Let's Talk Recruiting (CFB 25)

[georgiafan]

I think if we ran a poll on here what is everyone's favorite thing to do in a college game that recruiting would win by a landslide.

The roster turnover you see in a college game helps keep things fresh as in Madden your set once you draft studs. This could be even more epic than before if the transfer portal is done right and we aren't able to hoard 5*s for 3 years as backups. Even though we don't know the details of how it will work. I thought it would be interesting to speculate since I've not seen much talk on here about recruiting. I bought Madden just to dust up on things and I would project you will see some general similarities between how they handle the draft and recruiting.

In Madden one of the biggest things is how they test out at the combine. Which just like in real life is done after the season ends and allows you to see the athletic ability for everyone. However, in college you don't just have the one big event so I'm curious how yall think that will be handled in the college game? Do we just get everybody's athletic skills in the country from the start? Do we get a set amount to bring to campus for a camp in the offseason? Do we find it out on the official visit?

Another thing madden does is you will see ? marks as ability for several weeks. If your not setting your scouts to focus on that position and region then your only going to get 50%. Will we see a similar thing in the college game?

I will also show some examples of some auto generated guys in madden and pretend they are college recruits. This QB would be a 4* since its round 2/3 projection. However, if I'm an elite school I really need to see if his athletic profile checks out early on. Because if he turns out elite that's mid 90's in 5 speed categories in the right offense he is starting day 1 and eventually winning the Heisman. I'm going to want to go all in on recruiting him and promising him everything I can.

On the flip side since he would only be a 4* odds are those speed ratings are mid-high 80's. Since the accuracy ratings I see are B's if the arm strength to go along with that is only solid. Then he will need a few years to develop at a elite school before starting. I would want to be able to know that early on so I don't waste all year recruiting him when I could have a better option. Hopefully there is a way to confirm stuff early on during the season

A last player example and I've put the pics in the spoilers. A super fun DT prospect that would equal out to a 3 or 4*. The heaviest player I've seen at 396 pounds and an A in tackling catches your attention. If his elite strength checks out then everyone will recruit him. However if his acceleration is elite and agility great then that takes him to a whole other level as a recruit and he is going at the top of everyone's board. As a lower recruit I want to able to uncover him early on and get a head start on other schools

Being able to see the athletic ability of players is really important so hopefully early in the season they will be a way to check those out. Because I'm guessing most of the commits will happen during the season instead of the offseason

Spoiler

[illwill10]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

For me, recruiting is what gives Dynasty sustainability. It's a huge difference in the whole team building process in Madden and College Football. In Madden, you could essentially have your roster set by year 3. In College Football, your roster are never set which makes recruiting fun. You're always looking for the next guy and always looking for depth. Especially if the Transfer Portal is what it is IRL, than it'll make recruiting more vital to have depth. In NCAA 14, I spent the first 2 years of my Dynasty, I spent it recruiting solely. I could see myself doing that this year well. I want to start as a 1 star Teambuilder school. But, I want to spend the first couple seasons, primarily recruiting. Maybe the Transfer Portal, changes that plan. If I can bring in solid starters before year 1, that'll help me field a competitive team to start at. But, I want to focus mainly recruiting. Thinking about it now, I still will prioritize recruiting over the Transfer Portal. Outside of the first couple seasons, I will just use the Transfer Portal to plug immediate needs.


I don't care for how they streamlined recruiting in NCAA 14. I get that you don't want to over complicate recruiting for the casual gamers. But, this is a niche title. For a niche title, you have to go in depth. You have to attract hardcore gamers to a niche title before you can think about casual gamers. The casual gamers either are only playing a season or two at most anyway if that. For me, at least have the depth of recruiting in NCAA 12 and 13. I would want to open up the offseason recruiting to be more than just the previous 5 week schedule.

I would like to see recruits rankings and ranked based on how they would be based on what would be IRL. A lot of guys are ranked based on their physical traits and measurables and level of competition. I would like to see that reflected in the game.

