....regarding recruiting.

The only message that matters is the scholarship message and you will be notified if something changes regarding the scholarship status?

In other words, if you have the I can't wait to sign email....you should expect to sign the player unless you receive another email that another team has pulled ahead.

Correct or no?  I've been playing this game for about 18 months now and thought I knew the answer, but WIS is telling me that I don't.

different situation. i was not recruiting against a SIM

I think you almost always will hear a followup schollie message if the balance changes - I am not sure that is 100% always - esp if the other guy invests HUGE effort

which i could accept if thats what i had been told...but considering it was not D1, and just the timing of it coming so late after signings started with nothing happening for a long time before that...it doesn't add up. 

This was my ticket and  the laughable response I got back from CS:

12/18/2011 11:55 AM	bow2dacowz
I have been recruiting____________ wth my Queens team. Yesterday I received a scholarship message that stated "I wish I could sign right now!" I received no additional scholarship messages until the 11am cycle today. At 11am he signed with the other school. That doesn't really jive with everything I have read about recruiting?

12/18/2011 5:15 PM

Customer Support

Thanks for the note. When a recruit is considering you, among others, this means that you are one of perhaps several schools that he is seriously looking at attending. When other schools are on his considering list, you cannot ever assume that you will sign the player. You are not being cheated, but just living the reality of recruiting. You could have been leading in the recruiting battle. But that can change, and often will, at any point.

I particularly love how they tell me I'm not being cheated...which I don't think I had implied in my initial ticket...just that I didn't get it and was trying to understand.  Sounds like a guilty conscience to me.

I think it's possible that the guy could have put in enough to not consider but to get the guy to hold off from signing.  Then put in a crapload during the right cycle to get the guy to sign with him.

It would be the perfect storm of unfortunate events for you, but I think it's possible.

Still doesnt sound right to me.   In all my seasons I have NEVER have a guy sign with me the very 1st cycle he started considering me. 

Personally, I've never put enough effort into someone to keep them from signing with someone else but not enough to have them consider me.  To me, that scenario is clearly different than regular one with no or very little effort in before that.  Again, not saying it's likely, just that I see how it could happen.

mully I had been going back and forth with another school, then i had the lead with no change (or so i thought) for about 12 or 15 hours before he suddenly signed.

the reason it doesnt seem right, is that i was (am still) in a battle with the same coach for another player.  we had both been spending money on this player throughout so it seems like that would have been my opponents primary target...and with that battle ongoing it would seem weird to think he'd suddenly put that much into a secondary target and jeopardize being able to get the guy that would seem was the #1 target.

we are also talking D2.  I had spent over 5,000 on the player at 200 miles.  the guy that won the battle was definitely closer, but only a C+ prestige to my A+ prestige.  seems there would have had to be an awful lot of money invested to be able to knock me off completely and make him sign right away without giving me at least a chance to respond.

EVEN if thats what it was...which as I said I would have been able to accept if CS had said as much...they give me some crap line about how the scholarship email doesnt really mean anything in direct contradiction to the FAQ for their own game.  

Sitemail the other coach after recruiting is over, but I think he simply knocked you off with a huge push. A+ v. C+ in D2 amounts to something like a 10% advantage to you. I assume the other coach is within 100 miles (as indicated by your post, possibly within 40 miles?). You spent 5k on the guy, that really isn't much and you could be knocked off with about 10k worth of total effort from the other coach 

boosters?

im not that worried about it.  the guy was the last of my 6 targets  i'm more annoyed at the CS response to my ticket...but i dont know why i'm letting that bother me either, since it's par for the course with CS. 

Good battle for both guys, I knew i was on the right track when I saw you also going for my top 2 guys. On the guy in question i put in 12 HV and a starting spot on the morning of the 16th and got the in the lead email at 8am on the 16th (10 miles). With those two guys I am set up very well at my new post.

if you got the in the lead email at 8 am shouldn't OP have gotten a no longer in the lead email then too?

exactly