I'm curious how some of the vets here make the decision when to go ahead and battle for a recruit and when to give up.  2 of the players I am recruiting right now for 4 schollies are considering my school and 1 other.  1 of those was considering me almost a full day before he started considering the other school, but my team prestige is C- and his is B+.  I guess I'm just not real sure when I should battle for a guy and when I shouldn't.

How do some of the vets here make the decision when to battle and when to move on?

Posted by pjbrankin on 12/18/2010 9:46:00 PM (view original):
I dont have any experience battling, but you definitely need to look at location. Also, how many scholarships do you have open vs how many the other guy has open? That will give you an idea of how much money each of you have at your disposal.

I've looked at all of that.  He has 5 open and I have 4.  I know I don't have a whole lot let.  He has 5 players considering him for his 5 schollies, and I have 4 for my 4 schollies, so we have both clearly spent a lot of money already.  On top of that, he is in my conference (in my own division), so I know how much postseason money he got too.

Have you looked at his other recruits to see if he is involved in any other battles?

I've got one other guy that started considering me in the same cycle that he started considering another school.  I have not spent any more money on that one and probably won't, but don't know for sure yet.  He has no other battles.

Here's the basic math mduncanhogs...because the mileage is very similar between you and Delta St. (180 vs. 140) the race comes down to dollars and cents. With his prestige at B+ and yours at C- you will have to spend about $2,150 for every $1,000 he spends. That's based on 23% for every step in prestige and your difference is five steps. (C- to C to C+ to B- to B to B+). If you think you can spend that amount given what you know about his recruiting and the other battles he might have been in then fight. If not, look for another recruit.

I dont think pretige is that big of difference in d2.  In d1 its about 1 x the effort for every full letter grade of prestige.  In d2 I dont think its that much but im open to opinions on this.  Thats just from my experience

prestige in d2/d3 is not even close to as big a difference as it is in d1. a c- to a b+ is a small factor - not negligible, but small enough that in most cases, if you showed the outcome of a battle and asked which was the c- and which was the b+, we could only guess right maybe 2/3rds of the time (slightly better than the half you get guessing)

I'll echo the things people have mentioned here, but throw in on more piece of advice: I'd also do some research on what other recruits are out there before deciding.  Depending on how far you are into recruiting, do a nationwide search on recruits... is there someone available (that is, listed as "undecided") who is basically the same type of player as the one you might have to battle for?  It might be cheaper to jump on a far-away player that no one else is on than it is to battle, even assuming that you can win.  This is especially true if you can afford to offer the guy some playing time, as sometimes you can land a player with just an eval and a promise of ten minutes if it is late enough in recruiting.  If you're planning to play the guy 8-10 minutes anyway, then no harm done to make the promise.

My thoughts exactly, davis. I'd say that probably about 90% of the time in DII/DIII it's simply not worth battling. There's simply too many recruits that are similar.

Also, I wouldnt assume that just since he has 5 people considering him, he has spent a lot of money.  If 4 of those 5 are considering just him, it is very possible he spent very little on those recruits, and has all of the remaining money left to battle you.

for me it's a combo of prestigue, location, and money.

if the prestigue is close, the distance is equal, and i think i have more money to spend, i go for it.

but if going after 1 guy will put the rest of the class in question i let him go

gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away....

two main parts to battling:

1. math. you need to know how much money your opponent probably has, and how much money you'd need to spend if he spent X% of it on the player
2. mind games. think about how much the other player wants him, how much he'll spend...and think about how your actions effect your opponent's