It would be nice to be able to delegate the recruiting responsibilities to coordinators and even have a recruiting director. It would be convenient to set your recruiting preferences and position priorities and have them be able to assist you in recruiting.

[LegendKillerOne]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

Super fun part of the game and the more involved the better

[nimrod55]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

I agree with you. I enjoyed the recruiting process in NCAA 13 and was disappointed with the simplified system in 14. It was obviously done with the casual gamer in mind. I think it would be cool if EA would offer the gamer the choice of a simplified or "express" recruiting and a more in depth recruiting option. I look forward to see how they do with the transfer portal.

[georgiafan]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

I’m also hoping for a more advanced system than just the points from 14. I would love to see a promises system. Where you have to meet the demands of promising a 5* of starting year 1 and if you don’t they leave.

For the transfer portal i think a similar system to madden FA’s is realistic to expect. Hopefully it will be more teams bidding for guys where as in madden the lower ranked guys are easy to get.

Also I hope the player morale as seen in madden when resigning FA’s will be visible to everyone on your team. So if that stays low then your im danger of them leaving. I’m not sure how $ will play a role in this.

[LegendKillerOne]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

Also how will NIL be in the system?

That matters in recruiting now. When Saban was talking about one of the reasons he left he said that players would come in and ask "Can i start right away" and how much money will the school give me"

[illwill10]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

I’m also hoping for a more advanced system than just the points from 14. I would love to see a promises system. Where you have to meet the demands of promising a 5* of starting year 1 and if you don’t they leave.

For the transfer portal i think a similar system to madden FA’s is realistic to expect. Hopefully it will be more teams bidding for guys where as in madden the lower ranked guys are easy to get.

Also I hope the player morale as seen in madden when resigning FA’s will be visible to everyone on your team. So if that stays low then your im danger of them leaving. I’m not sure how $ will play a role in this.

It would be cool to promise a recruit that you won't redshirt him, but then you realize that he won't get playing time. So when you are about to RS him, there's feedback that says if you RS him, it increases the chances of that player transferring. Breaking promises should lead to more transfers and have a Coach Integrity rating. So, if you're a coach that keeps his promises, you have a high Coach Integrity grade. If you don't, that should negatively influence you in recruiting and Transfer Portal

I do agree that having Madden's Player Tags and Motivations as the best way to handle the Transfer Portal. Just assign them to recruits and stay with them throughout collegiate career.

There needs to be a Potential Rating assigned to recruits and assigned preferred Scheme as well. That way, so if a recruit commits to a school with his preferred scheme, it increases the chances of the recruit reaching his potential. And it decreases the chances of teams being full of 90+ OVR players. Plus. It can potentially help when improving players into Madden
M

[illwill10]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

Also how will NIL be in the system?

That matters in recruiting now. When Saban was talking about one of the reasons he left he said that players would come in and ask "Can i start right away" and how much money will the school give me"

When it comes to NIL, there's need to be some type of balance. I don't want a lazy approach where it's just a recruiting pitch. But, I honestly don't want to see NIL as we see it in real life. I don't want to this game flooded with sponsored brands like we do in NBA 2k. At most, some type of budget allocation system

I think if EA had to deal with the NCAA, the NCAA either wouldn't want NIL in or just a generic lazy approach to it.

[operationsport]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

I wonder what kind of micro transactions will be associated with recruiting. Hoping that the transfer portal isn't a nightmare how it currently is irl

[illwill10]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

I wonder what kind of micro transactions will be associated with recruiting. Hoping that the transfer portal isn't a nightmare how it currently is irl

I hope MTX stays in Ultimate Team. They can do what they want in UT, just leave the offline modes out of it lol. I don't want to see them add in MTX in Dynasty like they did in NCAA 14. I don't want to see "Pay $X.XX for increased chances of finding gems" or increased progression or chances to keep players from transferring. Because when a publisher adds a pay wall, they add a grind wall in order to push you towards that pay wall. If recruiting/Dynasty is difficult, I want it to be because it's complex and in depth, not because they want you to spend additional money on the game for easier experiences

[LegendKillerOne]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

I wonder what kind of micro transactions will be associated with recruiting. Hoping that the transfer portal isn't a nightmare how it currently is irl

Honestly if micro transactions are in any way tied to offline play that would be such a killer for me. Not sure I could survive that.

