What are the easiest/hardest (not including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico) places to recruit from at each level? 

I think that obviously the Northeast is very populated, but that can work both ways. If there are many strong teams in  the area, it will be hard to recruit.

I personally enjoy that area of the country the most, along with the Southeast. Across the Mississippi River, though, and things get more spread out.

I think the world and human vs sim teams makes a difference.

For example in D3 Wooden, the Michigan, Midwest, Minnesota and Upstate are all full super conferences which makes that area one of the hardest recruitment areas I've ever seen. Especially at D3 with so little money. If you are a lower prestige team you can't even hope to get a good recruit in that area and need to just go far away instead.

Also I have always found that the SE has some great recruits in the NC, VA, SC area. I've spent a lot of time at a WV school in D2 and always pulled a ton of great players from that trio of states.

Posted by caesari on 4/5/2012 10:32:00 PM (view original):
I think that obviously the Northeast is very populated, but that can work both ways. If there are many strong teams in  the area, it will be hard to recruit.

I personally enjoy that area of the country the most, along with the Southeast. Across the Mississippi River, though, and things get more spread out.

An additional advantage of the Northeast is there are many states in a small area, some small, so its easier to get the volume discount on states near you - which in division three at least, can be precious.

Arizona is hard.  Not to say it can't be done successfully, but it's a challenge

IMHO, with the qualifier that how populated the world is makes a big difference:

D3 southeast can be easy because of the lack of schools down there. Michigan / Wisconsin in full conferences is the toughest.

D2 is the same. South east recruiting can be very good. Northeast in empty worlds is good because of lots of recruits close with no human competition. And I mean upper NE, not like NY area. Northwest in empty worlds can give advantage, but in a strong Cali and Great NW, you'll have problems.

D1 really varies by school, not area. Just look at big 6 schools with average baselines that are always successful and you'll know where the honey holes are. For the most part, MWC is a good spot because there's still quite a few recruits youll have distance advantages on and you are really only competing against the PAC10.

I've never really understood why people don't try to power up the A10. Sure it's east coast, but good locales with competitive baselines. Instead i see guys trying the ivy league or nec. Perhaps someone can explain it to me.

because they think the ivy is more of a challenge?

NY/PA/MD/NJ/MA are is normally stocked with tons of D2/D3 recruits. Depending on where your school is you can have upwards of 10 states within 300 miles.

The coaches that wanted to get into the A10 weren't qualified until recently maybe. At least in phelan I'd say.

Posted by mjp8 on 4/5/2012 10:49:00 PM (view original):
I think the world and human vs sim teams makes a difference.

For example in D3 Wooden, the Michigan, Midwest, Minnesota and Upstate are all full super conferences which makes that area one of the hardest recruitment areas I've ever seen. Especially at D3 with so little money. If you are a lower prestige team you can't even hope to get a good recruit in that area and need to just go far away instead.

I don't see what prestige has to do with it...

I'd say easiest is generally the Southeast.  Hardest are places that don't generate many recruits relative to real life(Nwest) or places that just don't have many ppl/schools(New Mexico/Wyoming); OR places like New England, where there are so many schools that you're constantly having to battle.

Posted by dahsdebater on 4/6/2012 2:38:00 AM (view original):

Posted by mjp8 on 4/5/2012 10:49:00 PM (view original):
I think the world and human vs sim teams makes a difference.

For example in D3 Wooden, the Michigan, Midwest, Minnesota and Upstate are all full super conferences which makes that area one of the hardest recruitment areas I've ever seen. Especially at D3 with so little money. If you are a lower prestige team you can't even hope to get a good recruit in that area and need to just go far away instead.

I don't see what prestige has to do with it...

You don't see what prestige has to do with recruiting?

Posted by dahsdebater on 4/6/2012 2:38:00 AM (view original):

Posted by mjp8 on 4/5/2012 10:49:00 PM (view original):
I think the world and human vs sim teams makes a difference.

For example in D3 Wooden, the Michigan, Midwest, Minnesota and Upstate are all full super conferences which makes that area one of the hardest recruitment areas I've ever seen. Especially at D3 with so little money. If you are a lower prestige team you can't even hope to get a good recruit in that area and need to just go far away instead.

I don't see what prestige has to do with it...

If you are in a world where there are 4 full conferences all in a small area, many of them A+ because those 4 conferences win about 20 of every 21 national championships and your school is a C- you don't see what prestige has to do with it?

Say you are waiting for a few dropdowns and then all the sudden an A+ Michigan, Minnesota and Upstate school all show up on the player. You're probably not going to go for him. Even in a less extreme example when only 1 shows up you probably won't bother with the battle unless you have a great distance and money advantage and even then you still may not bother.  Well that happens with just about every good player in that world in that area.

Posted by ll316 on 4/6/2012 5:44:00 AM (view original):

Posted by dahsdebater on 4/6/2012 2:38:00 AM (view original):

Posted by mjp8 on 4/5/2012 10:49:00 PM (view original):
I think the world and human vs sim teams makes a difference.

For example in D3 Wooden, the Michigan, Midwest, Minnesota and Upstate are all full super conferences which makes that area one of the hardest recruitment areas I've ever seen. Especially at D3 with so little money. If you are a lower prestige team you can't even hope to get a good recruit in that area and need to just go far away instead.

I don't see what prestige has to do with it...

You don't see what prestige has to do with recruiting?

Prestige isn't particularly important in D3 recruiting.  Who will talk to you is the big factor.  I don't worry much about dropdown time because I typically either pull down the guys I want or else wait until the last day and look for leftovers.