Posted by sublightd on 4/5/2012 11:36:00 PM (view original):
IMHO, with the qualifier that how populated the world is makes a big difference:

D3 southeast can be easy because of the lack of schools down there. Michigan / Wisconsin in full conferences is the toughest.

D2 is the same. South east recruiting can be very good. Northeast in empty worlds is good because of lots of recruits close with no human competition. And I mean upper NE, not like NY area. Northwest in empty worlds can give advantage, but in a strong Cali and Great NW, you'll have problems.

D1 really varies by school, not area. Just look at big 6 schools with average baselines that are always successful and you'll know where the honey holes are. For the most part, MWC is a good spot because there's still quite a few recruits youll have distance advantages on and you are really only competing against the PAC10.

I've never really understood why people don't try to power up the A10. Sure it's east coast, but good locales with competitive baselines. Instead i see guys trying the ivy league or nec. Perhaps someone can explain it to me.

I don't know.  I'm giving it a go at UMass in the A10 in Crum if anyone want to join up, we got several great openings including George Washington and Charlotte. 

Are there any particular schools that are generally easier/harder to recruit from? 

This is just a guess, but probably Arizona State would be very challenging, with big brother Arizona not too far away in a sparsely populated area.

Hardest has to be HI across all levels. AK is bad but it is close to Canada, so there might be some international prospects. HI, you are pretty much stuck and any recruits out of HI will be long distance, with a huge disadvantage.

I think the best D3 places are Colorado and Palm Beach Atlantic. Alot of potential D2 dropdowns and little instate competition among your level. 

Posted by sublightd on 4/5/2012 11:36:00 PM (view original):
IMHO, with the qualifier that how populated the world is makes a big difference:

D3 southeast can be easy because of the lack of schools down there. Michigan / Wisconsin in full conferences is the toughest.

D2 is the same. South east recruiting can be very good. Northeast in empty worlds is good because of lots of recruits close with no human competition. And I mean upper NE, not like NY area. Northwest in empty worlds can give advantage, but in a strong Cali and Great NW, you'll have problems.

D1 really varies by school, not area. Just look at big 6 schools with average baselines that are always successful and you'll know where the honey holes are. For the most part, MWC is a good spot because there's still quite a few recruits youll have distance advantages on and you are really only competing against the PAC10.

I've never really understood why people don't try to power up the A10. Sure it's east coast, but good locales with competitive baselines. Instead i see guys trying the ivy league or nec. Perhaps someone can explain it to me.

Hard to get into A10 straight from D2/D3, so most coaches jump to D baseline conf, and then straight hop to big 6. 

D3- Location doesn't make a huge difference but I did have my greatest success at Colorado College. I think the fact that there are a number of d2 schools in the area so the number of pulldowns and local dropdowns is relatively high in ratio to the amount of competition from local d3 schools. There are a few other areas of the country with similar advantages that come to mind Georgia, Missouri, California, Texas.

D2- I don't have much experience in d2 but I did win a NT title in the 6 or 7 seasons I was there with Stonehill in the Boston, MA area. I found recruiting to be easy in that Boston area and I think it had to do with there being so many lower level d1 teams in the surrounding area that were sim coached. So the players that were eligible for pulldown in the vicinity would make it down to me. Plus the number of D2 teams in direct competition with me in the surrounding area was rather low even though it is a generally congested area in D1 and even more so in D3. I don't know what other regions fit that bill but if I were to guess I would think OH, PA, TN could have similar potential aside from a few other regions.

D1- I have studied this level for a long time and been playing up there for a fair amount with higher than average success. Finding a region that is not saturated with human coaches but has a track record of developing recruits is key. I am currently at Colorado University and things couldn't be going much better. There are a couple of good to great recruits most seasons and with my money, prestige advantages I can clean up on most of them. Plus there is talent in the surrounding states that falls within the 360 mile cheaper recruiting price range. Louisiana is an even better situation as LSU has a higher baseline prestige, talent is even richer in the state of LA, not to mention they have even more talent with the 360 mile range with Houston, Mississippi, etc to draw from. Miami is a sweet spot since the other higher level schools are located in the northern half of the state so the Miami kids are near locks then toss on top of it PR is most affordable from there. Miami can have some down periods in terms of talent but no more so than Colorado. Outside of those areas mentioned there is atleast one other top level team to compete with generally. I would think Syracuse is a sweet spot as there is a good level of talent close in comparison to the amount of local competition including the players in that area of Canada. I know recruiting at St. Bonaventure was pretty darn good. Nebraska and Missouri seem like two of the tougher places, too much competition for too little talent.

just some thoughts from my perspective

Colorado College is the easiest job in HD.  Period.  Ten DII schools in-state; no DIII schools within 500 miles.

