I would take Wisconsin or Purdue.  Purdue would be my preference.  That general area often has a solid amount of talent and not an incredible amount of competition.  Regardless of where you go, it's not going to be a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination, but I still like the areas in which Wisconsin and Purdue are in.  Other than competition from other Big Ten schools you won't have to deal all that much with outside intrusions unless UWGB, UW-Milwaukee, E. Michigan, C. Michigan, W. Michigan, Indiana State, etc. have incredibly high prestige in conferences that bring in a ton of extra recruiting cash (which is highly unlikely).

not speaking to this specific post, but my preferences: i've only recruited at d2/3, and my favorite area is the midwest. i believe missouri/indiana/illinois provides for good local recruits, access to a great deal of late diamonds in the rough at some moderate distance. it really just depends on the competition in the world, but i think the west is the worst. not high population density anywhere except LA, so you're relying SOLELY on how good the players are in that area. ofc NY/east coast is good too, but again, depends on the talent-- when i've had d2 schools there, i find the players im looking for are much more tampered by d1 schools. 

i just won a title in colorado, but i REALLY hate recruiting there. i mostly recruit nationwide with my d2 school there. 

Posted by aejones on 4/24/2011 12:06:00 AM (view original):
not speaking to this specific post, but my preferences: i've only recruited at d2/3, and my favorite area is the midwest. i believe missouri/indiana/illinois provides for good local recruits, access to a great deal of late diamonds in the rough at some moderate distance. it really just depends on the competition in the world, but i think the west is the worst. not high population density anywhere except LA, so you're relying SOLELY on how good the players are in that area. ofc NY/east coast is good too, but again, depends on the talent-- when i've had d2 schools there, i find the players im looking for are much more tampered by d1 schools. 

i just won a title in colorado, but i REALLY hate recruiting there. i mostly recruit nationwide with my d2 school there. 

jones, population density has zero to do with recruit generation in HD.

In D2, the reality is that most of the top schools recruit nationwide.

Most importantly, what's good for D2/D3 is very different for what's good in DI.

Definitely a good point though re: it being world specific ... that can actually vary quite a lot from world-to-world in DI.

when i said population density i clearly meant population of recruits. i mean, i have a team in southern cali and there aren't a lot of options-- either you recruit the guys in your own backyard (and often fight with a lot of teams in the same area, at all levels) or you recruit nationwide-- which gets expensive at d3/d2 and leaves you completely unable to battle. 

d1 seems like it would be only about who is in your area. if you were a decent coach looking to get a leg up, you'd just map out recruit density vs human coached d1 teams (and if you want to get more specific, you could differentiate between good coaches and bad coaches), and then presto-- you'd have a chance to cherry pick the best location.

im not that ambitious and i prefer a good fight anyway.

Pitt is on the other side of the state than Philadelphia.  Has to be at least 300 miles away.  Penn St. isn't that far and I vaguely recall that the HD distance seemed a little closer than real life.  Recruits nearby by a little south and west of Temple can easily wind up within 100 miles of Penn St.