I'm looking for an idea of how many states most DIII coaches recruit, and what kind of states.

For example. Would you scout 2 or 3 big states, or stay at 3 small states or a mix, etc. Lets assume for reference point, you have anywhere from 3-4 open scholarships.

I ask this, because obviously we have a limited budget at DIII and am trying to figure out if the risk outweighs the reward of scouting more states.

Depending on my budget for that season, I will usually scout around 3-4 states that are within 360 miles of my school. I aim for having a pool of about 100 D3 players and maybe around 50 D2 players to peruse. But, if I can't find sufficient talent, I will scout additional states...perhaps 10 or more. 

Depends a lot on where the school is and how many spots I need to fill.  Personally I don't like to scout the big states unless I'm getting the 20% discount, so a lot of times I'll add a few tiny states just to get to the 20%.  AK, HI, and the Dakotas are good for that.

I really haven't tracked it but I probably spend 3-4k most of the time on FSS.  Obviously you'd need to do less with a 1 scholarship class, but I try to avoid having those.

I think the most important thing is not really number.  I've scouted as few as one when I had just one open spot and my school was in PA.  I've also scouted over 25 on multiple (at least three) occasions and I am pretty sure I've gone over 30.

What's important is that you are scouting the state for a reason.  When I went over 30 it was because I missed out on the first 3 days of recruiting and ended up scouting one more state, then one more state, then more state until I could find a player I was satisfied with.  It wasn't just because I wanted to scout lots of states.

Ask yourself (1) does geography suggest this is a good idea, (2) is this a state that is likely to provide good D3 talent, including D2 dropdowns (also known as the don't ever scout Wyoming rule), (3) if you find a good target, what type of competition are you going to have for the player and what chances to you have at winning.

I have a list of preferred states I like to scout but depending on human populations I adjust the list because even if I get good answers to questions #1 and #2, the answer to #3 tends to be the most important one.  Sometimes based on the human population I keep the number pretty close to 8 to get the 20% discount.  When some of my rival coaches have departed or jumped a level higher, I'll expand the list to take advantage of "new" territory.

Are you looking to get dropdowns or pulldowns?  It makes a difference.  Dropdowns often won't drop until after signings, especially for a team with your prestige.  You can save a good amount of cash if you wait until after signings for the dropdowns.  When I'm on the high end of scouting total number of states, typically around half were paid for after signings.

For cash, I suppose I'm lucky that I'm in a conference that regularly earns at least a full extra scholarship of tournament earnings but at the same time I often have a lot of carryover which means I don't need to spend it all.  I don't bat an eye at the first $3k I spend in FSS because that's free money, but even if I was in a lesser conference I think you should be budgeting $2-3k for FSS.  (That also means I think you should never be recruiting with just 1 open spot.)  To be clear, most of the states I scout are pretty cheap.  And after scouting the initial batch, I add additional states one at a time and I'm only doing so because I've run out of potential targets for the states I have scouted.  I don't have a number for the most I've ever spent in FSS but I would say in most seasons I end up in the $2500 - $4500 range.  That typically leaves me with $10k or so for recruiting efforts.  I typically don't spend it all.

So with that in mind, I suppose I'd say don't go outside your comfort zone until you feel you need to because you have no more good targets.  I'd personally be a bit more aggressive; I typically feel the being prepared for battle is a bit overrated since it rarely happens.  And even on the few occasions where it has, I typically have won them because even though the number states adds up, I don't feel like I've overextending myself.  If you feel otherwise, I wouldn't scout the extra state or two.

I'm looking at dropdowns. I've never been all that successful at getting pulldowns and at the DIII level just don't like to waste that much on a guy I may lose anyways when another player who is not that far will usually drop down later.

On the cash side, I am not as lucky as I'm in an empty conference, but there are many higher prestige opponents in nearby locations from other conferences which is why I'm trying to have a plan going into this recruiting cycle as I lost a couple close battles last season. The one nice thing about my area is the only DII schools nearby in certain areas are highly successful ones and are generally going after DI dropdowns/ pulldowns themselves hence another reason I'm considering scouting the extra state.

