Check out the NT Final Four teams in D3 Tark:

1)Colorado: B prestige, # 58 RPI last season, lost in the first round of the NT last season.

2)Franklin and Marshall: B+ prestige, #64 RPI last season, lost in the 2nd round of the PI last season.

3)Lewis and Clark: C+ prestige, #142 RPI last season, no postseason appearance last season, first year coach. Got the #1 seed in that region.

4)Manchester: B+ prestige, #42 RPI last season, lost in the PI Final Four last season.

None of those coaches have been at those programs for more than four seasons.

I knew that the new engine might reshuffle the deck a bit, but this just looks crazy to me. Only one of these teams even made the tourney last year.

Check out the PIT final four. All high seeds. I don't mind because my Pugent Sound Loggers are one of them.

I don't think it's an engine thing in D3, it's just not very hard to turn a program around quickly. I took over a C- prestige team in Wooden that was terrible for a while before I took over and in my 2nd season with only 6 of my recruits on the team I went from 5 wins my 1st season to 17 my 2nd. By the time my 1st recruiting class are in their senior season it wouldn't surprise me to make the Final 4.

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I don't know, guys. I just moved back from DI to DIII in many worlds around 3-4 seasons ago because DI was beginning to wear on me.

I took Colorado College because it has such a great pocket prestige (no other DIII school within 500 miles and tons of DII dropdowns from the Rocky Mountain Conference in my back yard.) However, I thought it might take me two full recruiting classes (7-8 seasons) to really contend for a Championship.

I am a little suprised by the Final Four run but if you look at my roster, I've got a pretty balanced play with some good talent running a combo defense...so who knows if it is the new engine or not.

Thanks, tkinble, I appreciate your compliment.

It seems that defense has become significantly more important than it was under the old engine. A lot of the consistently dominant teams recruited players primarily for speed and athleticism, rebounding for big men and BH/P for guards, and after that other offensive ratings. Defense was often secondary at best. Press teams with a lot of speed and athleticism could get away without it. Now that defense is more important it has shifted the balance of power to teams that had existing rosters or recruited players with solid defensive ratings. In many cases these were not the traditional powerhouses, thus temporarily shifting the balance of power. I'm sure the great owners will figure it out quickly enough and will be dominating again in 2 or 3 seasons once they've recruited a new set of players with the necessary defense for the new engine.

On the other hand, rebounding does seem a lot more random under the new engine. That could make consistent dominance more difficult.

Yeah i'm horrible. I only have 4 teams across 4 worlds in the top 15 RPI and no seniors on the Tark team in the Final 4. I've also been there for 7 seasons. I'm actually surprised it took me this long.

Quote: Originally posted by dahsdebater on 6/15/2010It seems that defense has become significantly more important than it was under the old engine.  A lot of the consistently dominant teams recruited players primarily for speed and athleticism, rebounding for big men and BH/P for guards, and after that other offensive ratings.  Defense was often secondary at best.  Press teams with a lot of speed and athleticism could get away without it.  Now that defense is more important it has shifted the balance of power to teams that had existing rosters or recruited players with solid defensive ratings.  In many cases these were not the traditional powerhouses, thus temporarily shifting the balance of power.  I'm sure the great owners will figure it out quickly enough and will be dominating again in 2 or 3 seasons once they've recruited a new set of players with the necessary defense for the new engine.

I still don't know that the defense part is true. I played around with ignoring defense for my D3 fcp team and they got absolutely smoked, so I went back to making sure they all had at least 20's (and with high prestige, that's not a bad starting pt). Looks to me that ability to run for a long time is head and shoulders more important than speed or iq or defense under the new engine.