Developer Chat

Beginning 8/25, there will be changes to recruiting as outlined in the release notes.

will a player contact you about wanting to play at your school even if you don't attempt to recruit him? (once they start to fall down to the lower schools) (twmiles - All-Star - 3:08 PM)

No, you must have contacted him at least once prior.

For what reason(s) would a recruit peg you as a back up option vs. consider you? Level of school, level of contact, etc. (ahausla - Hall of Famer - 3:12 PM)

It's based on the recruits skills relative to your program's prestige/success. There are some recruits that would not consider playing for a specific school ever (e.g. the #1 player in the country would never sign with a 10-15 Quinnipiac team), there are some recruits that would consider a school if they don't get attention from more prestigious schools and then there are recruits that would consider a school immediately.

If upper level schools are really so much more prestigious than DI bottom feeders, why do they need to effectually calls dibs on recruits? Shouldn't they be able to beat them head to head? (jakurus - Hall of Famer - 3:22 PM)

In addition to just prestige, there are other variables such as distance and dollars that impact recruiting. Since we provide all schools within a division the same level of recruiting dollars, their prestige serves as the counter-balance. Yes, prestige does carry a lot of weight, but the band restrictions also serve as a sanity check so the first humans into DI aren't signing top 10 recruits.

Once potential in place, it will be more likely for a smaller school to land a virtually unrecruited player who develops into an all-american, ala a Ron Harper.

How do "ineligible" qualifiers work? Are you able to recruit a higher division player if he is ineligible, or are they only available for the higher division? (kwheeler - Hall of Famer - 3:40 PM)

They can drop just like any other player. The further recruiting progresses, the more open they'll be to playing at various levels of schools - including DI players being open to DII and DII projected players being open to DIII.

How much recruiting effort will have to be made for a recruit to have you on his back-up list and then contact you later if he's still undecided? (daalter - Hall of Famer - 11:43 PM)

Any level of contact with a recruit will get you on his radar and potentially on his 'backup' list.

By limiting the recruits that will answer a lower D1 school's calls, you have effectively eliminated the need for extra budget being awarded to leagues like the Ivy. What do you say to allowing for the fact that a really smart and really good basketball player might entertain an Ivy league school or a local kid rated in the top 20 at his position might stay at a school like Radford. Give us something to spend our 10's of thousands in extra recruiting money. (srward - Hall of Famer - 11:46 PM)

Since season 1, there have always been recruits which will not consider playing for an Ivy league school (in this case), we're not changing that aspect of recruiting - what we are doing though is making it more realistic in that those recruits would not keep ignoring the call of Princeton, Yale or any of the other Ivy's if they're not receiving attention from the major conferences. You'll still need all of that cash, just potentially later in the recruiting period.

Will all players drop their expectations or will only some? if some, what knowable factors indicate guys who would drop fast or slow? will juco2's drop faster than J1's and faster still than HS kids? will kids with other attributes drop faster or slower? (mamxet - Hall of Famer - 11:49 PM)

Any player who is undecided will begin to widen his circle. JUCO2 players will widen farther and faster or else they'll spend next season dominating at the local YMCA.

I'm concerned that when an undecided recruit decides to contact his back-up schools, too many will be involved and it will turn into a feeding frenzy. Will the recruit just contact a couple at a time, or will there potentially be MANY schools that he contacts at once? (daalter - Hall of Famer - 11:51 PM)

Each recruit will work his way down his 'backup list' gradually and since schools are various levels of prestige, normally only a couple will be contacted at any one time.

Can you tell us something about the timing by which these guys will lower their standards? To date in Tark, it looks like a few guys started to drop at the end of day 1 and the end of day 2 and then each cycle a few more dropped into view in DII (mamxet - Hall of Famer - 8:45 AM)

That's what you can expect with the HS/JUCO1 players too - although they will work down their backup list much slower than JUCO2 players.

At DII and DIII, teams had a legit chance (the recruit accepted calls, etc) for anyone that showed up on their recruiting screens. 1) Will this still be the case? 2) As undecided recruits lower their expectations, will those recruits actually show up on a team's recruiting screen?...DIII recruiting screen for a DIII team. (Rails - Hall of Famer - 8:47 AM)

Yes, at DII and DIII, players returned on your recruiting search should be open to your recruiting efforts. At DI, the recruiting search will still show players which may not be open to your school yet and you'll still need to call them to get a read on them.