[canes21]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

Recruiting in real life is a year-long grind for coaches that has a lot of luck involved as well, or at least a lot of playing the odds. It's never felt like that was represented well in the past NCAA games. Instead, EA continued to streamline and simplify the process and I hated that from day 1.

To have the recruiting side of things feel more authentic to the sport, I think EA has to tackle a couple of key aspects.

First, ambiguity. Do not tell me I am earning 650 points a week and am 50 points behind the top team for a recruit. Have the recruit relay feedback to me himself that I have to trust to go off of. An example is me clicking on a recruit's card and having a variety of quotes that could appear there giving you an idea of where you stand. Some examples below:

"You're my top school"
"You're in the top 3(or 5, 10, etc)"
"I don't have a favorite yet, but you're definitely up there"
"I am completely locked in and shutting things down with other schools"
"Don't waste your time on me coach"
"It's too early in the process for me to have anything narrowed down yet, coach"

There could be many more, but these give you an idea of where you stand with the recruit without making it too simplistic and gamey. I still can clearly see if I am the top school, the top 3, 5, 10, whatever, or if the recruit has no interest, but I don't get definitive numbers telling me exactly where I stand. I also have to trust that what the recruit is telling me is 100% truthful.

Being setup this way would lead to more suspense with some recruits as they could go all the way down to either signing day where all you know is you are one of their top 2, 3, or 5 schools, but you don't know if you are number 1. You spend all year recruiting some kids and have no numbers spoiling what will happen on signing day. Instead, you actually have to get to and through signing day in game and see what surprises are in store.

You could have been on an in-state 5-star DT all year that continued to say you were in the top 3 all year along with 2 other users in your dynasty and on signing day you are who he chooses. Or, he chooses a buddy. Or, imagine a recruit saying you're their top school all year, you trust that, don't recruit them as hard, then on signing day they flip to another user or your biggest rival.

These are things that happen in real life all the time that the old numbers system simply did not represent.

Ambiguity also needs to be a thing in terms of scouting. I think the fog of war system Madden has in place with the draft prospects needs to be a similar approach EA takes with recruits.

Initially, recruits would have wide ratings ranges. An example is a QB have Throw Power A-C, Throw Accuracy Short, B-D, and so on. As higher rated recruits do events they may have their ratings naturally become slightly more accurate, but you never get a definite number value. Also, if EA would introduce on campus recruiting events, that would be another way for the player to select a number of recruits to host to get a boost in their scouting so you could invite 10 QB's to campus over the summer and have all of them go from having 3 letter ranges to 2 letter ranges. E.g. all your QBs have either A-C or B-D Throw Power ranges, but after they come to your event they all go to A-B, B-C, or C-D ranges, so you can slowly narrow down who you want to focus on.

The number of players that are able to be invited could be dependent on the program you are at if there was some sort of recruiting budget or something along those lines, or even just program prestige to keep it simple. And the coaches could all have scouting skill trees that played a role in how much you narrowed down their letter grades at each position. If your Defensive Coordinator was not a good scout, maybe half the defensive recruits would not see their rating ranges change at all after the event.

We should also see a similar page for recruits like the draft prospects in Madden that show some of the measurables for all the recruits and the accuracy of these times would be dependent on what events they went to. Your 5-star WR you are targeting may go to something equivalent to The Opening and get a lasered 40-time that you know is accurate, meanwhile the local 3-star WR that isn't doing national events has a hand-timed 40-time on their player card that could easily be faster or slower than they actually are, so you have less of an idea on how well they run.

