With a non big-6 school or a big six with under a B rating what techniques might work to land a top 10 Fr recruit in Div I?

I see some coaches have managed to do this but I've never had any luck at it.

hope he is red in all the categories so no one else goes after him

there are 3 basic ways I can think of, but telling you what I think they are won't really help much on the face of it.

1. Become a very shrewd recruiter, usually after doing it and losing tons of battles for quite a while

2. Have 6 openings, good conference money, and spend it all on the big target and hope

3. Get lucky and maybe a better school will do something like forget to offer the scholarship.

Very, very difficult to do what you're asking.  Not impossible, but very difficult.

Posted by emy1013 on 3/10/2013 4:03:00 AM (view original):
Very, very difficult to do what you're asking.  Not impossible, but very difficult.

+1

sometimes coaches with lower prestige, in remote locations, are able to sign a local player who is highly rated, but usually if they are worthy of that top ten ranking, a higher prestige school will take them, even at distance. i think thats about the most likely explanation for the guys the OP saw, and you have to be at the right place in the right situation, so its both difficult and requires a good deal of luck.

My strategy, which has only worked a minority of the time, is if you have lots of recruiting money and a top 10 guy you want within 70 miles, is to dump a huge amount ($60K to $75K) in the first cycle and then hope that the elite schools decide it is not worth the trouble to win that battle.  It helps if any nearby A prestige schools have other needs, and if the kid has a few holes or deficiencies relative to other elite recruits.  Agree with billyg that it is right place / right time kind of thing, and if you guess wrong, you will have to scramble to fill your class without risking any other battles.

Depending on the prestige advantage the "trouble" to win that battle is gonna be WAY less than your 65 or 70 so it wont be that much of trouble actually. 

At the end of the day I just don't think that it is worth it. You can put all your money in to possibly get one top 10 player who more than likely is low in all of the key categories which is why A or A+ schools didn't go after him or you can get 3,4,5 or 6 players that might start out ranked lower but have a bunch of high potentials and by JR year have now surpassed that Top 10 player. If you have a team with prestige around B- then you can get players who are in the #10-20 range at their position anyway.

Posted by slyman9 on 3/10/2013 2:15:00 PM (view original):
At the end of the day I just don't think that it is worth it. You can put all your money in to possibly get one top 10 player who more than likely is low in all of the key categories which is why A or A+ schools didn't go after him or you can get 3,4,5 or 6 players that might start out ranked lower but have a bunch of high potentials and by JR year have now surpassed that Top 10 player. If you have a team with prestige around B- then you can get players who are in the #10-20 range at their position anyway.

Absolutely agree.

Posted by coach_billyg on 3/10/2013 8:31:00 AM (view original):

Posted by emy1013 on 3/10/2013 4:03:00 AM (view original):
Very, very difficult to do what you're asking.  Not impossible, but very difficult.

+1

sometimes coaches with lower prestige, in remote locations, are able to sign a local player who is highly rated, but usually if they are worthy of that top ten ranking, a higher prestige school will take them, even at distance. i think thats about the most likely explanation for the guys the OP saw, and you have to be at the right place in the right situation, so its both difficult and requires a good deal of luck.

To expound a little further, say you're coaching Washington in the Pac-10 (I know that's wrong in real life, but in this game it's still the Pac-10, work with me here) and have a C+ prestige.  A nice 4 or 5 star PG pops up in your backyard that you'd really like to have.  Washington St. is sim coached.  Both Oregon schools are in rebuilding mode and have C- prestiges.  Gonzaga isn't a threat, not with their B- prestige and 1 open schollie.  You've got 6 schollies open yourself.  In this instance, you'll probably be able to sign the player, but..................if one of the big boy California schools comes knocking, is it "really" worth battling for the guy and potentially having to use all of your funds just to secure that one player?  Leaves you with a bunch of open schollies and a very depleted roster to try to work with that season.  While you can win and win big with multiple walk-ons, usually it's the A+ type schools that can do that because the rest of their players are almost all studs.  You're C+ roster probably isn't, so.........even though you CAN win that battle, ultimately it probably isn't worth winning it in the bigger scheme of things.  Make sense?

Posted by emy1013 on 3/10/2013 4:35:00 PM (view original):

Posted by coach_billyg on 3/10/2013 8:31:00 AM (view original):

Posted by emy1013 on 3/10/2013 4:03:00 AM (view original):
Very, very difficult to do what you're asking.  Not impossible, but very difficult.

+1

sometimes coaches with lower prestige, in remote locations, are able to sign a local player who is highly rated, but usually if they are worthy of that top ten ranking, a higher prestige school will take them, even at distance. i think thats about the most likely explanation for the guys the OP saw, and you have to be at the right place in the right situation, so its both difficult and requires a good deal of luck.

To expound a little further, say you're coaching Washington in the Pac-10 (I know that's wrong in real life, but in this game it's still the Pac-10, work with me here) and have a C+ prestige.  A nice 4 or 5 star PG pops up in your backyard that you'd really like to have.  Washington St. is sim coached.  Both Oregon schools are in rebuilding mode and have C- prestiges.  Gonzaga isn't a threat, not with their B- prestige and 1 open schollie.  You've got 6 schollies open yourself.  In this instance, you'll probably be able to sign the player, but..................if one of the big boy California schools comes knocking, is it "really" worth battling for the guy and potentially having to use all of your funds just to secure that one player?  Leaves you with a bunch of open schollies and a very depleted roster to try to work with that season.  While you can win and win big with multiple walk-ons, usually it's the A+ type schools that can do that because the rest of their players are almost all studs.  You're C+ roster probably isn't, so.........even though you CAN win that battle, ultimately it probably isn't worth winning it in the bigger scheme of things.  Make sense?

I dominated at Wyoming because I was secluded enough from California.  Colorado and Utah were my competition, but I got my prestige to stead b+ or a- and got some bigtime recruits.

Distance is a factor, even when prestige is tilted out of your favor.