I know they aren't covered under FSS, and I know they are tougher (maybe a lot) to recruit because of distance. What is the consensus on recruiting them? Is the reward often worth the risk? And what do I look for from them if I decide to go after one?

Thanks. 

I love them. If I have the money I always like to at least send some scouts. The most I've spent on an international, and any player in general, was 40k in a battle against UNLV.

And I definitely think he was worth it.

I wouldn't consider them at DII.  It costs too much to adequately scout them. You'll end up 'recruiting on a prayer'. 

I've had some great DII internationals.  But you do have to be careful, so you really should only take the guys with solid starting ratings.  I love looking for internationals with great starting ratings and low work ethics, so I can just send them a start and scholarship, sign them for $110 and get solid players.

If you have a guy that's borderline, and you wouldnt sign him unless he was high in certain categories, make sure you use a few scouting trips to get him considering you and hope you get the info you want.  At DII, unless you blow your budget, you should have some opportunities to spend the $700 scouting trip.  On one occasion at DII I even pulled down a player from South Korea.  

I love internationals at DI and DII. Here's one http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=0&pid=3014568 on my DII squad. Also my only guy drafted on my old DI team was a international recruit. Ended up finishing around 880 rating.  Here's another http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerHistory/Ratings.aspx?&pid=2934849.  Like Dan said the biggest thing is to get good core ratings. I usually send at least 2 scouting trips to see if he is going to improve, like alblack56 says a lot is hit or miss.  I personally have had good success.

Just to put it in perspective.  Here are the last 2 DII internationals I had.  

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/PlayerHistory/Ratings.aspx?tid=7061&pid=2833550

I think it can be frustrating.... but also can really pay off.  It's frustrating when you spend money on the scout visit and don't get the information you need or want.

I have had mixed success.  I certainly remember my successes more than failures.  But many a day, internationals have salvaged recruiting classes.

I probably do it as a last resort when I can't find domestic recruits.  But I always look for good core ratings like everyone else said.  I don't necessarily try each season at D2 due to cash constraints.  Each recruiting season is different, but I would recommend keeping it in your bag of tricks.

Part of my logic:  as I am scouring the country for recruits after many cycles, you have to figure most states have been scouted.  So if you see a guy that looks good based on his cores and no one else is recruiting him in a state, then he probably isn't really that good... or if you do find a good player from >360 miles, you may end up in a battle for him anyway, and possible be geographically disadvantaged. 

but with internationals - it's possible no one has looked at the guy and everyone is far away.  and few can spend that much to battle on a player, so if you get him early (or late for that matter)  it seems uncommon that there will be a battle for him.  D2 could still get poached but D1s, but since they are really rarely pull downs if they are on your D2 board, that risk is less common.  now, D1 schools battle for everything, so just about any decent D1 player gets looks and often battles, as far a D1 international recruiting goes

I think FSS should have an international recruit database and just purchase it like you would any other state

Hey, guys, thanks for the insight. I appreciate it. I think I found some decent local guys, so maybe D2 isn't the place to stretch myself out. And I think I agree with your logic, Brian.

I'm ok with lack of FSS for international recruits.  But, I would really like to see them change the scouting visits so the coach has control over what skills are scouted.  I think having internationals be different than domestic recruits makes sense, but obviously the random scouting report are insanely annoying as many have complained about ad nauseam ---- TO NO AVAIL (wake up WIS)

I've gotten 2 PGs from Itly recently...one is really good and will be drafted, the other is currently on a redshirt and not nearly as good, but I'm hoping he can be solid...I only had 1 open spot last season and my other guy fell through...you know how johnsensing likes to do things...

Brian is spot on with his logic on internationals.

My only quibble is I actually like not picking the scouting reports. I think keeping it random actually gives less experienced (and worse) coaches a better chance. I think if us coaches were allowed to pick, the talent would be even more concentrated with the best coaches.....providing a poor experience for new coaches. It's definitely frustrating to get back a useless scouting report, but I think the annoyance is worth it to help get more human coaches.

I like the lack of FSS for internationals--it adds something different to the game. Sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss. I'm also okay with random if it's picking randomly from the full set of scoutable skills. It sure doesn't seem to. It seems like you receive the same skill assessments over and over and over most of the time. Last cycle, I think it was maybe 4 or 5 scouting trips before I got a single new skill assessment. If we're picking from the full set of possible assessments, the odds of pulling the same ones over and over like that are negligible. I probably had to send 10 scouting trips just to determine that I didn't want a player! Silly.

Posted by bathtubhippo on 5/21/2015 8:36:00 AM (view original):
I like the lack of FSS for internationals--it adds something different to the game. Sometimes you hit, sometimes you miss. I'm also okay with random if it's picking randomly from the full set of scoutable skills. It sure doesn't seem to. It seems like you receive the same skill assessments over and over and over most of the time. Last cycle, I think it was maybe 4 or 5 scouting trips before I got a single new skill assessment. If we're picking from the full set of possible assessments, the odds of pulling the same ones over and over like that are negligible. I probably had to send 10 scouting trips just to determine that I didn't want a player! Silly.

Based on this, and based on having a D2 budget, I think I'll definitely stay away from internationals until I'm at D1; I don't really have the luxury, especially with a bad D2 team, to be "wasting" any money.

For me, I can already tell I'm trying to get better quickly, by trying to hit a massive home run. Problem is, more likely, usually I'll strikeout. NOTE TO SELF: Play Recruit within your means.

I actually like internationals at DII even more so than at DI.  My reason is, if you are working to pull a guy down you have to spend the money on scouting anyway.  This is purely anctecdotal, but I have had very little luck with DI internationals having high potential, but the DII guys have really blossomed for me.  When I was at GVSU I had a team with 10 internationals and we made the S16 or at least 2nd round.

Not that it really matters but there should be inters from Australia.