Had a few players go from blue to black or black to red without any rating change. Any one know why this happens? I'm sure it has been answered before, but I appreciate any insight.

It's because the number ratings you see are rounded truncated*, but the actual values include fractions.  With each practice, player attributes improve (or decline) by fractions of a point.  In some cases, such as high-WE guys with lots of practice minutes in high-high potential LP or PER, a player will improve by a full point with each practice.  Once in a blue moon you'll see a guy apparently gain *two* points in an attribute from just one practice.  Again, those are going to be high-WE players improving in LP or PER.

*Thanks for the correction, dahs.

The rating does change, but it  isn't something that's viewable. For instance, if you have a rating of 71 in passing, that rating could actually be 71.2. The color could change at 71.4, however it would still read as 71 on your team page.

Ratings work on a decimal point system.  Using blue to black as an example, a blue number can mean exactly 21.0 points of improvement left.  After 1 day of practice, they may have 20.2 points left, hence the change to black.  But it's not a full point of improvement, thus no change in the players ratings.  Same principle for black to red.  Overall, it's just bad luck when that happens.

Just one thing, which isn't critically important, but worth noting, is that ratings are truncated, not actually rounded.

That's why it's so much easier to get to 99 than it is to get to 100.

Recruits are generated with a starting value as a whole number (ex 63 and not 63.6) and their ceiling is expressed also by a whole number when they're generated (using the same example, if the recruit is high-high they might improve 32.0 points thus having a ceiling of 95).  Colors of improvement are also expressed also using whole #s as a bottom of the range (i.e. Blue is starting at a minimum of 21 points of improvement, black at 7 points, red at 0).

Thus when a recruit is generated with a smallest improvement ceiling of a color range (i.e. 21 for blue, 7 for black), then what typically happens is that after the recruit's first practice, the recruit will marginally improve a fraction of a point (ex. 63.4) but since WIS will truncate the rating, you won't see an increase in the rating (63) but the remaining improvement range (20.6) will fall below the minimum threshold for the previous color range (21), thus making it change to another color (Black).

Are we really 100% certain that starting values are whole numbers?  I've had freshmen improve a visible point in non-LP/PER categories after their first practice.  I wouldn't believe that would be the case if all starting values were whole numbers.

Posted by llamanunts on 10/27/2014 5:03:00 PM (view original):
Are we really 100% certain that starting values are whole numbers?  I've had freshmen improve a visible point in non-LP/PER categories after their first practice.  I wouldn't believe that would be the case if all starting values were whole numbers.

Are you sure these are newly signed recruits (and not redshirts/ineligibles that were recruited from a previous season)?  

I'm almost certain they do not start at a decimal number otherwise we would see a lot more instances of recruits who would increase a visible point after the first practice (as opposed to the rare occurence it is now).

Posted by buddhagamer on 10/27/2014 5:58:00 PM (view original):

Posted by llamanunts on 10/27/2014 5:03:00 PM (view original):
Are we really 100% certain that starting values are whole numbers?  I've had freshmen improve a visible point in non-LP/PER categories after their first practice.  I wouldn't believe that would be the case if all starting values were whole numbers.

Are you sure these are newly signed recruits (and not redshirts/ineligibles that were recruited from a previous season)?  

I'm almost certain they do not start at a decimal number otherwise we would see a lot more instances of recruits who would increase a visible point after the first practice (as opposed to the rare occurence it is now).

agreed... and some high potential freshman with great work ethic do gain points after 1 practice, but its fairly rare, it seems.

Posted by gillispie1 on 10/27/2014 7:36:00 PM (view original):

Posted by buddhagamer on 10/27/2014 5:58:00 PM (view original):

Posted by llamanunts on 10/27/2014 5:03:00 PM (view original):
Are we really 100% certain that starting values are whole numbers?  I've had freshmen improve a visible point in non-LP/PER categories after their first practice.  I wouldn't believe that would be the case if all starting values were whole numbers.

Are you sure these are newly signed recruits (and not redshirts/ineligibles that were recruited from a previous season)?  

I'm almost certain they do not start at a decimal number otherwise we would see a lot more instances of recruits who would increase a visible point after the first practice (as opposed to the rare occurence it is now).

agreed... and some high potential freshman with great work ethic do gain points after 1 practice, but its fairly rare, it seems.

1. Not a redshirt or anything. Timothy Crosland, currently on West Georgia, gained a BH point after his first practice.

2. Recruits gaining a point after one practice...

High work ethic recruits will sometimes gain a low post/perimeter point. We all know those come faster. Sometimes a player will average a point per practice in those attributes. You never ever see a guy average a point per practice in anything else. If you're not going to maintain that pace, why would you see the first point after the first practice, especially without the benefit of playing time? (We know the first practice is prior to the first game because attributes can change from blue to black, or black to red, before the first exhibition.)

If starting values aren't whole numbers, that makes more sense.