Ok..can someone please explain how "Recruit Against" works

[splff3000]

Ok countryboy, here's the deal. You're gonna see alot of people say that it's useless and that it's a waste of time, but it's actually quite good. I actually like it. So here's your in depth "tutorial" lol.

The first thing you need to remember is that you can't recruit against every pitch at every school. It just doesn't work like that. Depending on the school that you have and the school you're recruiting against there may be multiple pitches you can downplay or there may be none. For example if you're N. Texas and you're recruiting against Ohio State, most of the time, you're not gonna be rated higher in any pitch category. The reason i say "most of the time" is because even if you're a small school there's still hope to recruit against the bigger schools with a few pitches. I'll get back to that later.

Next, how effective this works for you, is not just based on the other teams rating in the pitch, but also yours as well. For instance, if you're team is rated a C in program stability and the team you're recruiting against is rated a C- or D, most likely the recruit will get angry quick and hang up. The separation between the 2 isn't far enough. Now if you're rated a B or B+ in program stability and they're rated a C- or D then you ought to have some success recruiting against them. The separation between the 2 ratings is greater.

Also don't ever think that you can't recruit against a school just because they are bigger. You have to actually look at the ratings of the pitches to determine that. For example: let's go back to the N. Texas /Ohio State example from above. Now Ohio State is a juggernaut in almost every aspect of recruiting, but there's still a chance for N. Texas to downplay some Ohio St. pitches. If the recruit they both are going after is in Texas or close by, N. Texas's proximity to home will be much higher than Ohio State. If the recruit has high, very high, or most, importance on this then N. Texas should be able to downplay those pitches from Ohio St. The same goes with early playing time. If the recruit is a WR and N. Texas has 2 WR's on the roster and Ohio St. had 10 WR's on the roster, there will be big difference in the early paying time rating. Just like before, if the recruit puts high, very high, or most importance on that, N. Texas should be able to succesfully downplay that pitch.

Now that you're successfully downplaying pitches, don't expect a big jump in points like when you're hard selling. You'll usually see a -3, -2, or -1. That's right, you should see negative numbers. You are downplaying a team's pitches remember. If you see a positive number, you need to stop immediately because you are actually helping the other team. Usually the recruit will listen for a little while. Depending on the difference in ratings between your team and the team you're recruiting against, he may listen longer.

One thing to remember is the face can turn red real quick when downplaying pitches. Normally the face would go from a green big smile to a green grin to an orange smirk to a red frown. Well, I've seen it go from a green grin straight to a red frown while I was downplaying a pitch. You need to try to stop it before he hangs up on you. Some people will go back and hard sell some more to try to bring his face back to green, but I just hang up after that. I do any downplaying last just in case he hangs up on me.

That's it. That's all you need to know, but just to help you a little more, here are some real examples that I used it for.

- I had a FB on my board that I started recruiting late(he was at the bottom of my board). I had already offered him a scholly earlier in the year, but I didn't actively recruit him. By the time I got to him, Buffalo had almost a full green bar. I had a half yellow bar. I noticed that my pro potential was A+ and their's was a D or something like that. So, every week I would hard sell my pitches and downplay their pro potential until the face turned red. I did this every week and eventually passed them and got the FB

Another one:

- Me and LSU were going after a WR. LSU is just about A+ everything, so I never thought to recruit against them. Well after they had the recruit in for a visit he made a big jump in their favor and their green bar was almost full. I had to find something to do. I looked at their team just for the hell of it to see what I had been going against and lo and behold, they had a C- early playing time and I had B+. The recruit had this as is most important pitch so I downplayed LSU every week on that pitch until the face turned red. Finally when the recruit came to visit me, I jumped ahead of LSU.

You see, it can be very useful against all schools. It's not gonna give you a big gain, but it can come in handy in tight races. You can also use it to slow down the gain on a team that has a jump on you with a recruit like I did against Buffalo. This will allow you to catch up. So there you have it. I hope this was indepth enough for you.

[countryboy]

Spiff, thank you very much man, that is what I was looking for. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to explain the ins and outs of the process. Thank you again.


And thanks to everyone for their help and insight...its greatly appreciated.

