I'm pretty new to HD. Just finished my first season in Phelan D3. I tried the game for 1 season because of the discount offer and really enjoyed getting the hang of it, so decided to re-up for 5 more seasons.

Just curious as to what most coaches' career goals are when playing HD. It seems like the most obvious objective is to progress through the lower divisions and work your way up to a D1 power conference team. So, I spent some time looking at the history of a number of the coaches in the different worlds, and it seems that some are content to build a dynasty at the D2 or D3 level (and have done so very successfully over a number of seasons, while almost certainly passing over opportunities to move up). Others it appears, have had quick success and taken the soonest chance they could get to move up and grab the reigns at a big D1 school.

What are some thoughts and pros and cons on building a dynasty in the lower divisions, as opposed to climbing up to D1 as quickly as possible? Any examples, tips, or success stories from either approach are certainly welcome as well.

my 1st hd team was (still is) hiram in wooden..i made so many mistakes with the terriers that i decided to stay at d3 & see if i could right the ship..personally i enjoy all the divisions..after 36 seasons & 4-6 worlds later, i still don''t have a big6 d1 team..i love to play in spite of my "success"!

I've done a little of both. As pkoopman, my original handle, I just wanted to get to big 6 programs. Not necessarily as fast as possible, but that was the goal, because that was the game I intended to play - get to March Madness with some big 6 schools.

When my son stopped playing, and I took over the shoe3 handle, I decided to use it to develop some programs more fully at lower levels, to experience that side of it more. It's not really for me. I will probably stay at Abilene Christian unless and until they make me leave, but otherwise I'll probably stick to D1 mostly in 3.0. Its probably self-evident that the longer you stay at a level, the more likely you are to compete for championships at that level. If that's what you want, take your time. But mid-majors seem to be a little more playable now, so even if you don't qualify for a big6 job for a while, you can be playing in the WCC, Ivy, or Summit Leagues in 6-7 seasons, and have some fun.

one cool thing about this game is that you can have various goals

1. coach the elite school that you support as a fan
2. coach the school where you actually went to college
3. coach a somewhat obscure school that you just find entertaining
4. get together a great conference of good coaches, play and enjoy individual and collective success - esp nice if the good coaches are good at the game and also a good convivial bunch. This last bit seems doomed to decline with 3.0. One thing that made that possible was conference $ - which made it possible to do something like take a mid major conference and with 11 or 12 good human coaches create a new elite conference. That was a ton of fun. Not gonne happen in 3.0 environment.

I have done each of them and enjoyed each,

Posted by slayterhill on 11/21/2016 3:08:00 PM (view original):
I'm pretty new to HD. Just finished my first season in Phelan D3. I tried the game for 1 season because of the discount offer and really enjoyed getting the hang of it, so decided to re-up for 5 more seasons.

Just curious as to what most coaches' career goals are when playing HD. It seems like the most obvious objective is to progress through the lower divisions and work your way up to a D1 power conference team. So, I spent some time looking at the history of a number of the coaches in the different worlds, and it seems that some are content to build a dynasty at the D2 or D3 level (and have done so very successfully over a number of seasons, while almost certainly passing over opportunities to move up). Others it appears, have had quick success and taken the soonest chance they could get to move up and grab the reigns at a big D1 school.

What are some thoughts and pros and cons on building a dynasty in the lower divisions, as opposed to climbing up to D1 as quickly as possible? Any examples, tips, or success stories from either approach are certainly welcome as well.

My motivation is to become the best coach in each division of a world.

Posted by CoachWard95 on 11/21/2016 6:03:00 PM (view original):

Posted by slayterhill on 11/21/2016 3:08:00 PM (view original):
I'm pretty new to HD. Just finished my first season in Phelan D3. I tried the game for 1 season because of the discount offer and really enjoyed getting the hang of it, so decided to re-up for 5 more seasons.

Just curious as to what most coaches' career goals are when playing HD. It seems like the most obvious objective is to progress through the lower divisions and work your way up to a D1 power conference team. So, I spent some time looking at the history of a number of the coaches in the different worlds, and it seems that some are content to build a dynasty at the D2 or D3 level (and have done so very successfully over a number of seasons, while almost certainly passing over opportunities to move up). Others it appears, have had quick success and taken the soonest chance they could get to move up and grab the reigns at a big D1 school.

