I could not get this recruit to list with me. Here is the situation.

Both Coach X's and my schools are D+ prestige in DI mid-major conferences. Both conferences have C- prestige. I am 310 miles away from a Freshman recruit who is undecided. Coach X is 930 miles away.  I have 2 open spots. He has 5. At the 6pm recruiting cycle, I sent the recruit a phone call, a coach call, a letter, 5 Scouting trips, 5 Home Visits, a Campus Visit, and the scholie. At 8pm the player is considering Coach X's school only. The player rejected my Home and Campus Visits but took the scholie. The feedback says I am a backup. Also, Coach X now has 9 players considering him.

So to make a long story short, I ended up sending a total of 40 Scouting Trips and could not get the player to consider me. He ended up signing with Coach X's school. FWIW, the player was a SG and I have 4 PG's but no SG's on my roster.  Coach X has 3 PG's and no SG's. Also, Coach X is a first year coach and his school was previously sim ai for 25 seasons.

How did Coach X get the player to consider his school and I could not? With both school and conference prestige the same, what was his advantage? If I was a backup, shouldn't he have been also? I know he had a cash advantage but he spent a bunch of it to get 9 players to consider him. Can somebody tell me how this happened? I may be overlooking something obvious but I sure don't see it.

1. there's no guarantee you both got the backup message. kids respond differently to different schools IMO.
2. do you know what the FSS said (was the kid very tight with Coach X?) Maybe he spent a ton on him. It is harder to pull down someone who is tight with another school already.
3. He could have gotten the other 8 players considering for $110 each - you never know...

1. Awww! I can't believe he wouldn't like my school. They recently installed change making machines in the bathrooms for the pay toilets and the marching band gets off of probation after next season.
2. WOTS said he was considering School X but was keeping his options open.
3. Yeah, I guess he could have but them's pretty big odds.

Is there a RNG equivalent for recruiting? I feel like I've been snakebit.

I believe there is a random factor for recruiting. Other coaches smarter than me may come in and state otherwise...I'm not sure what the official word is. 

If he was keeping options open, I'm surprised you didn't at least get on the list...

Im completely stunned that he wasn't "tight" with the recruit but you couldn't even get considering with 40 scouting trips considering you guys were the same prestige. That seems absolutely ridiculous to me.

No random factor. However, he could've been a higher D+, and thus able to recruit the kid, while he was a backup option for you. Still surprising that he wouldn't have considered you after 40 scouting trips ... I wonder if, after those scouting trips, he would've then been open to the visits and you could've done it that way. Seems a little weird for sure.

Posted by girt25 on 8/14/2012 6:49:00 AM (view original):
No random factor. However, he could've been a higher D+, and thus able to recruit the kid, while he was a backup option for you. Still surprising that he wouldn't have considered you after 40 scouting trips ... I wonder if, after those scouting trips, he would've then been open to the visits and you could've done it that way. Seems a little weird for sure.

+1. He could have been higher D+ while you were lower D+.

And if the player is tight, I'm not surprised he wont talk to you after 40 SV. I have done 48 SV on a tight local player and the player was never open to my recruiting efforts. 

Was the other school his "favorite" school?  Still seems odd that 40 scouting trips didn't get you on the list with coach X using the shotgun approach.

Posted by tianyi7886 on 8/14/2012 9:51:00 AM (view original):

Posted by girt25 on 8/14/2012 6:49:00 AM (view original):
No random factor. However, he could've been a higher D+, and thus able to recruit the kid, while he was a backup option for you. Still surprising that he wouldn't have considered you after 40 scouting trips ... I wonder if, after those scouting trips, he would've then been open to the visits and you could've done it that way. Seems a little weird for sure.

+1. He could have been higher D+ while you were lower D+.

And if the player is tight, I'm not surprised he wont talk to you after 40 SV. I have done 48 SV on a tight local player and the player was never open to my recruiting efforts. 

T, he wasn't tight, he was considering options according to Weena's 2nd post...

everyone says there's no randomness, and maybe I should call it something else - how about if instead of randomness (which everyone including CS says isn't there) we call it that bug that won't let coaches send effort to kids on their list or something related to that. That has never been fixed, but CS insists there's nothing to see there either... there's no good game reason why a kid on your level's list should refuse effort, but some do, right?

In my case, the player wasn't tight either. I was planning on jumping onto a LSU 5 star (Andy Legg) when I was B- @ Alcorn State and LSU was at B- (season 45 recruiting). I dropped 15, 20, then 13 SVs, and the player never considered me. FSS on signing day was "some attention from LSU, but he's not 100% sold" and I had quite a few sitemails between girt and OR on pulling down this guy. 

I said tight because it would take even more effort to pull down a player that is tight. 

right, something is keeping teams from getting considered by these kids. I get that being considered by another school makes it harder to pull down, but harder shouldn't mean impossible...

Posted by dacj501 on 8/14/2012 12:22:00 PM (view original):
right, something is keeping teams from getting considered by these kids. I get that being considered by another school makes it harder to pull down, but harder shouldn't mean impossible...

Is 40 SV really that much? I routinely go over 20 SV in D3 just to pulldown. D1 budget is over 5x that of D3, and we all know D1 recruiting uses different values than D3. 

maybe not...I dunno...

Thanks for the input, guys. I am guessing that it was the perfect storm of rarities. The combination of the player's personality, the difference in D+'s, the possibility the school was his favorite, and the possibility that Coach X sent a slew of ST's all came together in the time-space continuum to make this event happen. I have moved on and found other players. As the great sage Plumpy said: Adapt and Overcome.