We know that lower level DI teams will be able to see better recruits as recruiting goes on. And the same is apparently true for at least upper level DII. But is that going to be the rule throughout? Will all teams, DI - DIII be able to see better recruits as the recruiting process moves forward? (blazor - Hall of Famer - 8:49 AM)

Yes, assuming there are recruits which are not receiving interest from their primary target schools in DII, then they may consider DIII options.

Will simply contacting the recruit's H.S. coach be enough to receive contact when a player starts to consider you? (blazor - Hall of Famer - 8:50 AM)

Yes. Any type of contact (call, letter, etc.) will be enough to get you on that recruit's backup list and he'll let you know that.

For, say, DIII teams, at the start of recruiting, will those players who have the potential to "gradually drop in later stages of recruiting" appear on recruiting searches as DIII recruits or as DII recruits? In other words, will we have to go to the DII screen to find the players who might give us a "you're on my backup list" response, or will they appear in the DIII search? Thanks. (bluespruce - Hall of Famer - 8:52 AM)

They will not appear on your recruiting list at DIII or DII. In both of those divisions, you'd have to send out feelers to the undecided recruits projected at DII or DI respectively.

For a kid to contact you as his "Plan B," would you have had to originally contact him, or will he potentially contact you unsolicited? (Rails - Hall of Famer - 8:53 AM)

You must contact him to get on his radar. Of course at DIII and DII, when you see new recruits in your recruiting search then you know that they'd be receptive to you.

Can promises affect or change weather a recruit considers me, has me as a back-up or ignores me? (nfet - Hall of Famer - 8:56 AM)

See above. As long as you're on the backup list for that recruit, he won't pay much attention to you.

Will all DIII recruiting screens initially have the same recruits on them now with some recruits not being attainable at first to some (similar to DI) or will it be like it has been in the past where a different crop of recruits are seen depending on the prestige of the school? (Rails - Hall of Famer - 8:59 AM)

That hasn't changed. There will still be tweener recruits that will be projected at DIII (for example) for some very successful DIII programs but DII for most other DIII programs. The difference is that those tweener type of recruits will now become available to other DIII programs as recruiting progresses if they don't receive any interest.

Any chance we might be able to access recruiting options before the 6:00 PM start of recruiting in the future (like when your recruiting budget is displayed). Recruiting feedback can still start as it does (8 PM the first night). It'd be more user friendly. (birdflu - Veteran - 1:01 PM)

The deadline for new coaches to signup is 4pm and then recruiting begins at 6pm so the earliest we could possibly go without creating a disadvantage for new coaches would be 4pm.

It's common for 0 JUCO2's to drop from DI and signed at DIII.In rl, there are a lot of JUCO2s that easily have the skills to play DIII as juniors and it's a legit opportunity for rl coaches. What do you anticipate for JUCO2s at DIII? I'd think it would be more realistic from the get go to have JUCO2s with ratings of 450-550 available in DIII, the range where juniors who were recruited out of HS fall. (Rails - Hall of Famer - 1:03 PM)

The recruiting changes will include more lower level JUCO2 players available at the outset of recruiting.

Are the recruiting changes in place and ready to go for Allen? (kelby_03 - Hall of Famer - 1:03 PM)

Yes.

Are all Worlds using the same engine right now? (blackmink18 - Hall of Famer - 1:03 PM)

Yes, everyone is using the same game engine.

How much extra weight does a winning season carry? I've seen teams with a 20 win season sign 50 and 60 rated guys while 16 win teams can only get 130s. (Weena - Hall of Famer - 1:06 PM)

There are numerous factors which go into how appealing a program is to a recruit - these include baseline factors for a program such as conference, history, fanbase, tv exposure, etc. as well as more variable factors such as wins, NCAA bids, CT championships, etc. So a 16 win Duke will still be able to sign better players than a 20 win Stony Brook.

admin, I respectfully request you have two distinct singing periods. Your thoughts? (tarzan - Hall of Famer - 1:09 PM)

I understand what you're asking, but I think it's going to be overkill in a 4 day recruiting period. Even recruits who drop will still quite a bit of recruiting effort to get them to sign.

