I thought I remembered reading a while back that conference prestige for certain conferences could only get so high. For example I am coaching at Coastal Carolina out of the Big South conference. My team's prestige is determined by my success and as well as my conference's success right? I am right that us in the Big South can only get so high as a conference in prestige or is there no cap?

i never really understood conference prestige and everything people said about it. my impression is that conference prestige is just the average of the member schools. i think baseline prestige is what holds schools in small conferences down, not conference prestige. im not sure if it used to be different or what, but as of today i don't think conference prestige matters for anything. i could easily be wrong though i have heard a lot of stuff about conf prestige that never made sense to me.

the baseline prestige is what I was referring to. Is there really a cap on the baseline prestige in regards to certain conferences?

In theory, no. But each school has a baseline with the low conferences having lower bases making it more difficult for the conference as a whole to rise in prestige. As I understand the baseline, the school is constantly fighting towards that baseline, the further from it, the harder it is to maintain. Thus even successful low majors have to work twice as hard to maintain something a BCS member can baseline with no work. Put a sim or two in the mix and you can see how difficult it is for a low conference to get anywhere. This becomes a double-whammy since conference prestige does affect school prestige increases; the rich get richer and the poor poorer.

So, what is conference prestige useful for? Is it just something to look at on the Rankings and Scheduling pages and when picking a team? Or is there recruiting value?

I tend to think it is used to keep the conference hierarchy intact and in balance with RL. No recruiting value.

Quote: Originally posted by panapanthers on 5/06/2010the baseline prestige is what I was referring to. Is there really a cap on the baseline prestige in regards to certain conferences?

it doesnt really work like that. baseline prestige is on a per-team basis, so for example, the starting prestige of the SEC might be a B but kentucky's baseline is an A+.

baseline prestige is something that does not change, and schools' prestige gravitates towards the baseline. the rule of thumb is its really hard to go 2 letter grades off baseline, but 1 is probably relatively easy.

in the big 6 conferences, prestige ranges from a b- to an a+, baseline. in the a10, i think its b-s. i forget what most of the other conferences are, but its not good, i think its a lot of D+s and stuff. so that is why its really hard for a little conf to get their prestige up high, because each member school's baseline is crappy.

Yeah after the big 6 its the A10 at mostly B-'s

Then the MVC, Mountain West, Horizon and CUSA are at Cs mostly and the rest are Ds.

how do you find out a team's baseline prestige? also, over time can you get your baseline prestige up? if not, you should be able to.

It's in one of the stickies and no, you baseline is always the same. You can get your prestige up, but the baseline is still the same.