toughest school to rebuild

[BoomerSooner11]

I look forward to building up Duke.

[Cubs017]

Quote: Originally Posted by bvb24

Sleeping giant is a bit of a reach.

It's a huge reach for EMU. The state has a traditional powerhouse in Michigan and a solid Michigan State program. Central Michigan had something nice going on there too, though they tanked last year with the graduation of some great players and a new coach. Even so, the top Michigan recruits will always go to UofM or MSU (or even Central or Western or another local school like Toledo).

They're not too hard to build up in the game, though, since they do play in the MAC. Get yourself a few good players and you're set in conference play.

[cOWASs68]

I can't believe I haven't seen more people say Utah State. We always do custom conferences and if you put them in the Big 12 or Pac-10?? Forget it...Utah is horrible to recruit in!

The other top runner for me is Idaho-- I tried a dynasty with them in '10, and had to give up due to frustration with the recruiting and the LACK of winning! I still have a bad taste in my mouth... but Idaho, Wyoming and Utah are DEAD in terms of good players (good thing they're pipelines! haha). The only difference with Wyoming is they have that sophomore QB who is pretty good! If you give me ANY bright spot I'll be okay-- a good QB, a decent RB or a bad-a$$ LB...but to have literally nothing (Idaho...), it makes it real tough.

WKU seems to be a big challenge too for a lot of people, can't disagree there.

[plak89]

I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but what about Iowa State? They're in a pretty crappy state for recruiting and are a ways away from CA, TX, and FL so that makes it tough too.

I agree with people saying Vandy, the SEC is brutal. I've decided that I want to start a build-em-up dynasty before '12 comes out, just can't decide who. It's between either Iowa State or Vanderbilt. Just can't make up my mind!

[t2jBird]

ANY of these:
http://sportales.com/football/the-10...teams-of-2010/

[iAMcar1os]

I think programs like Idaho, Tulane, and New Mexico State would be the most difficult to build into national powers.

[adamcsay]

i actually made a spreadsheet and took the info from the ranked thread and put a little more weight to the offense/defense ratings, less weight towards the sp teams, and revised the ranking based on these new weighted standings.

the worst teams would be:

utah state
uab
central mich
kent state
ul monroe
fiu
tulane
bowling green
fau
north texas
ball state
ul lafayette
unlv
western kentucky
new mexico st
rice
memphis
akron
buffalo
san jose st
eastern mich

the worst teams based on rating alone would be san jose st and eastern michigan. but if you factor in location (for recruiting), i'd have to say utah state, ball state, new mexico st, and buffalo are probably the hardest teams to build up.

also, based on these weighted rankings...some notable overrated teams (meaning their rankings are much higher than their unit ratings would indicate) in the game are:

northern illinois (37)
hawaii (39)
air force (42)
lsu (4)
arizona st (25)
notre dame (21)
nebraska (16)

and some of the most underrated teams:

north carolina (53)
ole miss (60)
smu (70) (very good ratings..88 offense, 85 defense...could be a sleeper)
arizona (56)
boston college (67)

etc etc...

let me end this by saying this is entirely based on ea's unit ratings alone. i'm not saying these teams are overrated irl, so keep that in mind before you get your panties in a wad because i called your team overrated.

anyway, me personally, i'll be rolling with either utah st or tulane. haven't decided yet.

[BDawg35]

Quote: Originally Posted by Spanky

Eastern Michigan is a sleeping giant. The problem is they have an incompetent, lazy, good for nothing coach in Ron English running the program into the ground.

Actually, Eastern Michigan has been "into the ground" for decades. Of the three Michigan MAC schools, EMU is by far the worst. Western and Central have had success and gone to bowl games in recent years.

Fortunately, Ron English wouldn't be the coach in an NCAA '12 dynasty. When I "coached" Eastern Michigan in NCAA '08, I was neither incompetent, lazy or good for nothing (my humble opinion). I made Eastern a very competitive program, moved into the Big Ten and won my share against the big boys. My eternal failure is that in 17 seasons, I never won a national championship with the HURONS. (Hangs head in shame.)