So this recruiting season I decided to try offering a booster gift (perhaps foolishly) for the first time in my career. It didn't work, and predictably, I got investigated. I just found out that due to this one gift, I am on probation. Fine, that doesn't really mean much. But my reputation, which was at A+, has now dropped down to a D-.

Now, I know Seble was just talking in the HD chat about how he wanted some kind of deterrence for booster gifts (even if the deterrence they have built in just essentially makes booster gifts game-ruiners for people who don't know any better) but A+ to D-? That's a drop worth making someone quit the game over. This is not an "I quit" post, but if I had any hope of jumping up to DI anytime soon, especially given then I chose to take on a challenging Puerto Rico program in DII which the game doesn't even attempt to take into account, I am now basically stuck here forever.

How is a drop this precipitous in any conceivable way a realistic depiction? John Calipari has had multiple Final Four appearances vacated and he seems to have little trouble getting hired by major teams. There are tons of coaches at the DI level with recruiting violations, and whose programs have been put on some kind of probation, that people have entirely forgotten about or never even knew about. But I get a single recruiting violation for a recruit that didn't even come to my school, essentially get a warning from the league, and my prestige drops down to basically the lowest point it can be without murdering a prostitute? Like I said, essentially a game-ruiner...

They need to just take boosters out of the game.  The risk/reward is outrageously skewed, and the only people that ever try it are those like yourself that don't know any better.  So it's really little more than a punishment on the ignorant.

John Calipari was never found guilty of personally doing anything wrong which caused his program to be put on probation; you were.

John Calipari has a proven track record for winning, you do not.

Think more Tark and how no one wanted to touch him after UNLV.  Id be happy it didnt drop to an F.

Well technically, I wasn't found guilty of doing anything wrong either; "boosters" were. I didn't give the guy a gift; "boosters" did. Just like Marcus Camby and Derrick Rose got illegal perks that John Calipari had nothing "personally" to do with. And Calipari's violations had as much to do with Calipari as Tarkanian's had to do with Tarkanian, since the controversies that got Tark fired from UNLV had to do with Richard Perry interfering with players, not Tark.

You can argue semantics all you want but the point is that the penalties here are not realistic given the crime. Tark resigned from UNLV after being dogged by the NCAA for about 20 years (and still eventually found another job). I committed one violation and my career is now basically shot.

That happened to me as well, since I kept hearing you could get away with it, and in a world I was frusterated, I offered one gift.  Caused me to go down to DIII since I couldn't even move laterally at DII.

I agree with above, I know people dislike boosters, but a lot of material still says "It works if you do it right"- people need to know it works VERY rarely from what I'm told and have seen.

Its not shot because with each season played it goes back up and will eventually be an A+ again. You dont want a punishment, dont cheat, its that simple.

You have a very strange definition of cheating if you consider a feature implemented into the game by its creators and made known to every user to be a "cheat."

It's not a cheat but the risks are pretty obvious when you use it. At D- Rep, I believe it will take 4 seasons to get back to A+, which really isn't a lifetime. 

Posted by tianyi7886 on 11/10/2010 1:12:00 PM (view original):
It's not a cheat but the risks are pretty obvious when you use it. At D- Rep, I believe it will take 4 seasons to get back to A+, which really isn't a lifetime. 

I personally don't feel the risks are pretty obvious.  I've been here for the better part of four years, and maybe I missed a change, but for a long time, people at least boasted on the forum that "you have to use boosters to win".

I wasn't clear that the risks were approaching 100% to me at least.  Call me ignorant, call me stupid, call me what you will, but in 79 seasons I used boosters once, and it has KILLED me in that world.  I didn't even get the player, and it was ONE lowly gift.

I personally would like it to be more clear that you basically will not succeed using booster gifts and getting away with it.  That's all.  Had I thought the risk was even 50% on being caught for one gift, I wouldn't have taken the prestige and rep hit.

Posted by prezuiwf on 11/10/2010 1:00:00 PM (view original):
You have a very strange definition of cheating if you consider a feature implemented into the game by its creators and made known to every user to be a "cheat."

I have a strange definition of "cheating"...thats the comment of the day...yes, the designers of the game in the interest of making it similar to real college basketball give you an option to cheat, which you choose to use. If you get caught there is a punishment, whether probation, scholarship loss, post season banishment and a hit to your reputation.  You choose to cheat and got caught and punished. Instead of accepting it, youre crying about it.  Lucky for you the punishment doesn't include being fired and making you start your career over.

How would you define it?  And why is their a built in punishment if you get caught using the "feature"?

why is this penalty too severe?

Asher, weve been playing this game since essentially the same time, I have never seen a forum which stated you needed to use booster gifts to win, in fact almost everyone who has ever used booster gifts has repeatedly said they arent worth using.

Posted by udm_mike on 11/10/2010 9:15:00 AM (view original):
They need to just take boosters out of the game.  The risk/reward is outrageously skewed, and the only people that ever try it are those like yourself that don't know any better.  So it's really little more than a punishment on the ignorant.

This.

Posted by mmt0315 on 11/10/2010 1:21:00 PM (view original):
Asher, weve been playing this game since essentially the same time, I have never seen a forum which stated you needed to use booster gifts to win, in fact almost everyone who has ever used booster gifts has repeatedly said they arent worth using.

And this.

Posted by prezuiwf on 11/10/2010 10:02:00 AM (view original):
Well technically, I wasn't found guilty of doing anything wrong either; "boosters" were. I didn't give the guy a gift; "boosters" did. Just like Marcus Camby and Derrick Rose got illegal perks that John Calipari had nothing "personally" to do with. And Calipari's violations had as much to do with Calipari as Tarkanian's had to do with Tarkanian, since the controversies that got Tark fired from UNLV had to do with Richard Perry interfering with players, not Tark.

You can argue semantics all you want but the point is that the penalties here are not realistic given the crime. Tark resigned from UNLV after being dogged by the NCAA for about 20 years (and still eventually found another job). I committed one violation and my career is now basically shot.

Prez, your career is FAR from shot.  I've used boosters once in my HD career (got the player, but then got put on probation, lost the player, and had to forfeit every game he had played in, which was like 13 games.  10-3 to 0-13 was a kick in the nuts).  Anyhow, long story short, I did this in Tark (imagine that) and I've still managed to end up at my dream job, coaching Duke.  It's a setback, for sure, but a career killer, not even close.......