Posted by cornfused on 4/6/2012 12:02:00 PM (view original):
Colorado College is the easiest job in HD.  Period.  Ten DII schools in-state; no DIII schools within 500 miles.

I'm looking for it to open up in my worlds...

Posted by cornfused on 4/6/2012 12:02:00 PM (view original):
Colorado College is the easiest job in HD.  Period.  Ten DII schools in-state; no DIII schools within 500 miles.

Agree with this sentiment. I've never had the luxury of coaching Colorado College in a world yet, but I'd salivate at the chance to do so.

On the other end of the spectrum, I think Maine-Presque Isle is a challenging D3 school. Pretty sure Maine is without a D2 school and Presque Isle is far enough upstate that the 300-mile circle barely extends beyond the Maine border and gets you a whole lot of nothing in Canada most years. If the other upper-Northeast conferences are heavily human populated, then you're butting heads at a distance disadvantage against them time and again. It's definitely not your ordinary D3.

In D2, I'm not sure what I'd throw out as the least-favorable mainland locale, maybe Montana State-Billings due to its isolated locale and rural surrounding states, but you also get free pick of low D1's in those states without much competition I would suspect, so maybe not? I think the Kentucky-Tennessee area might be the most favorable...the 300-mile circle tags parts of lots of different states, you have the money to FSS them (or at least most of them) as none are in the New York-Pennsylvania-Texas-California killer expensive category and can locate a lot of potential gems that way. Schools in urban areas without a major D1 university (i.e.-one likely not human coached) are nice too as they catch a lot of recruits in their under 70 (often 10 miles) and the low level D1 players either drop or can be pulled down without concern of getting poached from above by the local D1 and at minor expense.

I'd bet a good midmajor would be UNT or UTA. That Dallas area is in between both OU and Texas, but you'd have a bigger distance advantage over the competitors. 

As someone who's been at MS-B for 20 seasons plus, I chose it for the "free pick" you described, thinking the exact same thing. It hasn't been nearly as lucrative as I had hoped. Most of my conference mates block off WA, since like 4 schools are there. They also dip into Idaho, which usually has guys, but makes it a battle. The CAA in most worlds is a power conference, so ID and OR is usually a battlefield too. Going east is no man's land. South ends up being somewhat doable, since a decent portion of Colorado is within 350 miles. But you've got to hope the Rocky Mountain conference is somewhat empty to pick anyone up.

I don't know how many times I've seen other coaches land a stud D1 guy because he was 10-70 miles from them. Never happes in Billings unfortunately. I also was at Arizona State, and its very tough. Standford and UCLA are very close so you can't go west really for top level guys, and Fresno / Cal will take the others. All your in state talent gets nabbed by Arizona. There's not  many recruits east. Much like real life, the Arizona State underwear run doesn't attract players like you would expect....

Posted by tianyi7886 on 4/6/2012 11:20:00 AM (view original):
Hardest has to be HI across all levels. AK is bad but it is close to Canada, so there might be some international prospects. HI, you are pretty much stuck and any recruits out of HI will be long distance, with a huge disadvantage.

I think the best D3 places are Colorado and Palm Beach Atlantic. Alot of potential D2 dropdowns and little instate competition among your level. 

Surprisingly, Palm Beach Atlantic is one of just six D3 schools in Naismith to never make the national tournament and has a .364 all-time win percentage. Might be a crack opportunity there if an aspiring coach wants to get the gymnasium named after them.

I feel like the 2 BCS schools I've coached are two of the most difficult schools to build a champ at, Arkansas and West Virginia. Arkansas is in a position where there are rarely recruits that are great within 200 miles, and then when you venture outside of 200 miles there is usually a Big 12 school who has the luxury of being under that 200 mile mark from the recruit. However when you do find a guy that is close and towards the east he's easy to get.

WVU just has so many high baseline prestige schools nearby. I've bumped heads with Michigan St., Kentucky, Duke, and UNC, all A+ baseline schools, and then I have frequent interactions with the likes of Maryland, G'Town, Pitt, and Virginia, all A or A-. And with WVUs B baseline it makes things very tough.

not to mention that WVU has a hard time finding in state recruits who can qualify for admissions.  They might have the grades, but there is always that 2 tooth minimum for admissions that keeps West Virginia recruits from making it.

Posted by tdiddy3 on 4/6/2012 6:08:00 PM (view original):
not to mention that WVU has a hard time finding in state recruits who can qualify for admissions.  They might have the grades, but there is always that 2 tooth minimum for admissions that keeps West Virginia recruits from making it.

I always thought that was a 2 tooth maximum...