Hi all! New coach here. I played maybe about 10 years ago but excited to be returning to the game.

As a first-year coach at a school with A- prestige, what level of player should I be targeting (I scouted D-1 players only). For example, if someone is the #272 overall recruit and the #74 overall power forward, do I have a chance or am I just kidding myself. What's the chances I can land a player who is in the #70-#100 range in their position and in the #230-#300 range of best overall players?

Looks like you took over the team I just left. Don't screw it up! (Just kidding).

What you're asking might be a reach for a D3 coach. Top #100 position guys are typically going to be grabbed by D1 and D2 human coaches. As a D3 coach, as soon as a higher division human coach starts targeting a recruit and offers a scholarship, I'll back right off and start looking elsewhere. Higher division humans are nearly impossible to beat in a battle from D3. If its a SIM coach, different story. They can be defeated, but you need to be aggressive with APs and promises early on, and/or with home and campus visits in RS2.

If you look at your roster, you'll see that almost all of your guys were mid 100s for their positions when they were recruited. I think Perez is the only guy who was un-ranked. But I see that SIM finished the job that I started in recruiting session 1 and signed Vern Coffey, who was #67 among centers. That's an exception.

In general, if you can fill your roster with a bunch of mid 100s guys, you're probably positioned for success at D3.

But keep in mind . . . the position rankings, as are the overall ratings, are really just cosmetic. The most important things are the projected core ratings for each guy at the positions you can forecast them playing. Sometimes, an un-ranked guy might end up being a better player than a ranked guy, because his numbers (ratings) and projections are in the right places. So don't focus on their position rankings, focus on their ratings and potential (colors).

Good luck! DON"T SCREW IT UP!

Thanks! I’m really interested why you left! I can’t promise not to screw it up but I can promise to do my best lol. Did you have a specific reason for leaving a contender?

Posted by tecwrg on 3/30/2022 6:15:00 AM (view original):
Looks like you took over the team I just left. Don't screw it up! (Just kidding).

What you're asking might be a reach for a D3 coach. Top #100 position guys are typically going to be grabbed by D1 and D2 human coaches. As a D3 coach, as soon as a higher division human coach starts targeting a recruit and offers a scholarship, I'll back right off and start looking elsewhere. Higher division humans are nearly impossible to beat in a battle from D3. If its a SIM coach, different story. They can be defeated, but you need to be aggressive with APs and promises early on, and/or with home and campus visits in RS2.

If you look at your roster, you'll see that almost all of your guys were mid 100s for their positions when they were recruited. I think Perez is the only guy who was un-ranked. But I see that SIM finished the job that I started in recruiting session 1 and signed Vern Coffey, who was #67 among centers. That's an exception.

In general, if you can fill your roster with a bunch of mid 100s guys, you're probably positioned for success at D3.

But keep in mind . . . the position rankings, as are the overall ratings, are really just cosmetic. The most important things are the projected core ratings for each guy at the positions you can forecast them playing. Sometimes, an un-ranked guy might end up being a better player than a ranked guy, because his numbers (ratings) and projections are in the right places. So don't focus on their position rankings, focus on their ratings and potential (colors).

Good luck! DON"T SCREW IT UP!

"But keep in mind . . . the position rankings, as are the overall ratings, are really just cosmetic. The most important things are the projected core ratings for each guy at the positions you can forecast them playing. Sometimes, an un-ranked guy might end up being a better player than a ranked guy, because his numbers (ratings) and projections are in the right places. So don't focus on their position rankings, focus on their ratings and potential (colors)."

^^ This for sure. A guy who is #100 overall at his position honestly only has a 60% (roughly) chance of being better than someone who is #200. Don't get caught up in the rankings, just try to create a nice list of solid guys so there are at least a few that slide through the cracks.

i agree from a recruiting strategy point of view, with the sentiment about position rankings being cosmetic. the only thing i'll say though is, those position rankings can have a pretty substantial impact on the amount of AP required to unlock a player and stuff like that. chances of informing of redshirt successfully, the amount of effort required to do so, the amount of negative penalty for pulling a scholarship - all of those items, i believe, tie together with position rank.

Posted by swatts96 on 3/30/2022 10:22:00 AM (view original):
Thanks! I’m really interested why you left! I can’t promise not to screw it up but I can promise to do my best lol. Did you have a specific reason for leaving a contender?

Here's why:

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=525186&page=1

Thanks I appreciate all the advice. I’m trying to make sure I don’t waste scouting resources on someone who is probably going to be scooped up by a d1 or d2 team, even just as an afterthought. I wasn’t evaluating players based on their rankings, but instead trying to guard against needlessly investing in players who I have no chance of landing.

very cool tecwrg. Thanks for leaving novice owners quality teams. I can’t promise not to screw this up lol, I can only promise to be better than a replacement-level SIM squad. Let me know if I can message you with some basic questions later!

Yeah, you can send me a sitemail anytime, I'll be glad to answer.

One thing with DIII recruiting is to make sure you target plenty of backup options. You are going to have players stolen by DI's and DII's quite frequently. Make sure you have viable options lined up when this happens.

Posted by strikeout26 on 3/30/2022 6:37:00 PM (view original):
One thing with DIII recruiting is to make sure you target plenty of backup options. You are going to have players stolen by DI's and DII's quite frequently. Make sure you have viable options lined up when this happens.

Absolutely. No matter how many recruits you're primarily focused on, you're always spending all your AP's on other options until recruiting ends.

Also . . . D3 coaches should NEVER (in my opinion) spend money on home or campus visits in recruiting session 1. You can get away with that to beat off D1 SIM coaches early on, but if a D1 human coach takes in interest in one of the guys you're targeting, he's almost always going to win and you just lost all that money you spent. Hold off on home/campus visits until recruiting session 2.

Posted by strikeout26 on 3/30/2022 6:37:00 PM (view original):
One thing with DIII recruiting is to make sure you target plenty of backup options. You are going to have players stolen by DI's and DII's quite frequently. Make sure you have viable options lined up when this happens.

This is pretty accurate. In DIII in RS1 I find as soon as I unlock a kids scollarship I move on to another kid just to make sure I have as many of my backups unlocked as possible.

In D3 I've had a ton of success only scouting DII players where as others in my conference has faltered trying to scout DI guys. There is just too many human coaches in DI right now to make it happen. I still occasionally get a ranked guy but for the most part, expectations have to be tempered.

I feel like someone needs to say that when recruiting D3, you shouldn't just ignore D2 projected recruits while only chasing D1 projected.