Posted by dw172300 on 5/8/2012 2:16:00 PM (view original):
I think mykids point is a good one though. Regardless of whether 2001 is a jumping off point for this game or not, new coaches need to be able to build (or destroy, to an extent) the prestige of their skills. Otherwise, what's the point. I'm not talking about having big swings from year-to-year but if I can't slowly build prestige at a mid-major after 10 years of moderate success at one, then what's the point? 50 seasons later we can't still be going off of what happened in real life in 2001, we need to be going off what happened in HD in seasons 40-49 (more or less).
Looking at your history the past 9 seasons at Ohio, I think a B prestige is right about where you should be, for your current prestige. We can quibble over a third of a letter grade here or there, but this particular case is not an example of an egregious failing of the prestige system in my view.
If you're talking about a floating baseline, then that's another subject entirely. I'm not necessarily opposed to that idea, but I'd want movement to be very slow, and over a long period of time (10 seasons is not near long enough, IMO). And there should still be a floor for BCS schools.
But my preference would be to allow for more variability in current prestige, than to mess too drastically with baselines. I just don't think baselines really change substantially over time in this day and age. You mentioned UNLV. UMass is another good example. But as soon as their high profile coaches left, both those programs sank back into mediocrity, so it wasn't a true altering of the program's standing. I could argue that their baselines didn't really change much at all... Tarkanian and Calipari simply got their current prestiges up to A or A+ (as can be done with a B baseline school), but they quickly reverted back to their baselines afterwards.