This is an interesting thread. For what little I may be able to add here...
Dollars really do not mean anything as far as I can tell in recruiting. It is all about effort. The numbers that OR used look about right to me but not in dollars, it is in effort if what I have seen is correct. I have not seen any rational way to turn effort into dollars in the past (or vice versa) until this thread.
I think the point about any evals used over 15 being a waste is interesting. If I am reading that correctly, it is basically saying that there is an accelerating dimminishing return as you cross 5 evals for the recruiting effort that is being exerted. This may mean that the first 5 evals do equal a CV but the next 5 equal only half a CV and the next 5 equal only a .25 CV and the next 5 only equal a .1 CV. (I am not trying to put words in anyones mouth, just making generalized observations based on reading this post and my own past experience).
I have never considered the prestige difference all that significant in D2 or D3 but I do in general agree with OR's numbers in Mid level D1. I wonder though, (no math to back this one) if it is more of a sliding scale from beginning to end, asymetric where at the elite schools it actually is not even higher than that while at low level D1 it is slightly less. Then at D2 and D3 it is increasingly less important?
As far as how much does it cost to get a kid to consider you, well, that depends. In the last season, I signed a kid in D3 with only 123 dollars , so that was a scholly and a start and 15 minutes, B- prestige. In D1, top 100 position players (not overall) can be signed for less than 700, I signed one accidentally this year for a scholly (forgot to revoke it when I got my prime candidate), 2 phone calls, a letter, and 2 evals. In D2, I signed one for minimal effort as well,t was a scholly, and an HV. At all off these schools, there were kids that did not even respond to that same level of recruiting, requiring a good deal more to even consider us and a great deal more to sign. From observation, the farther into the recruiting period one goes, the less it takes to get someone to consider or sign.
So, to sum, jdno, I like the idea of measuring recruiting effort items to each other but I am not so sure that the numbers you are using are the real base nor am I sure that they are linear. Trying to guestimate from info here and past personal experience, I might hazzard that a baseline was 5 Evals = 3 HV = 1 CV= 1 EU(Effort Unit) , (as you did) I might further hazad that the second set of 5 Evals = 1.5 HV and .5 CV with the next ten looking like 10 Evals = 1HV = .35 CV making an asyntotic curve. Since this logic works with Evals (and we already know that it works with calls and letters as well) we could take this logic a little farther, menaing that it might be possible to conceive that after X amount of HV, they would begin to decrease in value to CV and taking this to the logical extreme, the CV would eventually begin to decrease in efficiency per dollar spent as well. So, if we say 5 is the base for evaluations before decreasing efficiency, then maybe 5 or 10 is the base for HV before they begin decreasing in efficiency and possibly the same 5 or 10 number happens for CV as well. If we use 5 for eval and 10 for HV and 15 for CV (no reason, just need some number) for the points of decreasing return, we would end up an expenditure by you of 26 Evals for a total of about 2EU (effort units), 20 HV would be about 3.3EU for the first 10 and about 1.7EU for the second 10, and oEU for he HV for a total of about 7 EU. Doing the same thing for wronj 15 Evals for about 1.7EU, 8HV for about 2.4 EU and 5CV for 5EU would give him about a 9.1 EU. Making an assumption that you were not truly a full letter grade apart, the B- range would be 2.99 - 2.67 and the C- range would be 1.99 - 1.67, the actual range difference might be as low as .68. If we were further to assume that at the D1 elite level it is a point for dould effort, lower D1 it is 2 points for double, at D2 it is 2.5 points for double and at D3 it is 3 points for double, then the units of effort put out by both coaches would equal JDNO - 7 * ((1+(.68/2.5) or 8.904 and wronoj at 9.1 with maybe another .25-.5 for the less tangible things like calls, letters, start, farther away, minutes, etc for a total of say 9.6 If we did the same thing at a full letter grade, the numbers might look like JDNO 7 * ((1+(1/2.5) or 9..8 and in this case, if these numbers were right, you would have actually won. Maybe these numbers have some validity and maybe not, I do not know, but it could explain the situation (and several otthers that I looked at with my teams). Anyway, thanks to all who contributed to this earlier as I have had some fun with it.