I am looking for some recommendations/rules of thumb on the questions below. I am in DI with a C+ school that will likely bump to B- prior to recruiting in the ACC. Keep that in mind but if possible answer for other prestige levels too. Thanks.

What prestige grade is needed to recruit 5*, 4*, 3*, 2* & 1* players on the first cycle and not be a backup plan if nobody else recruits the player? Does this change if a higher prestige school recruits the player on the first cycle too?

What is the minimum amount of money to be considered by a recruit on the first cycle? Do stars change this? If so, by how much? Does prestige change this? If so, by how much?

What is the minimum amount of money to get the preferable "word on the street" messages? Does this change with prestige? If so by how much? Does this change with stars? If so by how much?

With B-, pretty much every player will talk to you. 5 star will give you backup, while my experience, you can recruit most 4 stars straight up. This by no means that you can sign the good 4 stars.

A recruit can consider you with as little as a CV, and sometimes even a promised start, but this won't be enough to sign them.

What do you mean by preferable word on the street? Do you want something like "very solid?" This takes around 10-12 CV for B-.

Thanks tianyi7886. Thanks for answering in terms of CV since there is the distance factor too. I did mean something like "very solid." Even though a recruit can consider you with as little as a CV, is this enough in the first few recruiting cycles or just at the end? Does the star level or school prestige make a difference? Thanks again.  

I didn't realize this until recently, but it appears that "word on the street" messages are based on the caliber of the player too.  I have a player ranked #195 at his position, and I'm listed as "very tight" with him despite minimal effort.  I have another player who is #44 at his position, who I've put about the same effort into, and he's "open to other offers".  Finally, I have a player who's #34 at his position and I've put about 3X as much effort into him as the other two and I'm listed as"the favorite - for now".  The only thing I can think of is that it takes more to get tight with a player the better they are.  I don't know if prestige matters in this or not, but I'm at B-.

kucewicz - I have noticed that before and definitely believe it is the case.  Depending on prestige, you may be able to get "very solid" with an unranked recruit with only a couple of CV's.  On the other hand, for a 4-5 star it may take 10+ CV's.

I am not sure on this Kucewicz, but perhaps some other schools have also made some recruiting effort and this is why it takes longer to be very tight. I may be wrong though.

Posted by kucewicz on 2/11/2012 6:45:00 PM (view original):
I didn't realize this until recently, but it appears that "word on the street" messages are based on the caliber of the player too.  I have a player ranked #195 at his position, and I'm listed as "very tight" with him despite minimal effort.  I have another player who is #44 at his position, who I've put about the same effort into, and he's "open to other offers".  Finally, I have a player who's #34 at his position and I've put about 3X as much effort into him as the other two and I'm listed as"the favorite - for now".  The only thing I can think of is that it takes more to get tight with a player the better they are.  I don't know if prestige matters in this or not, but I'm at B-.

I believe this to be true.  i had a 4-star considering me this past recruiting class at Vanderbilt  B- prestige and it took more effort to have a "solid" commitment than it does at a similiar distance for my former A+ school in another world.  I never encountered this before so i do now believe that a team prestige plays into how much effort you have to make to get the Word on the Street to give you the "solid" message. 

Anyone else have any thoughts.  I thought i was playing this game to long to learn something new.

The better prestige you are, the easier it is to a get a player to be tight.  Also, the higher rank a player is, the harder it is to be tight.  The #1 player is much tougher to be tight with than the #200 player.  There is actually a pretty significant difference.

thx braun.  good to know this info.

think about it this way:

recruiting is based on points, not $ (so that a CV gives the same points regardless of its cost). 
prestige is a points multiplier. 
points determine your "solid" rating with the player. 

hence, prestige increases the value of your effort towards the player, and how likely he is to be "solid".

Now do the better players require more points to be "solid"?