I was told very early in my time with the game that if you look at the highest rating of a 4-year eligible player on your division's list and add 10 points to it, that's the highest rating you can pull down from the next division up UNLESS the player is inside 360 miles, in which case you can go 25 points higher (although I'd never actually had this work unless they were also inside 70 miles previously). Above those totals, I was told, the player would either ignore a phone call to check interest or show no interest.

For 100+ seasons that "rule" had held true, despite my best attempts to test its boundaries. Until now. 

Meet Brian Gelman. Brian isn't going to be a future world-killer (he can prove me wrong if he wants...), but he was 19 points higher than my original vision allowed me to see players in Division 2 this season. Brian was also 500 miles from campus and therefore well outside the Max+25 mileage zone. But he's coming to campus anyway. 

It's possible Gelman's academic status accounts for some of the deviation from the norm. His GPA leads me to think he may have been an ineligible when recruiting started and that he then passed his SAT benchmark early in recruiting to become eligible. I'm not sure since he wasn't on my initial radar and I only locked on him after he had dropped down. 

So to everyone I have shared the initial "rule" with over the years, this would be the exception I always said I would share if I ever got someone outside that zone. 

I find the rule mostly works for D3, it's a lot fuzzier in D2.

It does not work. I tried to pull down a guy within 100 miles of the campus, in DIII, he was at least 50 to 60 below the highest ranked available recruit and I spent 1700+ sending 10 STS and a scholly on a guy who would never play for us. I am sure it's random, and probabilities.

I'd test it with anyone. Two teams, same prestige, recruits about the same distance : both will have different results. That is why I am always surprised at who says, I am a longshot and at who rejects me. For that reason, I push my luck and call all recruits I am interested in to see if I can pull them down.

Note : I am always calling the coach.

Given that most guys who are going to tell you no reject your phone calls anyway, making it very cheap to try, I generally don't bother with that rule.  Just call anybody I like, and see who answers.

Posted by zorzii on 7/11/2015 2:24:00 PM (view original):
It does not work. I tried to pull down a guy within 100 miles of the campus, in DIII, he was at least 50 to 60 below the highest ranked available recruit and I spent 1700+ sending 10 STS and a scholly on a guy who would never play for us. I am sure it's random, and probabilities.

I'd test it with anyone. Two teams, same prestige, recruits about the same distance : both will have different results. That is why I am always surprised at who says, I am a longshot and at who rejects me. For that reason, I push my luck and call all recruits I am interested in to see if I can pull them down.

Note : I am always calling the coach.

But the "rule" never offered a guarantee that you could get a player that met those parameters. It's purpose was to set a top end of the scale that a coach could conceivably go after with their school in that specific season. There was always a degree of randomness with regard to whether a specific player would show interest even if they met the variables. I get guys in the 490s all the time who think they're going to be D1 players who tell me to stop sucking up their cell phone minutes in recruiting.