This is a disorganized and disjointed collection of very brief answers to very common questions.  Most of these answers are probably correct, though I've been known to have my head up my ***.  Luckily, however, these answers don't come from me.  They come from the forums.  Please feel free to waste your time by adding to the list.

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Height and weight don't matter.  They're listed for effect, but a player will play to his ratings regardless of size and shape.

Ignore the stated position of a player:  All that matters is his ratings.

Booster gifts can really help you sign recruits, but it's very likely you will get caught.

If a recruit is within a few hundred miles of you, home visits are generally a better value than campus visits.  If not, then the other way around.

Don't solicit advice about specific recruits or battles using your real name - you're inviting people to poach your recruits.

If you cut a scholarship player, you will not get that recruiting money this season.

If you have money left over at the end of recruiting and have filled all 12 slots with scholarship players, you will carry over 25% of your remaining cash.

There are two reasons a recruit may be considering a school the moment recruiting starts.  One: SIM schools get a little head start.  Two: The recruit may have gone JUCO, and still be interested in a school that put effort into him last season.

If you try to redshirt a guy and his WE plummets, you can pull the redshirt off of him and it'll go back to normal.

High potential in recruits is divided into two levels.  Low-High means you can expect around 20-27 points of improvement with optimal practice plan settings and workable WE.  High-High means 28+ points of improvement.  You can tell the difference by sending Scouting Trips and comparing the messages with this: tinyurl.com/2eljoyu

If you promise a guy a starting spot, you'll need to start him somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% of the time in regular season play to avoid a WE drop or transfer.

You don't have to keep starts/minutes promises in the Conference Tournament or after.

You can try to sign a guy who transferred away from your school, but you will never succeed.

Durability is almost meaningless - injuries resulting in substantial missed time are extremely rare.

If you're at a big, obvious talent disadvantage in a game, you should probably play slowdown.

For an academically ineligible player, put all practice minutes into study hall.  They won't do you any good in any other category.

For a redshirt, you do have to put minutes into study hall if you want to avoid eligibility problems down the road.

You can set all your players to zero distribution if you want to find out who the Sim AI coach thinks your best scorers are.  Note: Sim AI may or may not be right.

SIM schools are not bound to the six player per class maximum.  If they were, many of them would have a shitload of walkons.

Games won on the road will help your RPI more than games won at home.  Games lost at home will hurt your RPI more than games lost on the road.

It takes 7 practice minutes to guaranteed maintain any category except lp/per. It takes 3 for lp/per. Of course, the required # is lower with better work ethic or more playing time. Also, 0 minutes can safely be used to maintain capped out categories.

If you have more than six open scholarships, you will only get recruiting cash for six slots (plus tournament bonus and any carry-over cash you may have had).

Notes about a recruit's character are just there for fun.  They used to mean something, but they don't mean much of anything anymore.

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Note: mjp8's post "A recruiting guide for New Coaches" is required reading.  Search for it if necessary.

If you're at a big, obvious talent disadvantage in a game, play slowdown.

Not ALWAYS true.  For example, if you are at a BIG disadvantage among the starters, but your backups are slightly better or close to equal to his, you might actually want to play speed up and spend more of the game with your bench players against his.  

If you're at a big, obvious talent disadvantage in a game, play slowdown. -  in most cases this is true, but it will also depend on the off / def sets you are playing with & against.

arssanguinus - That makes sense.  I'm just collecting the responses I seem to read at least twice a week to questions that seem to be asked at least twice a week.

jtt8355 - I've read that a few times around here.

Posted by jtt8355 on 2/7/2012 2:43:00 PM (view original):
If you're at a big, obvious talent disadvantage in a game, play slowdown. -  in most cases this is true, but it will also depend on the off / def sets you are playing with & against.

You can set all your players to zero distribution if you want to find out who the SIM thinks your best scorers are. - never heard this before. can anyone confirm?

you can but don't expect to get great info. the sim that decides who your best scorers are is not like, running against the sim engine to figure that out. its not really something id recommend for a veteran, but for a rookie, its not a bad idea to try once or twice - although you'd be better off simply looking at some of the top teams in your own world and seeing who they let score.

If a recruit is within a few hundred miles of you, home visits are generally a better value than campus visits.  If not, then the other way around.

I think the inflection point is closer to 150 to 180 miles away. Depending on the $ ratio you follow from HD Forum posts, it could be closer to 70 miles away. I think stating "two hundred miles" instead of "a few hundred miles" would be better.

I do usually do it in one exhibition game, just to see what it does.  Sometimes it gives me an idea, but I don't treat it as vital information.

Posted by theeyetest on 2/7/2012 3:11:00 PM (view original):
If a recruit is within a few hundred miles of you, home visits are generally a better value than campus visits.  If not, then the other way around.

I think the inflection point is closer to 150 to 180 miles away. Depending on the $ ratio you follow from HD Forum posts, it could be closer to 70 miles away. I think stating "two hundred miles" instead of "a few hundred miles" would be better.

OP - i think this is one of those things, there is not enough consensus on, to really put in a thread like this. i wasn't going to say anything, because i agree with the original statement ;) i would have put 360 miles myself. but if you are going to try to make this a quick FAQ with commonly accepted answers, im not sure that makes the grade.

cbg, you know quite a bit more than I do.  I'm gonna leave it there for now and trust that people read "few" hundred miles and "generally" a better value and don't take it to be irrefutable universal precise fact.

If you have a one- or two-liner to add, fire away.  That goes for everyone.

Posted by llamanunts on 2/7/2012 3:19:00 PM (view original):
cbg, you know quite a bit more than I do.  I'm gonna leave it there for now and trust that people read "few" hundred miles and "generally" a better value and don't take it to be irrefutable universal precise fact.

If you have a one- or two-liner to add, fire away.  That goes for everyone.

sounds good :)

i think its true what some of the earlier guys posted - these things are not absolutes. but i dont see that as a problem. of course you don't ALWAYS want to run slowdown when you have a major disadvantage. but you often do. its a good idea, i think thats plenty good enough. i for one am perfectly fine with your generalizations especially with the inclusion of a few vague words like few and generally which leave room for interpretation :)

ill add one.

When a category is capped, or very close to it, you can safely move to 0 points of practice minutes. You may occasionally see a drop, but that is just a very small fractional drop, like going from 80.05 to 79.95, and you should not be alarmed.

Good one, and thanks, everyone's right, these are not absolutes.  And, yeah, I think I put one serious MF of a disclaimer right at the top, too.

SImple one, but new players might need a reminder:

 

"Ignore the stated position of a player:  All that matters are his ratings."

 

That's worded better than my entry: "There isn't really any out-of-position penalty."  Yours replaces it.

And:

 

"Yes, Low Post rating DOES matter for guards."