Jobs are currently being filled in Knight. I have spent 4 seasons at American U. My first season was rough coming into a ghost program. Only managed to win 3. My next 2 seasons I won 16 and 17 games respectfully. And in my fourth I went 26-4 with an RPI of 22 and an NT bid (first round exit unfortunately).

My reputation is an A+ and my loyalty is also an A+. When I applied for slightly higher level D1 jobs the ADs cited the need to "demonstrate an infusion of consistent winning" which makes sense as I have only just got my AU program going successfully.

My question is, what kind of a track record of success are higher level D1 schools looking for? I have no experience at higher level D1 so I really don't have a clue what they want to see.

Thanks in advance.

stay on at least one more year and make the postseason. That 3 win season will sink your ability to get another job, even though it wasn't your fault. If you have three postseason appearances in four seasons, that's certainly enough for a better job.

These things are determined by a four-season window.

Thanks colorblind. I totally wasn't taking into account to 4 year window concept. That makes perfect sense now knowing that that 3 win season is holding me down.

As a bit of a follow up question, consider if I were to win something like 20 games and make a PIT appearance. Would there be a big difference in the jobs I would be qualified for compared to if I managed to win a few more games and secure an NT bid.

I guess I'm wondering how big the difference is between NT and PIT bids when being considered for jobs.

from what I've seen, the difference is pretty significant between a PIT appearance and an NT appearance. A PIT Championship is similar in value to reaching the 2nd round of the NT.

I was able to move from Princeton to La Salle with a total of 3 NT wins in 2 years, and then from La Salle to Iowa with a NT Championship appearance. I went from Iowa to Maryland with a four-year window with an Elite 8, 2 2nd round appearances, and a PIT runner-up year.

In another world, I was able to go from SMU to a very downtrodden Michigan State team with a second round bid, then a Final Four, then a first-round bid (which I was very lucky to get).

Well, an appearance in unto itself isn't going to improve the teams you'll be eligible for. Winning, going deep, will. What an appearance WILL do is give you a leg up on other coaches vying for that same job who have had less success.

When you say "slightly higher level", what are we talking about here? With a solid post-season background, you can make a reach for a solid mid-major conference (CUSA, Ivy, maybe A10). Exceptions are there, Cyric made the jump to a C+ BCS school recently, but that was after 21 seasons at D2 and a resume that included 4 NC and 3 FF, while never missing the post-season, but the general case is good success will get you a mid-major, average succes puts you in a lower end conference.

Quote: Originally posted by doomey on 2/22/2010Well, an appearance in unto itself isn't going to improve the teams you'll be eligible for. Winning, going deep, will. What an appearance WILL do is give you a leg up on other coaches vying for that same job who have had less success.When you say "slightly higher level", what are we talking about here? With a solid post-season background, you can make a reach for a solid mid-major conference (CUSA, Ivy, maybe A10). Exceptions are there, Cyric made the jump to a C+ BCS school recently, but that was after 21 seasons at D2 and a resume that included 4 NC and 3 FF, while never missing the post-season,  but the general case is good success will get you a mid-major, average succes puts you in a lower end conference.

I'm not sure, but it sounds like you thought that I was moving up TO D1 from D2. I am actually currently coaching at the D1 level. I am at American University - Patriot League - Knight. I have taken them from a pretty awful D- team to a C prestige team in my 4 seasons.

And by slightly better, I am talking about some of the better mid-major schools such as C-USA/A10 like you mentioned, perhaps a very down BCS school, but that is a stretch.

This last job app period I was listed as a longshot to schools such as Temple, St. Joe's, Memphis, Oklahoma St. Just to give reference to about what level of jobs I am looking at.

Ah, I see. I did miss that bit. Congrats on making them viable!

That being said, the degree of success still remains much the same. They are still going to look for some wins in the post-season. If you look at the baseline prestige thread from porkpower, you'll see all of those schools are a baseline B. I'm guessing that you were a longshot because they were down and you have the longevity to see them as an option, but that baseline indicates that they likely require some wins in the postseason, maybe just one, before you will be seriously concidered. You probably could have gotten in on some of the other C-USA/A10 schools, but the one's you chose were the high end of those conferences and have higher qualification criteria.

I think you are right doomey. And yes, I did aim for the higher end teams in those conferences. I'd rather build a better resume here at American and move up to a better quality job than try and use schools as stepping stones.

I'd also note that it depends on what you think a better job is. This is something that is very subjective, and would be interested to see some other HDr perspectives.

In the fake world of HD, recruiting $ from your conference and closer location to recruiting pools should be the only things to consider if you are trying move up. Getting in to a better mid major conference, unless it's very full of humans is probably a bad idea vs. waiting around until you can land a BCS job. BCS conferences always changing so be sure to keep an eye out for the occasional Mt West in Tark that is likely better than *ducks* any job as a Big Ten also ran.

I think that there are probably 4 tiers of HD to play in.

