Your Recruiting Strategy

[BIGD419]

Hey guys..

In anticipation of starting my dynasty with names, I've been toying around in a dynasty with recruiting. I don't do anything in the dynasty except use up my 10 hours of recruiting, and advance to the next week, then repeat. Since I'm playing with OSU, I've been using Ohio State.

The first year I tried All-American settings. About 7 weeks in I had a horrific class, and decided to start over on Varsity.

This time around was better I guess. I finished with the 44th best class. I told my self "44th is a little low for a school who had all but maybe 5 or 6 five star players interested, huh?" Then I realized that even though they may be interested, do I really have a chance at the #1 QB from Florida who's also interested in Miami, Florida, FSU, Georgia, and LSU ahead of me?

So once again I start over. The second time around, I targeted all the five start players who were interested, all the Ohio 4 star players, and a few other 4 stars to start out with.

I'm gonna re-start one more time before my real dynasty, but I have some questions for you guys who are getting into this re-vamped recruiting.

1. How do you set your board in the pre-season? The top 35 interested players, players who have you in there top 3, top in-state players, etc.? And how do you line it up? By caliber, needs, interest?

2. How do you distribute time? 30 mins to very other player, 20 to all players, randomly, etc.?

3. How good is this working out for you?

I'd appreciate any help at all with this guys. If your reading this and have another question in mind, go ahead and post it, me or someone else will try to help you out I'm sure.

[DrPhibes]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

In my Ohio State dynasty I just offer them money.

[Icefist]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

You don't want to go after 35 recruits. That is your problem. I go after 15 to start with and give them 40 mins each,but a lot of people have success with 20 players.Target a smaller number of recruits and you should be fine. Also, offer scholarships right away to people who have you #1 on their list, I would suggest waiting to offer scholarships to other players.

[Pogo27]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

I haven't done dynasty in 11 yet, and I know the recruiting is a little bit different this year, however in years past...

Generally speaking, I ordered my recruits in order of priority need for my team. My main focus is on filling holes, and then I go after the big time prospects that could see significant playing time early.

As for time, it's kind of a mixed bag. Early on, I like to spread my time out evenly amongst as many recruits as possible to get some feelers. I try to find the recruits that have a high priority on the things my school grades out well on. If his high priorities are on things my school grades out bad on, I drop him off.

Also, I don't always keep 35 guys on my board. You can't talk to 35 players every week, etc.


That said, I tend to spend a little let time with the people who have me as their #1 school, and more time with the others I'm trying to move up with. However, I do try to at least touch base with all the guys that have me at #1. The sooner they commit, the sooner I can start focusing on other recruits. Also, I don't lose that recruit this way.

I don't offer scholarships to anyone that I'm not their #1 choice unless I it is late in the season and I need a boost to jump up. Sometimes I will do it kind of mid-season to recruits in pipeline states, especially the home state.

[Whoman]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...ting-tips.html

has a few good tips on the next page of the forum

[Chef J2]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

You don't want to go after 35 recruits. That is your problem. I go after 15 to start with and give them 40 mins each,but a lot of people have success with 20 players.Target a smaller number of recruits and you should be fine. Also, offer scholarships right away to people who have you #1 on their list, I would suggest waiting to offer scholarships to other players.

Personally, I like this method. The distribution of recruiting points allows you to aggressively recruit players. This results in a higher number of in-season signings. Always replace each new signee with another player to recruit and give him the allotted 40 minutes. This method will typically result in a very good class if you strategically recruit each position and player.

[Alkalinesolo022]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

In my Ohio State dynasty I just offer them money.

LMAO! so true

[guitarchitect7]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

Good question...

First thing I would recommend anyone (and I'm not expert) is to review your roster numbers. I will use my Iowa State Cyclones as an example. Looking at the the current roster I have only 68 signed players, so that leaves 2 spots open for immediate signing regardless of who leaves or who stays.

I then review my needs - currently they had a need of 8 players I believe. So even with the departure of Seniors, I only have a need of 8 to fill out my roster to ensure my talent level remains the same or hopefully increases ( assuming the incoming freshman on the team can fill the voids left by the Seniors in the coming years).

After that I review how many seniors are leaving - how many for sure schollies will I have left to fill to max out my 70 roster spots (assuming again that no Juniors leave early). I will then review my team and find positions that are always in constant need of incoming players (WR, LB, DL, OL, CB), and target one or two within those areas. I may end up not targeting any players are certain positions if there is a plentiful of that position (HB, QB, TE). My total number ended up around 17. This number became my magic number.