That scenario there could lead to decisions needing to be made when inviting kids to campus for your events. Do you invite the 5-star WR even though you already have a very accurate view on where his ratings will sit, but you want the standing increase for having him on campus, or do you invite the 3-star WR to get more accurate measurables on him from having him run at your event, plus you get to narrow down his other ratings to see if he is the diamond in the rough he looks like.

Another thing that needs to be in the game are flips. This has to be represented. It's far too common in real life to not be represented again after all these years.

I think promises need to be a thing again, and play a bigger role. These, along with player tags/motivations and morale, can play a major role in who is transferring and why. If you recruit a 5-star QB that has Playing Time as his biggest motivation, but you don't play him much as a freshman, then he is more likely to hit the portal. If you promise him he will play every game, but not start, then keep that promise, it may be enough to keep him. Maybe EA even gives you the ability to promise kids they will start within 2 years, so you have the flexibility to RS that QB year one, then have him start the next few years. If you do start him, he is more likely to stay, if you don't start him year 2, he's gone.

Morale would be similar to Madden's. Motivations and personality types would play a role in how morale moves on a per player basis. A guy that is more team-first may not care that he has 3 receptions total over the last 4 games. If the team is winning, his morale is going up. A more me-first WR might have his own stats be what dictate his morale increases and decreases more. You could be 10-0, but he's got 19 catches for 167 yards, so his morale continues to tank as the year goes on which means he will be much more likely to enter the portal.

This would allow some "simpler" systems to all combine into making the recruiting and portal side of things full of depth. Player motivations could be something you uncover slowly over time the more you speak with a recruit. You may see a 5-star WR that is a stud athletically, but after recruiting him hard for 3/4ths of the season you uncover his personality type or motivations that show he is a more me-first type and not a team-first type. Do you still go after him hard and just deal with any potential drama he may bring, or do you drop him and go for the hometown lower rated kid that has his top motivation being Team Success?

I would imagine the morale system and player tags and motivations will come over in some way from Madden. I would love to think the scenario engine will as well, and it will be more fleshed out and tuned to replicate the collegiate game more. If that's the case, I'd love to see the player motivation, player tags, morale system, and personality types all come over from Madden and have more impact on what scenarios you can see in the game. This could lead to some true locker room leaders or cancers having a big impact on how your season goes.

You may pull a Jimbo Fisher and have plenty of talent on your roster, but most of them all have motivations that are more centered on their own performance, so when you go a couple of games where a few WR's don't produce as much, maybe they cause trouble in the locker room and as a result everyone on the entire team receives a big morale hit and thus your team performs worse since everyone has their ratings are also being hit.

On the flip side, maybe you recruited a lot of leaders and have one WR that is a drama king. Instead of him derailing the season and being a locker room cancer, you may have another WR with a Leader personality type along with your QB and C. You would get a scenario saying the WR was causing trouble in the locker room, but your leaders stepped in and as a result nobody but the WR gets their morale dinged. So the WR can continue to pout if he doesn't get the ball, but you did well enough recruiting good personalities and they keep the rest of the team in check.

I hope EA has found a way to go in this direction someway somehow. It would lead to team building being full of so much depth. It would use systems they already have in place. It would make dynasty mode more dynamic than it has ever been.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

If EA does decide to use a point system, depending where you rank 1-134 should dictate your point budget. Michigan should get a boatload more points than Eastern Michigan in my opinion.

[LegendKillerOne]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

If EA does decide to use a point system, depending where you rank 1-134 should dictate your point budget. Michigan should get a boatload more points than Eastern Michigan in my opinion.

Haha for sure, Eastern Michigan has a football team ?

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: Let's Talk Recruiting ( CFB 25)

Haha for sure, Eastern Michigan has a football team ?

E. Michigan was 2-10 in 2012 and the last program I built up in NCAAf14. Great fun but I don't have plans any time soon to make my return to Ypsilanti. I want to start off at West Point and work myself into a job at 'Cuse. Good times ahead.