Four seasons back I joined a new world (Smith), with the intention of giving D2 a shot. I took one of the better D3 teams available for that first season. We made the Sweet 16 and most if not all of the D2 jobs were available to me. However, I found out that some friends of mine were in a D3 conference in that world, so I decided to stick with D3 for a while and jumped over to their conference. That was three seasons ago. I took over a crap program who had never won a postseason game, and this season we finished #14 and made the Sweet 16.

Today the jobs period opened up. I am not eligible for a single D2 job. They all say "they're looking for someone who has shown more loyalty". My loyalty is a C. Again, I switched jobs one time three seasons ago.

I wasn't planning on moving to D2 until next year, but now I'm not sure if I'll even be able to. Does anyone know how long will it take to get my loyalty up to an acceptable level? And for the people who program this game, how does this make any sense? If anything, my resume should be better now than it was before I switched schools. 

The point of loyalty is to keep some people from constantly jumping between programs and trying to win based upon the work other coaches have done before them (it happened a lot back when the game first started). So when you ask "how does this make sense," well, you jumped from a program to another at the same level, which carries the stiffest penalty when it comes to loyalty for the reason I mentioned.

I have no idea how long it will take for the loyalty to go back up the usual way, but I've heard (unconfirmed by me) if you leave the world for a season and then rejoin, you'll be back at a "baseline" loyalty, meaning you can jump to D2 from your present situation.

I've even heard of some people who have left a world for several seasons being able to jump to DI from DII FASTER than if they had played their seasons more recently.

Posted by bistiza on 12/11/2013 2:13:00 PM (view original):
The point of loyalty is to keep some people from constantly jumping between programs and trying to win based upon the work other coaches have done before them (it happened a lot back when the game first started). So when you ask "how does this make sense," well, you jumped from a program to another at the same level, which carries the stiffest penalty when it comes to loyalty for the reason I mentioned.

I have no idea how long it will take for the loyalty to go back up the usual way, but I've heard (unconfirmed by me) if you leave the world for a season and then rejoin, you'll be back at a "baseline" loyalty, meaning you can jump to D2 from your present situation.

I've even heard of some people who have left a world for several seasons being able to jump to DI from DII FASTER than if they had played their seasons more recently.

I believe any coach who completes a mediocre D3 season is "qualified" to get D2 jobs. My resume has two Sweet 16s in four seasons, one of which at a school that was dog crap before I got there. Do you think I should be blackballed from D2 jobs that literally anyone else could get because I changed jobs one time three seasons ago? 

The idea behind loyalty is good for the reasons you mentioned. The execution is very poor.

There are two variables which operate separately. 

Qualifications and loyalty.

To get a job, you must at least meet the minimum on each of those.

as the game is set up, excellent qualifications do not overcome weak loyalty - and vice versa. 

The loyalty scheme punishes most severely a lateral or backward move at the same level - especially before you have built up a body of seasons of loyalty (for example, I just moved DOWN from Grambling at B prestige to Alabama at C+ and my loyalty stayed at A+ because I have been loyal for many many seasons.

I think that at higher levels there are schools that will not be AS sensitive to loyalty as will some other schools.

Basically, the way this game is structured you made a choice to move laterally to be with buddies and that has a loyalty effect.  I think your loyalty will improve about a grade each season and two or maybe three seasons will be back at A.

Posted by bistiza on 12/11/2013 2:13:00 PM (view original):
The point of loyalty is to keep some people from constantly jumping between programs and trying to win based upon the work other coaches have done before them (it happened a lot back when the game first started). So when you ask "how does this make sense," well, you jumped from a program to another at the same level, which carries the stiffest penalty when it comes to loyalty for the reason I mentioned.

I have no idea how long it will take for the loyalty to go back up the usual way, but I've heard (unconfirmed by me) if you leave the world for a season and then rejoin, you'll be back at a "baseline" loyalty, meaning you can jump to D2 from your present situation.

I've even heard of some people who have left a world for several seasons being able to jump to DI from DII FASTER than if they had played their seasons more recently.

i think you misunderstood the effect - if you leave the world and come back, your loyalty doesnt get better. what you can gain this way is not taking a loyalty hit. you can drop your team and pick up another team, through quitting completely, and get that job without any change in loyalty. but if you have crap loyalty this does not let you game your way to a different job. also, after a number of seasons off there seems to be a lowering of thresholds to try to get coaches to come back. i think this may take 5 seasons? at that point you can get jobs, only during the jobs period, that you should never be able to get. then after jobs, during the free enrollment, you are back to your normal qualification level. im not sure how this effect works with respect to loyalty and reputation, i know it eases things on the qualifications side, but im not sure about loyalty/rep.