I have actually never recruited an ineligible player, so I have no clue what to expect.  What are the upsides/downsides to offering a promised start to an inelligible recruit??  What can I expect??

The only downside to offering a start to an ineligible player is the very slight chance that he passes his SAT's and becomes eligible before recruiting ends.  If that happens, he'll obviously be expecting to start.  If he stays ineligible, then you're off the hook because promises don't carry over to the following season, but you still get the credit for the promise during recruiting.

One other thing to remember is that there are no eligibles in D3.  They can play immediately.  The only way a player can become ineligible in D3 is due to his grades during the season.  Short version, if you recruit (dropdown or pulldown) an ineligible player from D2 to D3, he'll play immediately and any promises made during recruiting will be expected to be honored.

I hope that wasn't too confusing and helped a bit.

Thank you.  That is what i needed to know. 

Maybe I'm not remembering correctly but I thought if you offered a player a promise that he would still want you to keep it in year two (first one qualified).

Posted by jbob23 on 4/21/2012 5:54:00 PM (view original):
Maybe I'm not remembering correctly but I thought if you offered a player a promise that he would still want you to keep it in year two (first one qualified).

must be remembering incorrectly. Other post is correct...

What are the general odds that an ineligible player might become eligible??

Posted by Area51man on 4/21/2012 7:27:00 PM (view original):
What are the general odds that an ineligible player might become eligible??

it is rare

Very rare indeed. In fact, it never happened during my first 417 seasons until now. %^^*^@%!#@##$

I have had it happen once and have recruited about 10 inels. A more experienced coach than I told me the possibiloity was about 2%. Maybe a touch higher than that, but not much. You may learn the chance from reading the SAT emails you get. Most of us just toss them, but if a player is very close "he neeed a 1020, but scored a 1014" he may have a higher chance of being el. the first year.

I think there is a correlation in SAT scores, which makes it useful to put ineligible players on your watch list during the season before recruiting so you get more of those SAT emails and can see if the kid is - as of then - just barely missing