On the first recruiting cycle, do you usually recruit a player hard or start of soft? Like should I do 1 scouting trip if I really want a player or multiple scouting trips? Thanks.

There's no simple answer to this question, unfortunately. Many different people have been successful with different strategies. I tend to jump on players immediately, but it's a bit of a calculated gamble and doesn't always work out for me.

I'm not sure why you bring up scouting trips and not phone calls/home visits/campus visits. Scouting trips are good evaluative tools, and help with pulldowns....but you might want to look more toward one initial phone call/home and campus visits. 

 One of the coaches posted a great recruiting guide, I'm not sure where it's linked from....maybe somebody can help with this.

HD Pulldown Advice.doc - Google Docs

here's some advice on pull downs that might help.

That's a great article, I've been struggling with trying to get pulldowns and I think after reading that I'm a lot more knowledgeable on what I need to do

It's variant, but from my experience at all 3 divisions, in D-II and D-III you want to be on everyone you want in the first few cycles and agressively trying to pull people down that are within 500 miles.

In D-1, you should be a bit more patient and split it 50/50.

it all depends - but if one is playing your first or second season, my advice would be to go slow and watch for who is really available to you

once you have experience, you'll see lots of different styles for the first few cycles

Posted by grantduck on 8/13/2011 8:17:00 PM (view original):
It's variant, but from my experience at all 3 divisions, in D-II and D-III you want to be on everyone you want in the first few cycles and agressively trying to pull people down that are within 500 miles.

In D-1, you should be a bit more patient and split it 50/50.

I did a cost analysis of recruits according to their distance from campus, and the breaking point of 360 miles is true regardless of Division.

At 350 miles,  a home visit will cost $444, a scouting trip is $294 and a Campus Visit is $1043 (give or take a dollar).
At 360 miles, the rates spike to $747 for a home visit, $530 for a scouting trip and $1263 for a Campus visit.

In terms of pulldowns, it's advisable to stick with the rule of thumb of 350 miles or lower.  But that doesn't stop anyone from adding players at any distance to their scouting list, making one phone call and hoping for a drop down.  Once the player drops it's much cheaper to recruit them provided other schools aren't also after them.

The major disadvantage vs Sim teams is that they recruit everyone as if they were nearby (I forget the actual distance but it's sick), regardless of actual distance.

there is another demarcation line around 170 miles as well - not as pronounced.

Posted by ethan66 on 8/14/2011 7:42:00 PM (view original):

Posted by grantduck on 8/13/2011 8:17:00 PM (view original):
It's variant, but from my experience at all 3 divisions, in D-II and D-III you want to be on everyone you want in the first few cycles and agressively trying to pull people down that are within 500 miles.

In D-1, you should be a bit more patient and split it 50/50.

I did a cost analysis of recruits according to their distance from campus, and the breaking point of 360 miles is true regardless of Division.

At 350 miles,  a home visit will cost $444, a scouting trip is $294 and a Campus Visit is $1043 (give or take a dollar).
At 360 miles, the rates spike to $747 for a home visit, $530 for a scouting trip and $1263 for a Campus visit.

In terms of pulldowns, it's advisable to stick with the rule of thumb of 350 miles or lower.  But that doesn't stop anyone from adding players at any distance to their scouting list, making one phone call and hoping for a drop down.  Once the player drops it's much cheaper to recruit them provided other schools aren't also after them.

The major disadvantage vs Sim teams is that they recruit everyone as if they were nearby (I forget the actual distance but it's sick), regardless of actual distance.

Noted, thanks.