Take care,
CB

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by boisejames

I love your sig avatar and name btw. Name reminds me of one of my favorite songs ever... "We're from north Californ' and south Alabam' and little towns all around this land"!

thank you

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

Ok countryboy, here's the deal. You're gonna see alot of people say that it's useless and that it's a waste of time, but it's actually quite good. I actually like it. So here's your in depth "tutorial" lol. The first thing you need to remember is that you can't recruit against every pitch at every school. It just doesn't work like that. Depending on the school that you have and the school you're recruiting against there may be multiple pitches you can downplay or there may be none. For example if you're N. Texas and you're recruiting against Ohio State, most of the time, you're not gonna be rated higher in any pitch category. The reason i say "most of the time" is because even if you're a small school there's still hope to recruit against the bigger schools with a few pitches. I'll get back to that later. Next, how effective this works for you, is not just based on the other teams rating in the pitch, but also yours as well. For instance, if you're team is rated a C in program stability and the team you're recruiting against is rated a C- or D, most likely the recruit will get angry quick and hang up. The separation between the 2 isn't far enough. Now if you're rated a B or B+ in program stability and they're rated a C- or D then you ought to have some success recruiting against them. The separation between the 2 ratings is greater. Also don't ever think that you can't recruit against a school just because they are bigger. You have to actually look at the ratings of the pitches to determine that. For example: let's go back to the N. Texas /Ohio State example from above. Now Ohio State is a juggernaut in almost every aspect of recruiting, but there's still a chance for N. Texas to downplay some Ohio St. pitches. If the recruit they both are going after is in Texas or close by, N. Texas's proximity to home will be much higher than Ohio State. If the recruit has high, very high, or most, importance on this then N. Texas should be able to downplay those pitches from Ohio St. The same goes with early playing time. If the recruit is a WR and N. Texas has 2 WR's on the roster and Ohio St. had 10 WR's on the roster, there will be big difference in the early paying time rating. Just like before, if the recruit puts high, very high, or most importance on that, N. Texas should be able to succesfully downplay that pitch. Now that you're successfully downplaying pitches, don't expect a big jump in points like when you're hard selling. You'll usually see a -3, -2, or -1. That's right, you should see negative numbers. You are downplaying a team's pitches remember. If you see a positive number, you need to stop immediately because you are actually helping the other team. Usually the recruit will listen for a little while. Depending on the difference in ratings between your team and the team you're recruiting against, he may listen longer. One thing to remember is the face can turn red real quick when downplaying pitches. Normally the face would go from a green big smile to a green grin to an orange smirk to a red frown. Well, I've seen it go from a green grin straight to a red frown while I was downplaying a pitch. You need to try to stop it before he hangs up on you. Some people will go back and hard sell some more to try to bring his face back to green, but I just hang up after that. I do any downplaying last just in case he hangs up on me. That's it. That's all you need to know, but just to help you a little more, here are some real examples that I used it for. - I had a FB on my board that I started recruiting late(he was at the bottom of my board). I had already offered him a scholly earlier in the year, but I didn't actively recruit him. By the time I got to him, Buffalo had almost a full green bar. I had a half yellow bar. I noticed that my pro potential was A+ and their's was a D or something like that. So, every week I would hard sell my pitches and downplay their pro potential until the face turned red. I did this every week and eventually passed them and got the FB Another one: - Me and LSU were going after a WR. LSU is just about A+ everything, so I never thought to recruit against them. Well after they had the recruit in for a visit he made a big jump in their favor and their green bar was almost full. I had to find something to do. I looked at their team just for the hell of it to see what I had been going against and lo and behold, they had a C- early playing time and I had B+. The recruit had this as is most important pitch so I downplayed LSU every week on that pitch until the face turned red. Finally when the recruit came to visit me, I jumped ahead of LSU. You see, it can be very useful against all schools. It's not gonna give you a big gain, but it can come in handy in tight races. You can also use it to slow down the gain on a team that has a jump on you with a recruit like I did against Buffalo. This will allow you to catch up. So there you have it. I hope this was indepth enough for you.

lol, I need to turn this into a blog or something. In fact, I think I will.

[kingkilla56]

It seems like this feature is mostly geared for online dynasties. CPU wont recruit against you so I guess the devs wanted to make recruiting online more exciting between users.

[JTRaines92]

I wouldn't use it, no one knows for sure how it works and game developers have not commented on it so we all have no clue.

[DerkontheOS]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

appreciate the info Boisejames. I think I'm just going to only recruit for and leave that recruiting against stuff alone. It causing me more headaches's than it is success.

That is the best way to do it.

[splff3000]

Quote: Originally Posted by kingkilla56

It seems like this feature is mostly geared for online dynasties. CPU wont recruit against you so I guess the devs wanted to make recruiting online more exciting between users.

I agree. That does seem like what it's designed for.

Quote: Originally Posted by JTRaines92

I wouldn't use it, no one knows for sure how it works and game developers have not commented on it so we all have no clue.

Quote: Originally Posted by DerkontheOS

That is the best way to do it.

Not true. I have had success using it......when I can use it. I don't know if I'm using it the way it's supposed to be used but I'm having success with it and that's really all that matters, right? Still it would be nice if the devs chimed in to give feedback on this.