The amount of whining and complaining in HD is amazing.  Suck it up and play.

I can understand the frustration if you're coaching DIII, and a DII school swoops in a cycle or two before signings and takes your guys, especially if you think there are equivalent players out there for them (which there often are).  I generally feel the same way about same level poaches.  If there is equal talent out there, it seems unnecessary, but in the end, they can do whatever they want with their cash.

For what it's worth, I like to think my situation was a little different, seeing as we were both DIII and I overtook him a day and a half before signings.  We were both putting cash into him right away, he was just doing it faster right off the bat (which I generally think was a mistake based on certain disadvantages he had, but I digress).

I've had a D1 school come in at the end and take 1 of my D3 players.  By D3, I mean actual D3...he showed up on my D3 list.  And yes, platoisek, it was frustrating.

There's been a lot of poaching going on this recruiting cycle. I had one legitimate need - SF - and went after four SFs, all DIII level, most local, pouring money into calls, home and campus visits. Sure enough - even though I was contacting them right until signing - each one was taken at the last minute by DII schools. Fair? Yes, sure. Frustrating? Hell yes. Now I'm left without a SF at all. I will manage I'm sure, but it makes the game a bit less fun.

When I was at Palm Beach Atlantic in D3, I had 4 great recruits lined up, going into signing. At signing, one D2 school in Florida jumped on three of my recruits. I would not have been upset if it was one recruit, but 3 was ridiculous. I have noticed a lot more poaching at Division 1, especially at the higher levels. You just have to be ready for it at that level.

Yes, that's exactly what happened to me. I know it's not the way that real-life recruiting works (at least from what I know), but I think there should be some recruits "set aside" in each division that higher division teams cannot come down and poach. Only seems fair, since - realistically - a DII coach could put all his money into a few recruits (doing it right, and thoroughly) and still lose all of them. Thankfully, I got two good recruits, just not the SFs I needed.

papalegba, you should probable read aejones guide to winning at DIII and DII, because it seems from your description of what you did during recruiting you could have tweaked some things to get more for your efforts. For example, you said you went after mostly local guys, but you poured in phone calls (unnecessary past the first one to see if a guy is able to be recruited) and campus visits (cost too much for what you get if the recruit is really local).