This is 100% possible to pull off without anyone leaving right? 130 starts to hand out and 126 starts required to fulfill. Nothing bad happens at intervals if you rotate perfectly right?

Based on forum posts over the last couple years, the 80% rule isn't reliable anymore.

You could luck out and make this work, but you might need some CT starts as a buffer.

i actually disagree and think you could pull this off relatively confidently, but some gaming of the system is in order. i also can't remember if the 80% rule is only different for promises (for sure it is there) or also starts.

anyway, here's the rub. if you don't start a guy until you get a complaint *and then meet your promise the rest of the way*, i believe you are still guaranteed for him to stay. this was true in the olden days and i haven't really had much reason to think its different now, although there was a thread once that raised an eyebrow - but i could be wrong. there has long been logic to protect coaches who make a simple mistake from losing a guy to promises, and what i just described... is not pushing that logic to its limits. i think its still safe, i would say like, im 95% sure its 100% safe to do that, and i think you can push that rule a *lot* farther before you get to 0% odds of keeping a guy. as a little test i did two guys on a test team and skipped the first 12 and 14 games respectively, then started the rest of the way, and both stayed. it might have been 10 and 12. i meant to do like 7 and 12 but i forgot to pay attention.

so i would basically say - skip the first 7 games till the first complaint (not sure its always 7 anymore but close). this gives you a buffer on the rest of the guys - then rotate 4/5 of them each game from there on out. treat the complainer as sacred. if you get another complainer i would be kinda scared but i think he'd be the odd man out and it would be decently late into the season, and you could start rotating 3/4 for the rest, and you'd still get all 4 to 80%. and as kc says, you do have the CT to make amends.

The CT counts to make amends? I thought all postseason was just ignored.

For what its worth I'll only be returning 3 players next year in low D1 so I doubt we will be very good to the point I'm really worried about keeping everyone 10x more than winning games.

Posted by cubcub113 on 5/24/2020 3:49:00 PM (view original):
The CT counts to make amends? I thought all postseason was just ignored.

For what its worth I'll only be returning 3 players next year in low D1 so I doubt we will be very good to the point I'm really worried about keeping everyone 10x more than winning games.

You are correct in that the CT can help you fulfill promises.

yeah, my understanding is that if you are good on promises (no complaints for a player) by the CT, you can safely skip the rest of the season. i don't know about a guy who complained prior - i usually try to get him the first couple CT games, just because i don't know or perhaps don't remember what the exact story is there.

however, CT can definitely bail you out when you are almost back to satisfying a player.

Cubcub would love to hear more about this recruiting class you reeled in. Sounds like a doozy if you offered 6 starts...

Posted by jimmychino on 5/24/2020 8:24:00 PM (view original):
Cubcub would love to hear more about this recruiting class you reeled in. Sounds like a doozy if you offered 6 starts...

I've offered 7 starts and am about to sign 4 of them. Will probably only get 5, but I could possibly get 6 and I would want to keep all of them.

Decent class but not a great one, its just there are DIIs on all of my guys and I'm a D prestige D1 with very bad on long time coach.

Posted by snewell12 on 5/24/2020 9:32:00 PM (view original):
Post season does not count (including conf tourney). You will certainly have to hope your players don’t hold you to your promises. To be 100% safe you have to maintain a 80% start rate for each player all the way through the regular season or they may leave. I’m not going to do the math but if they all hold you to it I think it will be difficult. Please see my previous post which includes conversation with support. Good luck!

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=502483

as much as the thread you linked says exactly what you said, i'm not in total agreement. my understanding is that the post season cannot count against you but that it can help bail you out. i believe its always been this way and i don't believe its ever been changed. i believe this has been demonstrated to be true by coaches on these forums multiple times.

i get that it is CS who is responding there (wasn't seble gone at the time?). anyway, CS often gives situation-specific statements that cannot be taken in the universal context, and they even changed their answer half way through, demonstrating the lack of knowledge of the responder. if post season never ever counted, would they really start by saying it does count, and then follow up with 'Looking into this further, it does not appear that the post-season games had any effect.'? i mean, maybe - this is WIS CS we are talking about, certainly anything is possible - but i'm not buying it!