If one of the guys I’m going after has a late signing preference and someone is very high for him. When will he sign? Currently we are about start signings in period 1

He won’t sign until the second session (RS2), which starts after the season. It could be first cycle of RS2, it could be the sixth (almost always by the 6th cycle). So if you’re only recruiting one division up (D2 pool player as a D3), and the other team is a sim, you should be able to win, if no higher division humans jump in.

But if its a D1 pool player, or if you’re up against a higher level human (D2 pool player, against a D2 human), you may be in trouble. You’ll have to put in enough to knock them down to very low as soon as possible, or it will be tough to keep them at or below moderate through your red lighted period.

To answer the "title" of this thread..... signing preference is THE most important preference there is. At least from a strategic stand point. Because you need to understand how to approach the pursuit of your targets. At D3, I guess it's safe to say that it matters a little less than D1 or D2 (because you can only sign players on the last day).

But it is still important. At D3 if you're holding off an opposing coach on a Late signer, you COULD have to hold off that coach until the very last cycle of RS2. But if you're holding off an opposing coach on an Early or EoP1 signer, you can load up the effort on the player for the very first cycle that you become able to sign the D1 recruit. Because he will sign as soon as one school gets to high or very high 100% of the time. With a Late or Whenever signer, that's not 100%.

There's many scenarios that come about, that you have to handle in a different manner, based off of the signing preference. I would say that it's most important, and most strategic at D2.

Posted by topdogggbm on 12/12/2018 8:02:00 PM (view original):
To answer the "title" of this thread..... signing preference is THE most important preference there is. At least from a strategic stand point. Because you need to understand how to approach the pursuit of your targets. At D3, I guess it's safe to say that it matters a little less than D1 or D2 (because you can only sign players on the last day).

But it is still important. At D3 if you're holding off an opposing coach on a Late signer, you COULD have to hold off that coach until the very last cycle of RS2. But if you're holding off an opposing coach on an Early or EoP1 signer, you can load up the effort on the player for the very first cycle that you become able to sign the D1 recruit. Because he will sign as soon as one school gets to high or very high 100% of the time. With a Late or Whenever signer, that's not 100%.

There's many scenarios that come about, that you have to handle in a different manner, based off of the signing preference. I would say that it's most important, and most strategic at D2.

Couple things here: D3 teams are able to sign players before the last day. D2 recruits can sign to a D3 team at the first cycle of RS2, and there are no red lights for those who recruit in the D3 pool.


I am curious about your very last sentence as well, how is signing preferences more important at D2 than any other division?

Posted by zagsrulez on 12/13/2018 7:30:00 AM (view original):

Posted by topdogggbm on 12/12/2018 8:02:00 PM (view original):
To answer the "title" of this thread..... signing preference is THE most important preference there is. At least from a strategic stand point. Because you need to understand how to approach the pursuit of your targets. At D3, I guess it's safe to say that it matters a little less than D1 or D2 (because you can only sign players on the last day).

But it is still important. At D3 if you're holding off an opposing coach on a Late signer, you COULD have to hold off that coach until the very last cycle of RS2. But if you're holding off an opposing coach on an Early or EoP1 signer, you can load up the effort on the player for the very first cycle that you become able to sign the D1 recruit. Because he will sign as soon as one school gets to high or very high 100% of the time. With a Late or Whenever signer, that's not 100%.

There's many scenarios that come about, that you have to handle in a different manner, based off of the signing preference. I would say that it's most important, and most strategic at D2.

Couple things here: D3 teams are able to sign players before the last day. D2 recruits can sign to a D3 team at the first cycle of RS2, and there are no red lights for those who recruit in the D3 pool.


I am curious about your very last sentence as well, how is signing preferences more important at D2 than any other division?

Correct on your first part. I was strictly speaking in terms of D3 coaches recruiting D1 players. I should've been more clear on that. Good catch.

As far as signing preference being more important at D2, let me start again by saying that i'm referring to the recruitment of D1 pool players.

with that being said, D1 coaches have no caps. They can sign players whenever they are willing to sign. They also hold all the muscle. For the most part, if D1 wants, D1 gets. D3 schools can only sign D1 recruits on the last day. So there's only 4 cycles they even have a chance to sign D1 talent. All D3 signings of D1 players are "late" in the recruiting timeline. So it's really hard for D3 schools to hold off higher division schools for Early or EoP1 players. So I would "assume" D3 schools will more often sign "late" recruits. Am I correct there? That just seems to make sense to me as far as the numbers would show.

D2 has more options as far as signing preference strategy in my opinion (for D1 recruits). If you target Early or EoP1 players, the goal is to hold off D1s thru RS1. And if you're successful, you sign your player that very first cycle RS2 begins. On the other side of that, if your aiming to steal a D3s Early or EoP1 guys, you again have a set deadline in the race to signing range. And that deadline is the end of day 2 of RS2, which is before D3s can sign the player.

it's strategies like that, that make me feel like D2 recruiting has more value and focus on signing preferences. At least for me, that's the way I go about choosing which players I target. To make it short, D1 schools go after whoever that want and whenever they want. D3 schools have to wait to see who gets left behind. But D2 is trying to race the clock in both directions, holding off D1s & quickly stealing D3s. And that clock that D2 is racing against often times isn't a clock at all. It's the signing preference time

"it's strategies like that, that make me feel like D2 recruiting has more value and focus on signing preferences."