At DIII, is there an advantage to sending out "feelers" to DI/DII players in the hope they eventually consider you versus just waiting until they show up on your visable DIII screen? (Rails - Hall of Famer - 1:11 PM)

Yes and no - it will help if you want to be contacted if they begin to consider your level of school as an option but it won't give you a leg up on the other programs in terms of having a an 'in' with that recruit.

when you say recruits that drop will still take quite a bit of recruiting to get them...... will it take more recruiting for a Div II team to get a Div I recruit? or will he sign with the same recruiting style as for Div II recruits? (tdiddy3 - Hall of Famer - 1:12 PM)

At that point he's the same as other DII recruits and would take the same level of effort.

was the major concern driving these changes that prestige sim at d1 school's were not competitive enough? (oldresorter - Hall of Famer - 1:13 PM)

No, it was that the recruits expectations were far too rigid which isn't realistic - it's fine for them to start off hoping to play in the SEC or ACC, but if those schools don't come knocking, the kid will then consider the A10, Colonial, etc.

If a player is undecided and starts dropping down to lower schools what happens if a top school suddenly starts recruiting him? Will he immediately drop the lower schools? (rachyla - Prospect - 1:15 PM)

Good question - no, at that point he's already opened himself up to the possibility at playing at a lower prestige school so he could end up signing with either the big or the small school.

As recruits start to fall into DII and DIII will the more prestigious schools have the 1st shot at them or will they drop to all DII and DIII schools? (kelby_03 - Hall of Famer - 1:16 PM)

The recruit will work his way down his backup list starting with the more successful DIII or DII schools first.

Will there still be the drop off in recruiting efforts if it takes more than 5 cycles between initial contact and a player contacting you as a backup? (Weena - Hall of Famer - 1:17 PM)

No, that has been eliminated.

But if a big school starts after a guy after he starts dropping, their prestige will still give them an edge, correct? Prestige doesn't just determine whether a recruit will talk to your school in the new system, does it? (AlCheez - Hall of Famer - 1:18 PM)

Yes, the big school would still have a prestige advantage in recruiting the kid, but the smaller school can still potentially beat them out if they are able to make promises, spend more money, are closer, etc. - at this point, they can battle it out for the recruit.

Okay, so say you've got a team that made the sweet sixteen in DII, and has a strong history of doing well. Would it be out of the question to be able to target a few low DI undecideds and expect a possible "backup" response if you offer enough? Would you need to offer a start / big minutes in order to get this kind of kid to consider you as a backup? (kroessman - All-Star - 1:19 PM)

Very possible now. As long as you're a backup though, it will be much more difficult to get them to consider your school until they think they won't get the attention they were expecting. Only when they give up on their primary schools will they start to be open to all recruiting efforts from a backup school.

In reference to rachyla question. Will it take less for the bigger school to recruit the guy? (rmj97 - Hall of Famer - 1:22 PM)

Yes, the prestige of the program and success of the coach are very important in recruiting so a phone call from Mike Krzyzewski carries a lot more weight than a phone call from Mike Deane.

Have you given any thought to new recruiting features (for instance instead of a standard home visit, you click a home visit, to focus on families concerns, or a campus visit to show them the facilities). (dherz_263 - Hall of Famer - 1:22 PM)

Yes, we have a list of new recruiting features that will be added down the road.

Are players that drop but still go unsigned more likely to end up as walk-ons? (Weena - Hall of Famer - 1:23 PM)

If they are JUCO2 players, yes. Otherwise they'll play JUCO ball.

Lets say you have a successful D3 school, but don't contact any undecided kids in D2. When the D2 kid starts considering his backup list, will he automatically consider the top D3 programs? Or will you have to give the kid at least 1 phone call to get on his initial back up list? (taz21 - Hall of Famer - 1:25 PM)

He would show up in your recruiting search when you select 'Projected=DIII' - even you've never contacted him before. If you had contacted him before, he'd show in your search and you'd get a not from either the recruit or your assistant notifying you that this kid may be in play.

