake of making housekeeping easier.

Here's what I do:

1. Search globally by interest level to see the best players who are interested right off the bat.

2. Then search by caliber to find some players who are maybe interested but who don't have green lights next to the name.

3. I add about 15-18 guys to my board, but then focus on 10-12.

4. I quick call the top 10 guys I want to focus on all for an hour each. (Sometimes I will do 40-50 minutes so I can focus on 12-13 guys but you gotta really use an hour every week, in most circumstances, imo.) I use quick calls because it's simply the fastest way to unlock a guy's various interests in your pitches.

5. After 2 weeks of quick calls, I go manual and offer the schollies just to get them out of the way. This is also when I will jettison guys who are clearly not interested or zone in on guys who jump way up the ladder.

6. By week 4 you should have a good idea of what your prospects like and if they are compatible with what you have to offer, you also should now have a sense of what schools you are competing with and what kind of edge you have in doing negative recruiting or if they will be able to crush you. Having an A over a rival's C+ is obviously huge and vice versa. Sometimes you're just not going to be able to overcome another school who has an edge on a pitch that your prospect loves.

7. Towards the middle and end of the season (and especially the offseason) is when I start looking more at my pipeline states and trying to either shore them up or establish new ones. Anytime you can break into fertile recruiting grounds like Florida, Texas, California and NY/NJ you should go for it, imo. To accomplish this I will often chase down 1-2 star lesser recruits just for this purpose. Especially when I'm a few years into a dynasty and have some schollies to play around with.

8. The only other thing I do is that if I'm short on recruiting time, I will sometimes use less time on the guys that I'm leading heavily. If I'm their #1 and their second choice is 900 points behind, I know they aren't going anywhere so I might hit them up with 20-30 minutes in a particular week and use the extra to go after a guy I'm having trouble getting.

Anyway, that's what I do.

[doubledeuceR6]

Depends on the recruit and how bad I want them that determines my strategy. If I'm in there top ten and it's someone I'm really after, I'll spend sixty minutes and on the 5th or 6th pitch I'll offer the scholarship and that'll normally get you 180 to 199 interest points on the offer and get you into their top three if not their top school.

If I'm their top school I waiste no time and offer it right away.

I usually play with small schools so trying to stay in the pipeline helps alot because with a small school "Proximity to Home" is usually the best pitch you have.

Like others have mentioned I do not fill my board. I concentrate on my needs first then try to strenghten my team around whatever system I'm running on offense and defense. I do get greedy on occasion and go after someone I have no chance in hell of getting. LOL!

[lbh24]

Quote: Originally Posted by ImproprFraction

So basically, recruiting is random.

Really, it's this. Which is nice. Some guys are dying to play for you, some guys are dying for a shot to play right away, some guys are dying to play for a championship. Some guys won't go to your school even if the alternative is a life of trying to escape underworld thugs.

[Quo]

Quote: Originally Posted by ImproprFraction

So basically, recruiting is random. I typically make offers and promises right away in week 1. Being North Texas sucks when it comes to recruiting and this is the only way I have figured out to build points the quickest.

Random in what sense?

It IS random in terms of what players you even have a chance of signing. But there's a lot that's more planned than random. I've been playing in an OD as North Texas and recruiting for them is absolutely brutal. As a 1*, UNT has little to no chance of getting really high quality players in year one. Best player I've managed to hook is a 4*... and I've been able to get 7-8 3* players.

The idea is improve your roster as a 1* team. It won't get fantastic in year one, but it'll improve a good bit. UNT has a lot of guys that are around a 60-65 rating on the field, so even a 3* freshman is a good help in year 2. You won't get that huge breakaway back in the early years but it'll improve.

As a low-rated program, I try to also look for JUCO's to instantly upgrade the squad. They'll come in rated much higher usually and can bridge you to some better players.

Back to topic, I offer early if a guy is interested. Especially as a low-rated program, I come out with the guns blazing and offer scholies and promises, whatever it takes. I focus on 10-12 players at a time and hammer away at them. I'm quick to dump them if things go south, or if a better school offers and is higher on the list.

[InspectahDeck]

I always offer week 1 if they are a player i'm really interested in signing. The strategy goes something like this.

Go online and view team needs and pipelines for that season.

Go in and search through all the prospects QB-ATH. Normally I will only go after guys who I have a legitimate chance at that first week. Sometimes i'll throw a few highly rated players on the board to see what the CPU other users do with them. I will normally hit the highest rated most interested players with a 6 the first week or two. Then depending on the interest from the CPU or users pull back. Once you build up a 300-400 point lead you can just coast into your visit and get your verbal with 3 or 4 hours a week.

Then I will clear my board of players I fell behind on or didn't offer yet and got offers. I will go through all the prospects again looking for players who didn't get offers or someone I might have missed the first time.

I don't really enjoy the Russian Roulette feel of the recruiting. I would much rather have the option to decide what I talk to a recruit about. Sometimes it just feels rigged to me. Coming up with the worst possible options and only having the chance to skip 1 topic in most online OD's i'm in. Plus the times when you feel like no matter what you do the CPU won't allow you to get a prospect. Those -1 is like a big f you sign.

Most seasons I will have a top 10 class if I have a decent enough program in my online OD's. Then offline top 5 most of the time.


Those 1* leagues you go JUCO and you go strong JUCO. That's what I did in 2010 with MTSU and made them a powerhouse. Then you slowly move up the prestige and can start getting those quality 4 and 3* players. I haven't play a 1* this year but it seems like this game has a lot less JUCO players.

[jarato]

Here's a little secret I stole from a blog post on the NCAA 11 site last year regarding recruiting. If I'm not number one at week 1 I try not to offer until the week of the campus visit. Has helped me steal many a soft commits and players I've started off as interest number 10. You basically get a double boost that week for offering and the visit. Kinda true to what might happen in real life, it often leads to a commit the very next week if I'm already close to the top.

[lbh24]

Quote: Originally Posted by jarato

Here's a little secret I stole from a blog post on the NCAA 11 site last year regarding recruiting. If I'm not number one at week 1 I try not to offer until the week of the campus visit. Has helped me steal many a soft commits and players I've started off as interest number 10. You basically get a double boost that week for offering and the visit. Kinda true to what might happen in real life, it often leads to a commit the very next week if I'm already close to the top.

haha of course i read this as i'm advancing past my big visit week. then again, i'm pretty sure i'd already offered to all of them anyway

[mrclutch]

So what's the biggest oint gap you guys have overcome? When i start out around -300 i never even try. Am I missing out not going after these guys?