I know this has been asked but I can’t seem to find the thread.
So I accidentally bought my school’s state Division 3 scouting service player pool. Anyway after going through the various scouting levels I came across a DIII level recruit who isn’t terrible and has lots of green potentials. Could end up being an ok D3 contributor. My question is, because he is in the DIII pool, does that ultimately limit his green potential growth compared to a DII or DI pool recruit? Can a DIII pool player actually end up growing into a “great player” after a few years?

He absolutely can. Green is green. Green from D1 and Green from D3 are the same.

The one thing to be cautious about is that below about 15.. The growth rate starts slower, so players will still grow, but it takes a while to get the first few points. This is true regardless of potential.

I've been meaning to do more research on this...but I get lazy.

I did an analysis a few seasons back though in Knight D3. Of the top 50 players in the world (by overall rating, which technically means phooey but still, players 700+ in D3 tend to be pretty good), 8 were D3 recruits confirmed (I know this because they were sim-recruited kids fully recruited by Sim AI (i.e. they weren't recruited by a human who left after RS1, giving simmy credit for a D1/D2 signing). Of the top 20, 2 were D3 recruits. In most instances, they were kids who grew 250-300+ points in their careers.

These kids are literal diamonds in the rough...there are very few of them each cycle. But there are gems at the D3 level who can develop into low-tier D1 caliber talent. Most D3 coaches choose to search D1 and D2 because there's a greater volume of good talent not because good talent is completely absent in the D3 pool. Also, D3 kids are often high risk high reward as hughes points out - because when you find a kid who is all green at D3 if his ratings are low enough, you're at the whim of his WE and your ability to play him - plus how green those greens really are.

Here is an example of a D3 gem recruited by Sim AI coached Buena Vista in Knight: William Priest

Thanks for the thoughts guys, that was really helpful. Hell, I might just grab one of these guys and see how it works out for experiment's sake.

I've had DIII projected players turn into absolute studs. I even brought in a DIII Juco on to my DII team. He'll be starting at Center the upcoming season.

I'm too scared to try it, but have thought about only scouting DIII projected players for my DII team. I'd have my pick of the litter.

For those still interested, I did a deep dive on this about a year ago for about twelve seasons. Here's the link: https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=518677

Interesting read. A variation on the theme to your project would be only scouting D2 level recruits at D3. I know there are coaches out there utilizing that strategy effectively and I’ve been experimenting with it myself.

I have been scouting a tight circle of D1 prospects near me and for the most part allocate my scouting budget to D2 guys.

I enjoy the component to D3 recruiting that allows for creativity on the treasure hunt, and experimenting can only be useful to learn lessons that can be applied to any division.

Posted by ltfuller on 1/15/2021 11:12:00 AM (view original):
For those still interested, I did a deep dive on this about a year ago for about twelve seasons. Here's the link: https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=518677

Thanks for linking your post. It was the one I remembered reading a while back but couldn't find it. I dipped my toe into the DIII pool and signed one just to see how he turns out. I'm redshirting him and hope his potentials grow to a successful Jr or Sr.

I really wish the developers would incentivize D3 schools recruiting D3 players. I think it would make the game more enjoyable for coaching at that level and indirectly help D2 and D1 schools who miss initial targets and need to re-group in the second session.

I personally think they should open up the scouting database for D3 so we can at least see potential. There is not enough scouting money to afford scouting that many players - it's just too risky when literally 95% of the D3 players are horrible (I just noticed this is actually aligns with what LT found recruiting D3 exclusively). I tried it my first season back in new HD and couldn't find anything compared to what I could see at D2 and D1.

I just took over a D3 team to start RS2 in a world I previously played in. I must say, these D3 recruits scouted by Simmy have me pleasantly surprised.

Yes, there’s a lot of garbage. But then... there’s light! I am going to have to start scouting local D3 talent when I coach at D3.

Who wants to be the first coach to win a NT with only D3-level players? I bet it’s possible.

Posted by craigaltonw on 1/16/2021 8:10:00 PM (view original):
I just took over a D3 team to start RS2 in a world I previously played in. I must say, these D3 recruits scouted by Simmy have me pleasantly surprised.

Yes, there’s a lot of garbage. But then... there’s light! I am going to have to start scouting local D3 talent when I coach at D3.

Who wants to be the first coach to win a NT with only D3-level players? I bet it’s possible.

Probably not possible in the current system, unless the higher divisions fill up, and there is more competition for the 2nd tier D1 pool recruits and top tier D2 recruits. Can certainly win conferences, though.

i feel like this discussion also furthers the argument that d3 is out of whack for new coaches. recruiting d1 players out of d3 just seems way too complicated for a new coach, i think new coaches need to be able to get further in the first couple months than the game currently allows. it just seems so much simpler to me to think of walking in as a new coach and recruiting d3 players from the d3 pool, segmented from the d1/d2 schools. adjustments would need to be made to make that viable, like buffing the d3 pool - and an added benefit would be that the rookie d3 recruiting scheme would be more similar to d1 recruiting (hit the ground running), which should help to make it easier for new coaches to transition to d1.

I don’t know, Shoe... I’m not willing to try. But I bet coaches better than me could pull it off.

When I first started HD, the coaches I reached out to for questions told me to never scout D3 because it was a waste of limited budget. I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with that advice.

Posted by craigaltonw on 1/16/2021 8:44:00 PM (view original):
I don’t know, Shoe... I’m not willing to try. But I bet better coaches than me could pull it off.

When I first started HD, the coaches I reached out to for questions told me to never scout D3 because it was a waste of limited budget. I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with that advice.

Trentonjoe tried it for a while after 3.0 came out, and I think got no further than the sweet 16. I could be wrong, though.