It seems like there have been increased instances of it taking much more effort to get some recruits interested in a school at DII and DIII. Is this a by-product of the new valuations? (AlCheez - Hall of Famer - 1:27 PM)

Indirectly yes - for example, a Center with low durability and low stamina but great low post and rebounding skills may have a low total value but take more to get on his radar than in prior seasons.

But to follow up on rachyla's question, I'm assuming the "bigger" school's recruiting efforts will go further to sway the recruit given the same $ and efforts are expended by 2 schools? The big school still has the advantage, correct? (groomsie - Hall of Famer - 1:28 PM)

If all else is equal (dollars, distance, types and quantities of recruiting efforts, etc.) then yes, the bigger school would have the advantage.

To followup, if recruiting options can open at 4 instead of 6 pm, that's better. I'd rather get an extra hour for the first cycle than one less (4-8 instead of 6-8). (birdflu - Veteran - 1:30 PM)

I'll have to check into that but I don't think it's possible because the AI does it's recruiting during the 5pm cycle so we leave an hour buffer after the new coach signup deadline and an hour buffer between the AI schools recruiting and the humans starting recruiting.

Will players "drop" onto SIM AI schools' radar now too, or is SIM recruiting going to be the same? (Rails - Hall of Famer - 1:31 PM)

Sims will be the same - this will be an advantage for us humans.

Have you built any 'waiting period' into the recruits that drop down, so that they will delay signing for a few cycles once they become available to a new range of schools? Or will we continue to see 'one shot' signings, where a school dumps a bunch of cash and promises on them in a single cycle and snaps them up before other schools even know they can sign the player? (antonsirius - Hall of Famer - 1:32 PM)

It depends on where we are in the recruiting process - early on they'll wait but on the last day, it's certainly possible to get a recruit to sign very quickly.

will this eventually cause fewer good juco's, since the good hs seniors will sign in d2 if they can't find a d1 job? (oldresorter - Hall of Famer - 1:33 PM)

My guess would be yes, but we'll have to see how it plays out. If it does, we can produce more JUCOs each season to balance it out.

When will players begin to drop? And how frequently will they continue to drop during the process? (blazor - Hall of Famer - 1:34 PM)

They will begin to drop prior to day 2 of recruiting and the drops will be gradual every 3 hours as long as they are not considering any schools.

Does anything except budget stop a coach from shotgunning calls to all kinds of players just beyond their reach, hoping they'll drop to them? (groomsie - Hall of Famer - 1:35 PM)

No.

Currently the list of signings disappears as soon as the final 2:00 am EST cycle has been processed. Is there any way to keep them up for a little while longer, say even 24 hours? (daalter - Hall of Famer - 1:35 PM)

We'd like to be able to keep that around - the problem is the new recruits are generated immediately which makes it difficult but it is something we'd like to address.

Because of this uproar of recruiting issues, does this mean you'll never be able to go on vacation again? (blackmink18 - Hall of Famer - 1:38 PM)

Hmmm, keep the wife happy or keep you happy? Tough one but I'm going with option A.

Is it poosible to add another level of sort, when organizing recruits?...high/medium/low, plan B? (Rails - Hall of Famer - 1:38 PM)

Just me, but I'd use high for players that I've offered schollies to (or will), medium for those that haven't blown me off but may consider me down the road, and low for those recruits that will have nothing to do with us.

if an ACC school recruits a player enough to consider that school, but doesn't offer him a scholarship (because the ACC school is considering him as a backup option) will that recruit still lower his expectations? (tdiddy3 - Hall of Famer - 1:39 PM)

No - as long as he's considering that school he'll hold out hope for a schollie - if he doesn't get it, the ACC school will be dropped from his considering list and he'll quickly considering many other schools.

Can you explain what changes you made in the "star" system? Obviously 1 star players are now lower quality but what exactly changed? (Weena - Hall of Famer - 1:40 PM)

Nothing there - we just wanted to have a closer correlation between stars in HD and a scouting site such as scout.com or rivals.com.

Thanks for taking the time to ask questions!