Is D1 that bad? Should I not go? Topic

I think you'd be eligible
6/7/2012 3:44 PM
Thanks guys I picked up Davidson, I felt they had a good returning class of JRs and it will make the transition easier.
6/8/2012 7:20 AM
Posted by gillispie1 on 6/7/2012 2:31:00 PM (view original):
Posted by gvsujulius on 6/7/2012 12:03:00 PM (view original):
I have put in an application for a D1 school in Knight. I have had a few people send me messages or comment that I shouldn't go to D1 and that D2 is much better. 

I really enjoy the conference I am in but ultimately I won't ever have the chance to be at a big D1 program unless I move up to a low D1 school and move up.

Anyone have any insight or thought?

Thanks in advance


both d1 and d2 can be great, some people prefer one over the other. in a lot of ways, i prefer d2, and in others, i prefer d1.

the main attraction of d1, without question, is d1 recruiting. it is a veritable blood bath, at least in most parts of the country. in d2 the typical coach doesn't battle very often, and on contested players, its rare multiple coaches put in more than 1 scholarship worth on money. in d1, it happens all the time. if you make it through a season without a battle, 90% of the time, you are shooting too low, 5% of the time, you had no scholarships, and 5% of the time, you just got really lucky :) OK, i might be stretching the truth, but only slightly!!

d1 recruiting is a whole new ball game. it is awesome, can be incredible fun, but also, incredibly frustrating, and on occasion, death threats are levied. these are usually forgotten well before the next recruiting season :) d1 recruiting is THE most competitive part of the game, and i don't think its even close. 

on the other hand, game play in d1 is diminished, in my opinion. when you are not a top end team, and you are playing against a team who has 10 players better than all but 1 of your players, and 5 players better than your best 1, its just not very fun. nor is it fun when you have 10 players better than all but 1 of your opponents players, although its certainly better than the reverse case :)

however, when you are a top team, playing other top teams, its also not as fun. what makes game play fun to me, is having a team with strengths and weaknesses, significant ones, and trying to leverage your strengths while minimizing the impact of your weaknesses. and then, looking at your opponent, and trying to limit their strengths while exploiting their weaknesses. well, when two teams play with a starting 5 that is virtually perfect, there is really not much to do except to watch the dice roll on by. i mean, you can always do SOMETHING, and there are always coaches who will play their team wrong, and all that. but the overall strategy in the game play is diminished, IMO. 
You and I have completely different definitions of "incredible fun".

I agree that d1 recruiting "is a veritable blood bath", "incredibly frustrating, and on occasion, death threats are levied".  And I agree that game play in d1 is diminished because of lopsided matchups as you explained and I also agree that "when you are a top team, playing other top teams, its also not as fun".  That's incredible fun?

Fun, for me, is being able to take my alma mater and make them as competitive as possible.  But D1 is so nerfed in favor of teams with high baselines that you hit an invisible ceiling and get stuck in a rut.  

So you're either a) forced to take a team that you don't like (I left my alma mater for Indiana's high baseline prestige, a school I can't stand due to a close friend being a former Purdue player); b) forced to play in an empty conference to avoid the recruiting bloodbath of schools within close proximity (because, just as in real life, the biggest recruiting concern for head coaches is whether a recruit is 360 miles away as compared to 370 miles away) or c) take a team you like in a conference you enjoy and suffer the consequences.

If there was one aspect of the game I would change, it would be to overhaul recruiting at D1.  Maybe introduce an aspect of the game like recruiting camps at D1 and keep recruiting the same at D2 and D3 (where it remains fun).  

The best part of recruiting for me was to discover a player that gave me a competitive edge and signing him.  Unfortunately, no one discovers the competitive D1 players nowadays.  The fun, I guess, is watching users at non-elite schools suffer through a miserable recruiting process and then mocking them.
6/8/2012 9:50 AM
I like DI a lot better. It's just played at a higher level, particularly recruiting. Recruiting in D2/D3 is checkers, recruiting in DI is chess.

Survivor, I'm not saying that DI recruiting is perfect (it's not), but the biggest issue on your end is that you're not a very good recruiter.
6/8/2012 10:02 AM
Posted by fmschwab on 6/8/2012 10:02:00 AM (view original):
I like DI a lot better. It's just played at a higher level, particularly recruiting. Recruiting in D2/D3 is checkers, recruiting in DI is chess.

Survivor, I'm not saying that DI recruiting is perfect (it's not), but the biggest issue on your end is that you're not a very good recruiter.
So I've been told.