The thought to budget $2-3k for FSS though does answer my question quite a bit though as normally I only put about $1200 between 2 states, and adding this extra state would fit into that budget. One question though, I'll assume the numbers you offered up in your case would be with 4 scholarships. If you were down to 3 scholarships would you reduce the number of states scouted or budget spent on scouting, or keep it about the same? I guess basically do you adjust your budget for scouting based on how many scholarships you have?

My previous experience in DIII was always west coast, which usually involved me scouting just cali, or 2 smaller states for my DIII team, but the team I'm on is fairly new territory for me.

You could just wait and scout the day after singings.

True dahs, I just like to know whats available early. It might just be impatience too lol. The period between tournament time and recruiting feels too long sometimes and I'm ready to get into things.

The reality is that with C+ prestige most of the guys you want - not all, but most - aren't going to drop until after signings anyway.  Of course, you might lose out on the chance to snap up a cheap D2 recruit who gets missed by the other coaches and would be less likely to be recruited later in the process if he was already considering someone.

poncho - I shouldn't have thrown all the numbers at you that I did.  I should have stuck to principles instead of numbers.  I'm in a conference where an extra $5,000 is assumed and is sometimes more.  I was offering my normal routine for 3 openings.  I mentioned the $10k I have for recruiting simply because it is still a very significant amount and obviously I have enough to battle if needed.  I probably shouldn't have mentioned the figure; the point was simply to say that after spending approximately 1 scholarship on FSS, there is still plenty enough for recruiting.

Even if I wasn't in such a good conference, if I had the bare minimum of $9k for 3 open spots, doing what I do would almost always mean $5k for recruiting and typically more.  That's plenty, especially since you are focusing in on recruits that are close to you..  Maybe the $5k - 7k isn't enough if you get into a battle but depending on the geography, that's probably still enough to win if you have a real distance advantage.

To answer the question you asked, if I have 4 open spots or 3 makes very little difference on how I scout.  On average, I would scout more with 4 simply because I have an extra need to address and I'm more likely to need to an extra states to find the right player.  Conceding my conference gives me extra money, I'll say that a $9k vs. $12k doesn't change much for me.  A $6k vs. $9k doesn't change much either.  Maybe at $6k I'm thinking twice about scouting a state that has some recruits within 360 and others outside 360, but it doesn't change all that much in general.  Just scaled down a little.  (Emphasis on little.)  $3k does change things a lot.  And I do whatever I can to avoid that scenario.

Bottom line for me is that it is much better to scout too many states to find the right player and be unable to sign him (taking a walkon) than it is to not find the right player and sign a less-than-desirable recruit that you have a roll player for 4 seasons.

Thanks again for the responses guys. I've played the game for awhile, so I have certain plans I like to use, but I also like to get some outside feedback once in awhile, and consider if I need to make adjustments. The feedback given will definitely be considered as I move into this recruiting cycle.

I'm still pretty new, but it really depends on where you are. I have one school in Washington, and I scouted Washington, Oregon, and Idaho immediately, and then waited until after signings to see whether I needed to scout anybody else. I think I ended up scouting Montana and Kansas also, based on available players that weren't being fought for. 

With another team in Tennessee, states that are within 360 miles include Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia. It's kinda hard to just scout all of those at the beginning. So I look for players that look interesting, and then scout their states. If everybody in Kentucky is under 10 DEF and under 10 ATH, no reason to scout it. 

I search all states within 400 miles for players that meet certain minimums in certain stats. Then I tally how many of these players (within 360 miles) are in each state and derive the cost per recruit based upon the total FSS cost of the state. Then I usually buy enough states to get to look at a few dozen kids potentials. Usually I wind up with a phone call pool of about 10-20 when all is said and done. Of course, what happens next is another story...