NCAA ALL THINGS RECRUITING THREAD!!

[ufox1810]

I love recruiting and was happier than a pig in you know what when they redid the system last year, but I know it's not for everyone (hence the implementation of the quick call this year). I could write a much longer guide almost to how I do it for both power programs and the little guys, but for now I'll give my most important tip so far.

In NCAA 2008 (yes last year's game)...

...it seemed to be to your benefit to schedule visits later in the year because recruits were more likely to commit immediately after the visit. They may give a soft verbal somewhere else, but as long as you could get them to visit, you had a decent shot. I can't tell you how many guys I lost because I had them visit early on, but even though they loved the visit and had me #1, they didn't commit because they wanted to make their other visits later in the year. So I'd be #1 on a guy's list all year only to lose him to LSU in like week 11 after he visited there. Due to this, I would always fill up my visits by starting with the last good home game first. If FSU was at home that year, I would make sure every 5-star guy was visiting that week and then work back from there.

In NCAA 2009...

...it is the EXACT OPPOSITE. Well almost. Now keep in mind this is only my experience, but so far it seems like you can't rely on late season visits. So far, I've seen more and more recruits commit earlier on in the season, well before taking the majority of their visits. I use UF and immediately started scheduling visits for everyone for the South Carolina game, but I've already lost a handful because they've visited somewhere else and decided it was good enough for them that they don't have to wait for my visit. In hindsight, I would've scheduled more visits for the LSU game or even for the Tennessee game. I've experienced something similar while simming dynasties with other schools as well.

I'm not saying to schedule all your visits early in the season, I'm just saying don't schedule them all later in the season. Last year it seemed like you could schedule all your visits for the last couple of home games on your schedule and maybe risk only 2-3 guys committing elsewhere before they at least gave you a look. This year it seems like you would lose a much bigger chunk of your recruiting board if you stuck to this strategy. So basically, mix it up. If a guy has you #1 on his list for 7 straight weeks, then think about scheduling him for a week 8 or week 9 game. Don't always wait for that marquee matchup at the end of the year.

[bigjake62505]

I started with Nevada and I had a rough time recruiting. My 1st season I think I won like 3 games, and I signed like 2-3* and some 2* players. My second year I got to 11 wins but still had a rough go at recruiting, I had a couple 4* players right untill the end but they signed with other teams. My last year at Nevada would have been my best b/c I got a 4* tackel and a 4* QB but I took a job at Ole Miss. The off season there was a breeze. They already had a lot of 3* and like 4-4* players signed before the season was over. I picked up like 3 more 4* and now I'm playing with the rebels. It is cool to get all the staduum sounds from sec and play them during games.

[Ruffy]

Quote: Originally Posted by gibbzilla558

I just finished year 5 of my UNT dynasty. Here are my recruiting class ranks: Season 1 #74 Season 2 #51 Season 3 #24 Season 4 #47 Season 5 I'm currently in off-season recruiting and I signed 9 4-star recruits before the season ended. Looks like I'm about to need to switch teams.

Not bad I'm playing an online dynasty with a buddy and he is NT while I'm ULL.

I still think you get an advantage being in Texas over others.....what was your main strategy.


I'd like to hear how people use quick call....or how many players your recruit at a time? Do you do less than the 35 you can fit on the board?

[gibbzilla558]

Season #6 has just started for UNT, and I pulled the 4th-ranking recruiting class in all the land in Season #5.

I've never used quick call. I get maybe 8 guys I'm really interested in to put me in their top 3 early in the season. Then I move less important guys to the front of the line and recruit the hell out of them. Eventually it evens out and I get a far better class than UNT would ever get.

[chapmanosu1]

I don't like the quick call but I always use it because I like how you can assign a number of minutes to spend. I don't like how I'll be hard selling a guy and he stays on the phone for an hour (in another thread a few people said you HAVE to get the pitch complete popup to have it take effect). So for those of you that call normally and hard sell, how do you find enough time for all the guys on your board?

[BuffCentury]

Quote: Originally Posted by chapmanosu1

So for those of you that call normally and hard sell, how do you find enough time for all the guys on your board?

The trick for me is to only put about 12-15 on my board for starters. That allows me to give quality time to those I really want. After a few weeks, I'll go digging for 4 stars that haven't been offered yet and don't have anyone high on their list and add them.

[Ruffy]

Quote: Originally Posted by chapmanosu1

I don't like the quick call but I always use it because I like how you can assign a number of minutes to spend. I don't like how I'll be hard selling a guy and he stays on the phone for an hour (in another thread a few people said you HAVE to get the pitch complete popup to have it take effect). So for those of you that call normally and hard sell, how do you find enough time for all the guys on your board?

Has EA confirmed this? I wonder...cause this may be why Im not signing guys early as I dont stay on the phone that long if its dragging out.

I'd love to see some answers from OMT if he's cruising the boards today at all!

[blLLD0]

I like the quick call. It saves time and it seems like you unlock more of the recruits priorities faster then if you manually do it. After i find out some of their high and very high factors i'll go in and manually sell the pitch.

Using my Purdue degree I did some algebra and found out how to divide my time evenly between recruits. Each week, especially early in the season I'll try to spend:

30 min on 10 recruits
20 min on 7 recruits
10 min on 14 recruits
5 min on 4 recruits

So half of my top guys i'm spending the most time on, and other role players i'll give a quick 10 min call. Then when i'm down to the bottom i'll use the 5 min quick call just to get a call in and let them know i'm still interested.

[Ruffy]

Quote: Originally Posted by blLLD0

I like the quick call. It saves time and it seems like you unlock more of the recruits priorities faster then if you manually do it. After i find out some of their high and very high factors i'll go in and manually sell the pitch. Using my Purdue degree I did some algebra and found out how to divide my time evenly between recruits. Each week, especially early in the season I'll try to spend: 30 min on 10 recruits 20 min on 7 recruits 10 min on 14 recruits 5 min on 4 recruits So half of my top guys i'm spending the most time on, and other role players i'll give a quick 10 min call. Then when i'm down to the bottom i'll use the 5 min quick call just to get a call in and let them know i'm still interested.

Interesting breakdown....I won't touch the purdue algebra thing....im pretty sure some HS would have done the trick too ;-).

[skinfan31]

After reading through this thread I don't think there is one set way to recruit. I really believe it's just blind luck to go along with what type of school you choose.

I'm in the 2nd year with my North Carolina dynasty. After the first year was complete I had the 22nd best recruting class. Even though I was in the top 25 I failed to land one 5 star recruit. I tried to talk to each recruit every week. Towards the end of the season, I mainly focused on the top ten on my list. I forget the total count, but I think I only landed 3 or 4 four star recruits. The rest were all 3 stars.

This season I targeted a ton of 5 star's that were interested in me. Now in my 11th week I have 1 left. I had a 5 star FS that had me listed number 1 all year until 3 weeks ago. So I moved him to number 2 on my list and focused the majority of my time on him. All of his interest were maxed out and he still chose another school over me. I don't get it. Just proves my theory that it's just blind luck.