But let's compare our histories:

Charlotte
53 survivor45 27-5 #15 20 B+ Conf Champion, NT At-large Bid, NT (Sweet 16)
52 survivor45 26-5 14 B+ Conf Champion, NT At-large Bid, NT (2nd Round)
51 survivor45 19-11 31 B+ NT At-large Bid, NT (2nd Round)
50 survivor45 21-8 29 A- NT At-large Bid, NT (1st Round)
49 survivor45 29-3 #7 8 A- Conf Champion, CT Champion, NT (Sweet 16)
48 survivor45 30-2 #8 6 A- Conf Champion, CT Champion, NT (Sweet 16)
47 survivor45 29-3 #12 10 A- Conf Champion, CT Champion, NT (Sweet 16)
46 survivor45 27-8 #9 19 A- CT Champion, NT (Final Four)
45 survivor45 22-9 38 B+ NT At-large Bid, NT (2nd Round)


NC State
53 fmschwab 26-5 #9 1 A+ Conf Champion, NT At-large Bid, NT (Sweet 16)
52 fmschwab 20-12 #18 9 A+ NT At-large Bid, NT (Elite 8)
51 fmschwab 16-12 20 A NT At-large Bid, NT (1st Round)
50 fmschwab 24-7 #14 6 A Conf Champion, NT At-large Bid, NT (Sweet 16)
49 fmschwab 3-24 180 B+
48 fmschwab 16-13 29 A- NT At-large Bid, NT (1st Round)
47 fmschwab 13-16 57 B+ PI (2nd Round)
46 fmschwab 17-12 39 B+ NT At-large Bid, NT (2nd Round)
45 fmschwab 10-17 208 B-

From seasons 45 to 53, you built your team up to an A+ prestige (congrats) while I could only muster up a B+ prestige.   

Recruiting is nerfed for you.  What is to prevent you from letting me do all the scouting and FSS for a recruit from Greensboro, NC and then just taking him from me?
6/8/2012 11:25 AM
Posted by survivor45 on 6/8/2012 9:50:00 AM (view original):
Posted by gillispie1 on 6/7/2012 2:31:00 PM (view original):
Posted by gvsujulius on 6/7/2012 12:03:00 PM (view original):
I have put in an application for a D1 school in Knight. I have had a few people send me messages or comment that I shouldn't go to D1 and that D2 is much better. 

I really enjoy the conference I am in but ultimately I won't ever have the chance to be at a big D1 program unless I move up to a low D1 school and move up.

Anyone have any insight or thought?

Thanks in advance


both d1 and d2 can be great, some people prefer one over the other. in a lot of ways, i prefer d2, and in others, i prefer d1.

the main attraction of d1, without question, is d1 recruiting. it is a veritable blood bath, at least in most parts of the country. in d2 the typical coach doesn't battle very often, and on contested players, its rare multiple coaches put in more than 1 scholarship worth on money. in d1, it happens all the time. if you make it through a season without a battle, 90% of the time, you are shooting too low, 5% of the time, you had no scholarships, and 5% of the time, you just got really lucky :) OK, i might be stretching the truth, but only slightly!!

d1 recruiting is a whole new ball game. it is awesome, can be incredible fun, but also, incredibly frustrating, and on occasion, death threats are levied. these are usually forgotten well before the next recruiting season :) d1 recruiting is THE most competitive part of the game, and i don't think its even close. 

on the other hand, game play in d1 is diminished, in my opinion. when you are not a top end team, and you are playing against a team who has 10 players better than all but 1 of your players, and 5 players better than your best 1, its just not very fun. nor is it fun when you have 10 players better than all but 1 of your opponents players, although its certainly better than the reverse case :)

however, when you are a top team, playing other top teams, its also not as fun. what makes game play fun to me, is having a team with strengths and weaknesses, significant ones, and trying to leverage your strengths while minimizing the impact of your weaknesses. and then, looking at your opponent, and trying to limit their strengths while exploiting their weaknesses. well, when two teams play with a starting 5 that is virtually perfect, there is really not much to do except to watch the dice roll on by. i mean, you can always do SOMETHING, and there are always coaches who will play their team wrong, and all that. but the overall strategy in the game play is diminished, IMO. 
You and I have completely different definitions of "incredible fun".

I agree that d1 recruiting "is a veritable blood bath", "incredibly frustrating, and on occasion, death threats are levied".  And I agree that game play in d1 is diminished because of lopsided matchups as you explained and I also agree that "when you are a top team, playing other top teams, its also not as fun".  That's incredible fun?

Fun, for me, is being able to take my alma mater and make them as competitive as possible.  But D1 is so nerfed in favor of teams with high baselines that you hit an invisible ceiling and get stuck in a rut.  

So you're either a) forced to take a team that you don't like (I left my alma mater for Indiana's high baseline prestige, a school I can't stand due to a close friend being a former Purdue player); b) forced to play in an empty conference to avoid the recruiting bloodbath of schools within close proximity (because, just as in real life, the biggest recruiting concern for head coaches is whether a recruit is 360 miles away as compared to 370 miles away) or c) take a team you like in a conference you enjoy and suffer the consequences.

If there was one aspect of the game I would change, it would be to overhaul recruiting at D1.  Maybe introduce an aspect of the game like recruiting camps at D1 and keep recruiting the same at D2 and D3 (where it remains fun).  