Tier 0 - Ground Zero - Any job with a D-,D,D+ prestige
Tier 1 - Mid Major Competitor - Any C-B prestige job in a non-Big 6 conference
Tier 2 - BCS Also Ran - Any job in a BCS conference
Tier 3 - Big Dog - Any job with an A- prestige and above

Ground Zero gets last dibs on recruits and virtually no bonus recruiting bucks. This is a painful place to be where you'll be duking it out in the last 2 days of recruiting to land un-ranked to top 100 talent. You are either here because you just moved up from D2/D3, got fired or forgot to add seasons to your BCS school until it was too late. Your coaches corner likely has some guy ahole named Commissioner that seams obsessed with telling you how many job opening other worlds have.

Mid Major Competitor is where the fun begins. You are likely making the post season consistently. Your largest hurdle is getting a sub 60 RPI to guarantee your NT bid in case the new guy at ground 0 kick's your *** in Round2 of the CT. At a C or higher prestige you have classes filled with top 50 recruits, but likely can't afford top 25 types of recruits year in and year out. Your are killed in recruiting by a BCS school with 4+ openings due to their extra $10k-$30k/yr. After honing your recruiting and scheduling skills, you are likely to walk in to the NT each year and could probably beat Hawaii with your 3rd stringers in if you are getting a B or higher prestige. Your coaches corner is hit or miss depending upon how many humans you have. Just when you thought his subscription ran out, you read another post by that ahole named Commissioner that is still stalking your board.

BCS Also Ran is a fun job. You slowly build your team and have an outside shot at the NT the first time you get to a 8-8 conf record. You've made the big show and but it doesn't feel like it. Your recruiting classes are healthier than your last school since you are locking in top 50 recruits with the conf prestige and extra cash, but landing top recruits is going to take careful planning and timing. Your coaches corner is the lively soap opera you've been waiting for. By the end of your 3rd season you've probably been chastised twice at least twice because you happened to beat "that guy" and end some 12game winning streak. You strive to win your conference and become a lock for the NT every year but with inconsistent results. Your excited about your team's prospect but you might trade up in conf or move to another mid/top BCS school if it's your alma mater.

Big Dog is the king of the castle. You've hit your stride after make 4 straight sweet 16's and making 1-2 National Championship Game in that time. You've got 6+ different game plans and probably change your settings before each game with purpose. You and 2-3 other teams in conf likely compete for the same top 10 recruits. Coaches corner just is a blast when talking strategy but somehow it just isn't the same. You can't believe nobody supports your arguments about the game engine any more. You got hosed in that one game against the door mat school by the random number generator and your damned 850+ rated Soph. PG with 91 Def just for the draft(yeah a 91 right!). You're staying at your school until you can top Wooden's run at UCLA...or the guy at Dreamschool St FINALLY gets fired.

In my opinion it comes down to recruiting dollars. In a mid-major, you may make the NT, may even win some, but without the dollars coming in from the rest of the conference, you will have a difficult time retaining prestige. That is the only benefit over the BCS also ran, but the downside is, of course, that the also ran has a much tougher row to hoe in improving and making the NT early on and you could lose the job before that job is done.

Before I moved to Minnesota in Iba, I was at E. Tennessee St. After I made the NT with 1-and-dones in my 3rd and 4th seasons, I was starting to see some of the C-range BCS schools available to me. When I made the Sweet 16 the 5th season I was there, nearly every school vacant position was open to me to about the B-/B range.

Serb, my guess is that you'll either need to win 1 or 2 in the NT this year or make it at least 3 in a row to the NT to have more of these schools open up as something better than long shot. Good luck.

serb, at 171 wins you are on the outs with a lot of bigger schools based on win totals (barring massive postseason success).

you'll see some more things open up when you get to 200+ wins. for instance, 2 more 20-win, some postseason years at American should get you all the midmajors you want, maybe low-end BCS schools. Win a couple NT games, raise your ceiling quickly.

Thanks for the replies. This is exactly the information I was looking for. I don't have enough D1 experience to really know how I stack up against other coaches and I really was just looking for info like this to get a better feel of where I am at currently.

Thanks again.

To give you another coaches idea, as someone in the same spot, I have coached 5 seasons in d1, my first being an adjustment year. Since then, I've made the postseason the last four years (2 nt, 2 pit), and won at least 19 games each season. Last season I was qualified for 2 different bcs jobs (C range prestige), but listed as "keep looking" for another (C prestige) with a higher baseline prestige, which eventually went to a d2 coach who had just won the nt, and had no d1 exp.

Basically, wait until someone gets the rare firing or until someone with the 3 or 4 multiple ids with 3 or 4 bcs schools in the same world to give one up....

We see this in Knight right now. Someone moved up from UCSB to Cal. UCSB is a B- or so, now it's open, probably won't fill. The people who would want to take the job probably aren't qualified, and those who are qualified probably have a better job, or are holding out for Big 6. I think this is probably not the best thing... maybe some more low D1 coaches should have an easier time taking over stronger mid majors. Isn't that better than going to sim control?