In order to get ot the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac 10 or SEC, is it better to stay at a somewhat established (C+ prestige) team in a lower level DI conference or move up to an A10 team with that has a higher baseline prestige, but currently has a C- prestige?

I jumped to Louisville after years at Davidson, also jumped to Washington State in the Pac 10 straight from D2. It can be done.

It really all depends on the prestige of the school when it opens up. If a big time school (let's just say UNC as an example) opens up when it has an A+ prestige then the only coaches eligible are going to be ones that are well established with a long and successful record at a similarly high prestige school. If the team is down when it opens up, say something like a B prestige, then it will open the door for some successful coaches from the smaller programs.

It's probably be better to stay at your current school (if you wanna get there as fast as possible). If you move to the A10, it'll probably set you back at least 4 seasons if you wanna make the big 6. I'm looking at your W. Carolina team at the moment. You've recruited some nice players (particularly Harvey, he's quite good). But honestly your recruiting class doesn't look very good. I'd be happy to help you with recruiting or any questions you may have with your non-phelan team, just shoot me a sitemail.

Louisville has A- baseline prestige and I spent 10 seasons at Davidson to get there. Louisville was a B- when I took them over.

Posted by theploww on 5/21/2013 3:56:00 PM (view original):
It really all depends on the prestige of the school when it opens up. If a big time school (let's just say UNC as an example) opens up when it has an A+ prestige then the only coaches eligible are going to be ones that are well established with a long and successful record at a similarly high prestige school. If the team is down when it opens up, say something like a B prestige, then it will open the door for some successful coaches from the smaller programs.

It doesn't matter how good your current school is.

If two resumes look the same, it doesn't matter if one is at Georgia State and the other is at Georgia Tech.

Posted by girt25 on 5/21/2013 11:06:00 PM (view original):

Posted by theploww on 5/21/2013 3:56:00 PM (view original):
It really all depends on the prestige of the school when it opens up. If a big time school (let's just say UNC as an example) opens up when it has an A+ prestige then the only coaches eligible are going to be ones that are well established with a long and successful record at a similarly high prestige school. If the team is down when it opens up, say something like a B prestige, then it will open the door for some successful coaches from the smaller programs.

It doesn't matter how good your current school is.

If two resumes look the same, it doesn't matter if one is at Georgia State and the other is at Georgia Tech.

Interesting. I always assumed your current school prestige played a factor in hiring, but that was just an assumption.

Posted by theploww on 5/22/2013 11:03:00 AM (view original):

Posted by girt25 on 5/21/2013 11:06:00 PM (view original):

Posted by theploww on 5/21/2013 3:56:00 PM (view original):
It really all depends on the prestige of the school when it opens up. If a big time school (let's just say UNC as an example) opens up when it has an A+ prestige then the only coaches eligible are going to be ones that are well established with a long and successful record at a similarly high prestige school. If the team is down when it opens up, say something like a B prestige, then it will open the door for some successful coaches from the smaller programs.

It doesn't matter how good your current school is.

If two resumes look the same, it doesn't matter if one is at Georgia State and the other is at Georgia Tech.

Interesting. I always assumed your current school prestige played a factor in hiring, but that was just an assumption.

im almost positive girt is right, but its worth nothing, your current school prestige has a lot of factors in common with the job resume stuff. i forget what it was, maybe ranking, was not being used as a factor in NT seeding, but the factors used in NT seeding included a set of factors almost identical to ranking, so it caused confusion because to the eye, it was included, but technically, it was not.

anyway, i think this is similar. if you look at extreme cases, a b+ goes to b- quickly, a d goes to b- quickly, you can see the b- doesnt make a difference (its still a bit hard to see, the b+ guy started with a way better resume). but in the usual flow of things, if you start at a mid major in the D range and build up to a b-, and so does someone else - the factors bringing that prestige up are similar to how your jobs resume is viewed, so you will be eligible for about the same stuff. the longer two people are at a school, the more accurately prestige reflects their job resume (well, you have to compare guys at similar schools - over 10 seasons, coaching some random school to a B, and coaching north carolina to a B, those obviously aren't comparable, one guy is always making the post season, the other, always missing it). 

also, generally speaking, the kind of success it takes to build a school up to a prestige level, is about the same level of success you need from a jobs standpoint, to get a school of that prestige. so they are linked even further than just comparing two guys with the same prestige (at the same type of school). when i took over b- south carolina, it was a mess. when we got to an a-, we were qualified for about an a-, and when we got to an a+, we were over qualified for any job. so it follows decently closely, especially within similar types of schools, which is why the perception is they are related - and its really not so harmful to think that way, because you usually reach the correct conclusion. but not always :)

Posted by gaheel84 on 5/21/2013 3:01:00 PM (view original):
In order to get ot the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac 10 or SEC, is it better to stay at a somewhat established (C+ prestige) team in a lower level DI conference or move up to an A10 team with that has a higher baseline prestige, but currently has a C- prestige?

I think it depends on how you are going to be able to recruit where you are now. If you are not going to go much higher than a B- and maybe a 2nd Round NT every 3 or 4 seasons where you are then a higher prestige school makes sense to get into a Big 6 spot.

On the other hand, if you almost always win your CT and can recruit where you are ... and can get a decent seed in the NT where you can move up to a B prestige on your current team (which means better recruits) then you can stay where you are.

I was able to move from Morris Brown to the SEC (Mississippi State), from IUPUI to the Big Ten (Wisconsin), from Dartmouth to the Big East (West Virginia), and from Portland to the Big 10 (Purdue) .. so it is possible to go from lower DI to Big 6.