The best part of recruiting for me was to discover a player that gave me a competitive edge and signing him.  Unfortunately, no one discovers the competitive D1 players nowadays.  The fun, I guess, is watching users at non-elite schools suffer through a miserable recruiting process and then mocking them.
i said RECRUITING can be incredible fun (incredibly fun?). most of the stuff you are talking about is outside of recruiting. outside of recruiting, to me, d2 is significantly better than d1. it all comes down to if you love that competitive recruiting or not. if so, d1 can't be beat. if not, why even play there?

ive also posted enough times that d1 recruiting needs a complete overhaul, that that is the #1 issue in the game, to the point where i figure pretty much any regular forum reader has heard it from me so many times, they are liable to track me down and punch me in the head next time i say it, for being so damn redundant!

you sound like someone who really hates d1 recruiting... so.... why do you play there? and its not as bad as you make it out to be, you didn't HAVE to take indiana, i mean i hate duke more than any program, and i pretty much can guarantee there would be a non duke duke-level opening at least every couple seasons. i would bet in your world, there were some non indiana indiana-level openings available around the time you took them, and significantly more so than duke-level openings.
6/8/2012 11:48 AM (edited)
I love playing at D1.  Basically, most of the best coaches are at D1 and better coaches means better recruiting and better games.

I mean, the A+ prestige teams do have an advantage in recruiting and the Big6 conference teams also have an advantage recruiting.  But these things mirror real life to me.

Being in the SEC, you have an advantage recruiting against a Sun Belt team ... is that not what you would expect?

It takes some time for a good "Base Prestige" team to open up in a Big6 conference and it takes time to qualify for one of those teams .. but I also had a lot of fun getting 3 guys drafted and a Div-1 Player of the Year at Morris Brown ... and some of my funnest times have come battling for the WCC Championship against 3 or4 other human coaches at Portland.

Do I expect to win the National Championship with Morris Brown or Portland ... of course not.  But winning the Conference Championship and the Conference Toruney is also fun when there is competition in the conference.

I suppose it is just what your goals are ... If you expect to compete for a Div-1 national title every season with an Horizon League team ... well that is not going to happen.
6/8/2012 8:00 PM (edited)
I don't think the teams in the Horizon League think they are going to compete for a NC in real life every year either, so I guess WIS does mirror RL in some aspects.
6/9/2012 11:32 PM
Posted by gvsujulius on 6/9/2012 11:32:00 PM (view original):
I don't think the teams in the Horizon League think they are going to compete for a NC in real life every year either, so I guess WIS does mirror RL in some aspects.
I can think of one who thought so...
6/9/2012 11:54 PM
DI is not evil and I'm glad you decided to give it a try.  I am critical of the way WIS manipulates things at the top but I would never discourage somebody from giving it a shot.  If played properly, DI can be rewarding and frustrating at the same time...and that's not necessarily a bad thing.  It's a different kind of challenge.
6/10/2012 11:36 PM
Posted by gillispie1 on 6/7/2012 2:31:00 PM (view original):
Posted by gvsujulius on 6/7/2012 12:03:00 PM (view original):
I have put in an application for a D1 school in Knight. I have had a few people send me messages or comment that I shouldn't go to D1 and that D2 is much better. 

I really enjoy the conference I am in but ultimately I won't ever have the chance to be at a big D1 program unless I move up to a low D1 school and move up.

Anyone have any insight or thought?

Thanks in advance


both d1 and d2 can be great, some people prefer one over the other. in a lot of ways, i prefer d2, and in others, i prefer d1.

the main attraction of d1, without question, is d1 recruiting. it is a veritable blood bath, at least in most parts of the country. in d2 the typical coach doesn't battle very often, and on contested players, its rare multiple coaches put in more than 1 scholarship worth on money. in d1, it happens all the time. if you make it through a season without a battle, 90% of the time, you are shooting too low, 5% of the time, you had no scholarships, and 5% of the time, you just got really lucky :) OK, i might be stretching the truth, but only slightly!!

d1 recruiting is a whole new ball game. it is awesome, can be incredible fun, but also, incredibly frustrating, and on occasion, death threats are levied. these are usually forgotten well before the next recruiting season :) d1 recruiting is THE most competitive part of the game, and i don't think its even close. 

on the other hand, game play in d1 is diminished, in my opinion. when you are not a top end team, and you are playing against a team who has 10 players better than all but 1 of your players, and 5 players better than your best 1, its just not very fun. nor is it fun when you have 10 players better than all but 1 of your opponents players, although its certainly better than the reverse case :)

however, when you are a top team, playing other top teams, its also not as fun. what makes game play fun to me, is having a team with strengths and weaknesses, significant ones, and trying to leverage your strengths while minimizing the impact of your weaknesses. and then, looking at your opponent, and trying to limit their strengths while exploiting their weaknesses. well, when two teams play with a starting 5 that is virtually perfect, there is really not much to do except to watch the dice roll on by. i mean, you can always do SOMETHING, and there are always coaches who will play their team wrong, and all that. but the overall strategy in the game play is diminished, IMO. 
Not having played high d1 ...

in that case it seems like whatever strategy there is would be more in the settings and such of the bench players rather than the starters - the bench players being where the imperfections might lie, so to speak.

6/11/2012 8:21 AM
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Is D1 that bad? Should I not go? Topic

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