Assuming prestige being equal, which of the following schools would present the best recruiting opportunities ( I know there cannot be perfect answers because it depends on how many of the nearby shools are human vs sIM coached but humor me) And what order might you put them in?

Cal
Arizona State
Purdue
Wisconsin
Temple

For me based purely on possible talent level of local recruits (within 360 miles) my order would be. It would be different if prestiege was taken into account.

Temple (population density within 360 miles is incredible, but so are other DI teams)
Purdue (Lots of good recruiting area within 360 miles with slightly fewer DI schools in the area)
Cal (Good recruiting area and fewer DI schools in the area)
Wisconsin (Good recruiting area with about same number of DI schools as Purdue)
AZ. State. (Most isolated of the 5. 380 miles from LA)

This is hard for me personally because I am a Badger fan so I would take Wisconsin no matter what.

But Temple has the worst baseline prestige.  If the A10 is strong they are a good choice otherwise I would pick Wisconsin/Purdue/Cal.  Cal is probably the easiest to be good from, Purdue is probably the one I think has the best chance to be great, and Wisconsin is kinda in the middle.  By good/great I mean cal has a solid recruiting area with little competition, but even with A+ prestige, there is a limit that is lower than Purdue for how good you can be.

Conference would be a big factor.  How much extra recruiting money do they generate every season?  That would leave Temple out of the picture for me.  The Big 6 conferences almost always make more in the post-season.

I'm a bit of a Sun Devil fan but I don't want that to cloud my judgement. I've enjoyed success in Gridiron Dynasty from Arizona State but GD generates more recruits.

AZ State is toughest I think, and the 380 from LA is bad.  You are left with AZ/NM, Los Vegas and Utah.

As someone who coaches Arizona, I would have to put ASU last on the list. It is not uncommon for there not to be a single Big 6 quality recruit within 360 miles. And your in-state rival of Arizona has an A+ baseline prestige, so you'll have to fight them off on the occasions when there is good local talent.

Temple is gonna be tough.  Half the damn Big East is your competition.  St. Johns, Rutgers, Pitt, Villanova, Seton Hall all are less than 100 miles away.   Also, Philadelphia has Penn, St. Joes, and one other school (the old Big 5)  I am forgetting.  In addition to THAT, there are a # of small schools in NJ (P'ton, Monmouth, FDU I might be forgetting another), one of them may be good.  You also have competition from the northern ACC schools: UVA, Maryland,and UNC.   UConn and Syracuse are never far either.   Recruiting in the Northeast is tough.

cal or az st.

I think Wisconsin is your best bet, just don't go east into Michigan and aim west, into states like ND, SD, ID, MT, etc.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 4/22/2011 5:43:00 PM (view original):
Temple is gonna be tough.  Half the damn Big East is your competition.  St. Johns, Rutgers, Pitt, Villanova, Seton Hall all are less than 100 miles away.   Also, Philadelphia has Penn, St. Joes, and one other school (the old Big 5)  I am forgetting.  In addition to THAT, there are a # of small schools in NJ (P'ton, Monmouth, FDU I might be forgetting another), one of them may be good.  You also have competition from the northern ACC schools: UVA, Maryland,and UNC.   UConn and Syracuse are never far either.   Recruiting in the Northeast is tough.

You really think Philly and Pitt are within 100 miles of each other TJ?  Aren't you from Trenton?  You think Pittsburgh is that close to you?

Also, the other Big 5 schools are Villanova (maybe something to worry about) and La Salle (probably not).

Yeah, sorry, I was thinking one thing and typing another.   It's hard to have coherent thoughts while feeding a 1 year old.   I guess what I meant is those schools are in within a 100 mile radius circle.  Pitt is probably a little outside that but not much.

Either way, recruiting is tough.   

The biggest surprises I found at Princeton (once I started recruiting good players) were:

1. The inability to go south because of UNC and Maryland (and to a lesser extent UVA).  My 100 miles zone falls within their 360 I guess.
2.  How you can beat out one big school and then have  to fend off another.  I recently drove Villanova of a 3 star recruit.  Only to have Rutgers come in and out spend me.

It's brutal in the NE for a midmajor.

It's the same as it's been, in that some areas have more recruits and more competition, and some have fewer recruits but less competition.

Personally, I like being in areas with more recruits. I just feel like there are more opportunities out there, more situations to potentially take advantage of, etc. I think the east coast is a great place to be, but regardless of where you're at, the single most important thing is to be a smart recruiter.

Trentonjoe, this hasn't been directed at you, but if you're really and truly targeting the same recruits that UNC and MD are, then you're aiming too high.

It was more like a warning salvo that a targeted shot....there was a stud still undecided after a couple cycles.   I tried to sneak him into Princeton.   I failed.

Look at my team,  I can assure you if I have aimed high they have all been misses....I am the king of being a bad recruiter!