Posted by reinsel on 11/15/2011 10:41:00 AM (view original):
Well I think the group had some good ideas. I'll summarize:
1) Less weight on Conference Prestige in Team Prestige
2) EEs should be based on player ratings
3) NT/PT money should be made less at D1 or per scholarship money made more
4) Elite (~top 25-30 overall) recruits should expect to play right way
5) Promises at D1 should carry more weight
6) Recruit generation should create less 900 level studs and more 800 level usable players.
Personally, I think all of these save #4 and #6 would be easy to implement and have a big effect in preventing uberconferences from dominating a given world, which is unrealistic and no fun. I'm fine with conferences getting 7-8 NT berths, just not 7-8 Sweet 16 berths.
I like all of these. Some time back I'd mentioned making it V-E-R-Y tough (and expensive) to sign 5-star guys without promises of PT and/or start.
Another aspect I'd like to see is if a team has a strong player already then it would be tougher to recruit another kid at that position. Make it so a recruit looks at the roster and responds they like the team but would really like to go somewhere that they could contribute right away--make the coach spend more to overcome this reluctance and/or make promises to reassure the kid that the coach really wants the player, not just depth. And have the recruits also look and see who else is being signed in their class...if you have 3 top-25 PGs on the hook make them all a bit leery of who is really "the man", and maybe when 1 signs make the others react with needing more effort to convince them to come. In the meantime, this reluctance by recruits will help schools who are trying to build and are willing to offer PT and/or starts to bring in a stud.
Make the promises stick--breaking promises might result in a player leaving at end of season (or even mid-season?). There must be consequences for making promises that are not kept.
Allow promises for sophomores--like in GD--so that a kid who won't start in year 1 but would in year 2 can be recruited.
But don't make it so you can't overcome these issues, just make it tougher (and more expensive). This will tend to spread the talent around and make coaches consider harder who they want to go after, especially for the top kids who want to play right away.