There are dropdowns and pulldowns. At the beginning of recruiting I identify all of my potential recruits, and send them one call and call their coach once. If they give you a message basically saying you are a backup option, they might end up dropping down to you, or can be pulled down. If they blow you off, they will never sign with you no matter what.

For dropdowns, no further action is required until they send you an email out of the blue saying that they've reconsidered and asking you to recruit them. Then you recruit them like a normal DIII player.

If you have a guy you want to pull down, send them 8-10 SVs and a scholarship offer, and then use sets of 2 or 3 SVs until they are considering you. Once they're considering you, you don't have to recruit them any more unless another school shows up on their list. good luck!

EDIT: I had to take a potty break and the previous poster said what I was saying.

OK, but first some semantics. A dropdown is a DII player who told you that you are a backup and eventually sends you an email saying he is available even though you put in no further effort other than the initial phone call. Once a player drops down, you just recruit him normally. A pulldown is a DII player who told you that you are a backup and you end up getting him to consider you by putting in a significant amount of effort.

This is what I do to get a pulldown, other coaches may vary from this approach. I send 1 phone call, 1 letter, 1 coach call, 10 scouting trips, and a scholie offer. That normally is enough but if it is not I send 2-3 more scouting trips every cycle until he is considering me. Don't waste your time with HVs or CVs because the player will reject them. With the cost involved, it is necessary that you stay close to your campus. Obviously, the closer the better but you can probably go out 340 miles. Do not go over 350 because the costs take a dramatic jump at that distance. Also, be aware that there is a possibility that a DII school may decide to go after the player too. It is definitely worth the risk to me but still there is that chance. Good Luck.

I have found that it often takes up to 20-25 scouting visits.  I think prestige may be a factor which contributes to faster response.  Naturally the higher prestige the more likely the player may become a drop-down which is much less expensive when not in competition for the player.  Any it is possible to beat out  a DII school but that may also depend on prestige and may cost more.

Posted by brianxavier on 12/9/2010 10:24:00 AM (view original):
I have found that it often takes up to 20-25 scouting visits.  I think prestige may be a factor which contributes to faster response.  Naturally the higher prestige the more likely the player may become a drop-down which is much less expensive when not in competition for the player.  Any it is possible to beat out  a DII school but that may also depend on prestige and may cost more.

And I've had it take up to 30-35 visits...though I think a big part of this was due to 2 reasons.  First, I don't think I offered the scholarship when sending the evals.  Second, the longer you wait, I think the easier it is to pull them down, and I was pulling them fairly quickly.  So the combination of these 2 things made me send out a crapload of evals.  I've seen others say usually 10-15 is what it takes, so after reading a bunch of similar posts, these 2 factors are what I narrowed down my problems to.  I think the scholarship offer is the bigger factor.

I'd be very interested to know whether it actually does become easier to pull someone down if you wait longer. Anyone know for sure?

I recently used 46 scouting trips to pull a player down from D2, to my C prestige D3 school.  I had 6 schollies to fill.  I successfully pulled down the first 5 with the usual minimal effort.  I then had a little over $9000 to get that 6th player.  It was truly my best recruiting class ever. 

area51, did you pull them all down the same way and starting on the same cycle?  Can you provide any details here that would be helpful in figuring out why the one kid took so much more effort?

The one guy was being recruited by a sim team in D2.  He must have been one of their main targets, that is why he took so much, along with the fact that I had a lower prestige rating.  The other 5, I recruited all at once in the same fashion. One cycle was a phone call, the next was 10 scouting trips and a schollie.  No starts r minutes promised.  I'm no recruiting guru, I just learned how to learn from others and my own trial and error.