I agree, you havent presented a good strategy for recruiting at D3. Which might make D2 might seem more compelling, I dont enjoy recruiting at D3 or D2 so I have recently dropped teams in those divisions. But there are good D3 strategies utilizing both the D1 & D2 pools and I know of some coaches who take advantage of the D3 pool as well. When anyone is recruiting a player in a high division, "Late" signing preferences are preferred. For D3, recruiting in the D1 pool is incredibly risky as desperate D1 humans are known to snatch up low quality players during RS2 to fill rosters. It's an incredibly boring emotional waiting game, having to check in after every cycle ONLY to see if any D1/D2 humans have taken late interest in any players that the D3 coach has been pumping AP into since RS1 first cycle.

Dipping into the D2 pool is more efficient money wise for Assistant Searches and less risky as there will be less higher level human competition on the D2 player. In my opinion, disregarding the D2 pool completely from a recruiting strategy as a D3 coach can be very risky.

Zags i'm not disagreeing or arguing any of your points (except for one, I'll get to that in a min). In your latest response, you said that I didn't give any good strategy for D3 recruiting. And you're right I didn't. But that's not what my response was about. I was just answering your first question of why I feel that signing preference plays the biggest role in D2, of the 3 divisions. I'm not bashing or boasting any of the divisions. They all have good qualities.

now, the one thing i disagree with was where you said the lower divisions (plural, meaning D2 and D3) target late recruits more often. I only coach D2, and I avoid Late signing preference like the plague. I haven't signed a late player in over a real life year. That's because my personal strategy is to shorten recruiting.

as I mentioned before, I only target Early and EoP1 players. With the goal of getting ahead, and holding off D1s for all of RS1. Once that's accomplished, RS2 begins, I sign all my recruits on the first cycle, and bam.... i'm done. No scrambling at the last minute. And it also leaves less time for others to jump on my players.

Do I miss out on some great players by not looking at late signers? Of course!!! But I end up with great players every single season. And from the start of RS2 it's EXTREMELY rare that I lose any players to last minute attacks from desperate coaches. My methods aren't wrong or right. And yours aren't wrong or right. They're just different. Part of the beauty of the game

edit.... I wasnt commenting on anything D3 related at all. Because i don't play it enough to give advice. But I'd agree with you that looking at the D2 pool is important at D3

How are you able to hold off D1s when fighting for Early or EoP1 signers? It took me two cycles to sign an EoP1 recruit that was being targeted by a D2 coach since the start of RS1. D2 was stuck at Moderate and I jumped from VL to VH just by offering a scholly.

Thats why I have always preferred Late signers when I played D2 & D3. I don’t think it’s possible to hold off a D1 human when you’d be red lighted.

Posted by zagsrulez on 12/15/2018 11:27:00 AM (view original):
How are you able to hold off D1s when fighting for Early or EoP1 signers? It took me two cycles to sign an EoP1 recruit that was being targeted by a D2 coach since the start of RS1. D2 was stuck at Moderate and I jumped from VL to VH just by offering a scholly.

Thats why I have always preferred Late signers when I played D2 & D3. I don’t think it’s possible to hold off a D1 human when you’d be red lighted.

Well it mainly works by getting a lead on players that are Early or EoP1 and just lucking out that no D1s come for your player at all. "Holding them off" mainly means finding targets that D1s won't come after, but are good enough to be great at D2.

There are situations where holding off a D1 is possible. My Post team that you and I have discussed in Smith..... my big (now) senior class is a good example. All those players were Early or EoP1. Thru 5 days of recruiting, no one came for them. And that surprised the heck out of me. But on Day 6 the last day of RS1, I had one coach come for 3 of the players.

The worst of the 3, I decided I had to let him go, meaning I wasn't going to fight for him. Luckily neither did the D1. I signed him (Watson).

Bohan was my favorite target. I was basically all in on him already. I went completely all in on him and the D1 was low with an offer when RS1 ended. When RS2 began, the D1 only got to moderate and wasn't in signing range.

Carter was the lucky signing. At the end of RS1 I was almost all in on him and the D1 and I both ended at moderate. When RS2 began, I won a high to very high dice roll in which I was losing like 60/40.

Now, had that D1 had lots more cash, sure he easily could've taken all of them. But if D2 is all in and A+ prestige, it does take a little bit more than just a scholarship offer for a D1 to steal. Especially when I had 800+AP. (I can't remember exacts for all players. It was like 6 months ago). But if no D1s jump on until the last day of RS1, the D2s often have a shot. Often times that D1 may not have much to offer at that point. Because if they are showing interest in a player on the last day of RS1, it's possible they lost a bunch of battles for better players that they invested in. And now are scrambling for backups.

But the main thing in this whole equation, is just getting by without D1s coming at all. My opinion on late guys at D2, is it's all the exact same situation as described above. The only difference is, there's MORE time for D1s to come in and steal your guy. My guys sign when RS2 begins. Late guys wait even longer.

I should've added this zags.... as a D3 coach, you stated that it's important to select from the D2 pool also. Well part of that reason is because there's good players there. And part of that reason is that you can sign them quicker, and you don't have to wait till the last day to sign them.

Well I think that scenario is similar to what i'm saying. I can get EoP1 and Early guys signed quicker. And that leaves less opportunity for higher divisions to jump into the picture. It also eliminates the threat of the coaches that moved up to D1 that season. They can't steal a D2 coaches target if the player is EoP1 or Early. If it's a late signer, new D1 coaches can go after that player with a lot of effort.