Initially starting I focus on that magic number of 17, and even more specifically the needs number of 8 as these are spots that are relatively thin and need help immediately. Coming out of Pre-season I had around 18 players targeted - some were two or three at one position due to maybe needing two or three needs to fill.

I reorder based on needs - this should be an indication of the weakest position on my team and thus needs filled as quickly as possible; not always the case though. I begin then putting max time, 60 min, into my top targets at those necessary positions. I want to push hard on those players as soon as possible.

As soon as I've recruited at least the 8 spots to fill my needs, I move on to filling my senior spots with positions that always need incoming players. Depending on the talent lvl depends on the time spent (50-30 min). Once those players have been targeted, I should be left over with various other position players that may be backup options if one doesn't pan out and commits elsewhere. I spend around 20-10 min to just keep them engaged.

I never have a full 35 players targeted at any time - I don't even have 35 schollies to hand out and maybe only 17 spots to actually fill unless there are other players already on the team that I would be willing to cut. by limiting my recruiting pool, I can focus more energy early on - get some early commits hopefully, and then fill in later as needed with some fair talent that is still out there.

Keep in mind, a reassessment is necessary each week. See if your 60 min efforts are really getting you any closer, or would it be wise to find another target right away. '11 seems to have a lot more early commits, this will give you a good sign of how to proceed with backup options as well.

Again, I'm not an expert, but it's been my approach. I may never get top recruiting class, but I get players that I want, and don't get stuck just trying to fill a spot because I need to instead of because I want to.

[BIGD419]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

You don't want to go after 35 recruits. That is your problem. I go after 15 to start with and give them 40 mins each,but a lot of people have success with 20 players.Target a smaller number of recruits and you should be fine. Also, offer scholarships right away to people who have you #1 on their list, I would suggest waiting to offer scholarships to other players.

Hmmm maybe I'll try this out. I got decent results by doing something close to that. One week I would give all odds 30 mins guaranteed, and the next week give all evens guaranteed 30 mins to talk, then go back with my extra time and give that to top players. The problem came when people started committing and to here and there. Then the numbers got mixed up and it became a challenge to keep track of who was supposed to be getting talk time this week.

GREAT replies from everybody else (besides the guy who can't name the last Ohio State recruiting violation without using Google more then likely.) Got some great ideas and tips from this thread. Coming from someone who never took th time to recruit in past games, Thanks a lot fellas.

EDIT: Any other ideas on when to offer scholarships from anyone maybe? Like you said, if I'm #1, I offer the scholarship to any 4 or 5 star player (some 3 every once in awhile) in hopes of an insta-commit. If I'm, lets say, 3rd on his list, I'll usually talk to him, find some stuff out, and if I ever feel a team ahead of me taking him over, I'll throw a scholarship ou there to try to make him second guess his options.

[jmik58]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

I've noticed that the computer only goes after maybe 10 guys during in-season recruiting. I think many people get bogged down with recruits during the season and spread their points too thin.

Don't try to solve every problem in-season. Focus on two or three positions and go after them hard so you can spend more points in those areas.

[Cusefan]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

Have you guys unlocked the "free Condo" Promise for USC Yet?

[Pogo27]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

Have you guys unlocked the "free Condo" Promise for USC Yet?

I know you say this jokingly, but I have always thought they should add the option to break some NCAA rules, but you risked getting caught and thereby fired + sanctions, etc.

[Cusefan]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

I know you say this jokingly, but I have always thought they should add the option to break some NCAA rules, but you risked getting caught and thereby fired + sanctions, etc.

I dont think the NCAA would allow this. I like the discipline thing they did a few years back, with new recruits have a Integrity rating which would affect how often they break rules.

[Alkalinesolo022]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

I know you say this jokingly, but I have always thought they should add the option to break some NCAA rules, but you risked getting caught and thereby fired + sanctions, etc.

That would be pretty awesome, but I doubt the NCAA would ever allow it.

[Icefist]

Re: Your Recruiting Strategy

You don't want to go after 35 recruits. That is your problem. I go after 15 to start with and give them 40 mins each,but a lot of people have success with 20 players.Target a smaller number of recruits and you should be fine. Also, offer scholarships right away to people who have you #1 on their list, I would suggest waiting to offer scholarships to other players.

I started a dynasty with UK using this strategy, and by week 5 (I simmed every game) I was #1 on all but 2 of my 15 targets, and 1 target instantly committed. I have leads of over 1000 points on two players and a lead of less than 100 on one quarterback. I am in 2nd on the other two targets, and am down by 80 points and 160 points. Most other targets I have leads of about 400-500 on. All of my targets are 3 stars (the same as UK's prestige) except one 2 star fullback, and I am playing on All-American recruiting difficulty. This seems to be very effective, so I suggest trying it out.