What are some thoughts and pros and cons on building a dynasty in the lower divisions, as opposed to climbing up to D1 as quickly as possible? Any examples, tips, or success stories from either approach are certainly welcome as well.

My motivation is to become the best coach in each division of a world.

CoachWard is an alpha male.

I personally liked playing at Div-2 in 2.0.

I currently have 2 Div-1 teams and 1 Div-3 team .. the other 7 teams I have are D-2.

Obviously, my goal is to win the National Championship every season. But in reality, my real goal is to make the sweet sixteen as often as possible and get some elite eight, Final Four or championships peppered in there.

I agree with fd343ny, there are so many different goals you can have. Whatever you like best, go ahead and give it a shot!

Not to digress too much but what fd posted is actually a good idea that I'd like to try out. Take a LOW D1 conference and turn it into a power conference. I think it's going to be easier now. Low D1 can now actually get 4 and 5 star guys so you could get pretty damn good at the lower levels if you're a great coach. I think it'd be awesome to see like 6 Big South teams make the tourney.

I haven't looked at moving up past the D2 level because it is clear from many that I respect and whose opinions I trust that the D1 level of the game was a broken commodity with regard to hirings and firings and which teams actually had a chance at a NT run while others were lucky to be one-and-done. I found the game enjoyable at the D2 and D3 level and competitive. I was able to find good coaches in good conferences who made the game fun to be in and with whom you strike up friendships...and that, for me, was enough to keep me where i am.

Naismith is a great spot. I started intending to work my way up and grab Nebraska, but found myself in the GLV, a league that has been remarkably stable for my now 40+ seasons. At one point we had six coaches with 25+ seasons at their current teams in the league. It made for some good rivalries and a lot of fun. The door has spun a few times and people have dropped and others have come in, sometimes for a few seasons, sometimes to grow roots. We're even seeing return coaches now rebounding back down from D1 or back into the game after quitting for a spell. That's the fun of the game to me at this stage.

First welcome! is it too simple to say my goal is to get the most enjoyment from the game I can? for example I picked up cal tech in phelan maybe 25 seasons ago. the plan was move up as fast as I could. 25ish seasons later I'm still there and it is my favorite team. try different things and see what you enjoy. there are countless goals you can have but do what is fun for you. if I can help you along the way just ask.
oh, and for me a goal is to play for free which means averaging a sweet 16 run each year. That's nice to ; )

My goals were to:

Win a championship at each division level. Won lots at D3, took a long time at D1, and a good while at D2

Have an undefeated season

Have back to back undefeated seasons. I think I just missed this.

Have back to back championships.

Win a championship with the zone - never have been able to do this.

Coach in all 50 states, plus DC and Puerto Rico (Still have Indiana, Nevada and Wyoming to go)

Have a player get to 1000 rating (have not quite done that yet).

I also enjoy tracking player progress, and keeping track of what high school they came out of.

I initially started this game with the intent of moving up to DI as quick as possible, but also wanted to prove I could be successful at each of the lower levels. Over time, I found I had developed friendly relationships with my conference mates and never wanted to leave. I'm currently in a conference where 3-4 of us have been there roughly 50 seasons (used to be more, but some have since quit). Most of the vets I've spoken with over the years have enjoyed DII the best, simply because DI was broken and it was difficult to compete with the big boys.

I do believe super conferences at the lower levels will decrease without the recruiting cash bonus which is sad, because that was probably the best part of the game. It was fun to build rivalries with people within the conference, but it was also fun to challenge other elite conferences in the division.

My goal, as always, is to be the best...
best coaches overall are D1.

But these changes have left a few things at high D1 broken, but the goal won't change. I'll just have more frustration maintaining.

Thanks all for the insightful responses. Nice to see that the game can experienced in so many different ways. Looking forward to crossing paths with you all as I work my way into the game.

Welcome! Depends on what you want. I really liked D2. But I think you play should play D3 til it seems easy. For me it was time to move up when I kind of didn't care about any game until the 2nd round of the NT.

Once you get to D1 the game is a little harder as I think most of to top coaches d up there so it's good to learn what works in the lower divisions.