Do I have a chance to recruit a lower Div II prospect who -

is only being pursued by one team, a div II sim
is 180 miles from me - making me a bit closer (I read that the sim is always considered 200 miles away)
I do have a prestige edge over the AI   (A- compared to C-)

just don't want to waste time and effort but I would really like to pull this guy down - any advice?

Look at the WOTS, if it says "Sim D2 is pretty tight" then it will cost a lot of money.  if it says "Sim D2 is interested but he might not be a priority" it will still be expensive but not as much as if he were tight or leaning towards.  WOTS will be pretty clear if he is strongly considering or not as they differ a little from exactly what I wrote.

Also depends on how much money you have have many spots, and are you battling other schools.  If you don't have a lot of money and are already battling for another recruit you could risk not getting either.

Is there better options or "lateral" options that aren't being considered by other schools?

If you do decide to pulldown Scouting trips are you're best bet, generally 10-15 + scholarship offer get him to consider you, maybe more since he is being considered by a D2 sim.


Maybe wait for a more experienced coach to explain to you.

(It's also really nice not being the only one asking questions all the time, pretty sure everyone was tired of my constant bombardment of questions everyday lol)

First of all, have you called him?  If not, do that first.  If he ignores you, or insults you, you have no chance.   

The above advice is sound. If the player is 'tight' with the SIM, you probably won't have enough money to win the battle. 

well when I called him I got a polite 'You'd be on my backup list."  But WOTS says
'Word on the Street' as of 4/11 2:12 pm EDT: Michigan Tech. seems to be *very* tight with him, according to our sources.

(sigh)   moving on - thanks guys

PS Onlyis - in case you haven't noticed, you ARE a coach more experienced than me.

Here's some advice I heed myself (for whatever you think it's worth):

There is never a need to battle for a player if a similar player is out there that you don't have to battle for. The ONLY reason to battle is if you believe there are no other players like that guy out there (that you can reasonably get).

Even if you think he's that unique, you have to assess a few things. How much money do you have? How many open scholarships does your SimAI opponent have? This can give you an estimate of their money, but it's JUST an estimate.

How much effort did the SimAI put into the guy? This is what others asked, and from your response, the answer here is a great deal of effort (any time you see *very* tight, that means lots of effort). 

Posted by deroches on 4/11/2015 4:27:00 PM (view original):
Do I have a chance to recruit a lower Div II prospect who -

is only being pursued by one team, a div II sim
is 180 miles from me - making me a bit closer (I read that the sim is always considered 200 miles away)
I do have a prestige edge over the AI   (A- compared to C-)

just don't want to waste time and effort but I would really like to pull this guy down - any advice?

I realize I'm late to the party and you had to move on, but just as a future FYI -- you did NOT have a prestige edge on the D2 Sim. The letter grades recycle when you go up a division, so a C- prestige for a D2 is still "more prestigious" than an A- at D3. There's been some discussion in the past whether a high A+ at a lower division overlaps with a bad D- at the division above, but other than that you're always battling up in prestige when you take on a higher division opponent. 

I have a player on my roster who was considering a C-prestige D2 school (low priority) from the start of recruiting all the way through the first day of signings and I pulled him that second night of signings with $2,600 invested. Probably could have done it for $300-$600 less too. But I also have A+ prestige. 

In a similar example, I just stole a guy from a D2 school (SIM) who was "very open to others" per FSS.  He was in South Dakota, my school is in Mississippi (Millsaps, D3, A+ prestige).  
It only took 2 CVs and 2 HV, 1 phone call to player and 1 phone call to the coach, plus scholarship offer to win him.  he even denied the promised minutes and promised start 2x… which was probably just dumb luck since I must not have been quite close enough for him to accept it after my CV and HV.

the first cycle after he dropped I did promised start, minutes and scholarship (2 pm EST).  he message wasn't all that negative, so at the 5pm cycle I did 1 CV and 1 HV and he was considering me, and I believe I had the slight edge per the scholarship message @ 8pm EST.  

the next cycle, i decided to do another CV and HV hoping to close the deal just in case someone else might jump in.  he signed that cycle (11pm).    I should add, I think the CV was probably overkill.  A HV might have been enough, but I don't like to leave guys exposed after signings as other pesky humans can get involved.  and I was lucky enough to have only one scholarship open so I have no other recruits to worry about.

the point - it's doable even very late in the game (considering credit not that important?).  the first cycle I tried significant effort (besides the initial call) was just before signings.  

it wasn't cheap since SD is 1000 miles away, but I was surprised the sim was that easy to knock off. I don't remember the prestige of the school, but since it was a sim, I am guessing C or C-.

You have to be careful with the "not a 100% sold" messages.....they can take as few as 3 HV's or as many as 20+.....I did the same thing as trail this signing period in Wooden but it cost me almost 6k,  13 ST and 10 HV's....the  I guess the big difference between me and trail and brian is I had to pull my guy down

Posted by Trentonjoe on 4/12/2015 7:16:00 PM (view original):
You have to be careful with the "not a 100% sold" messages.....they can take as few as 3 HV's or as many as 20+.....I did the same thing as trail this signing period in Wooden but it cost me almost 6k,  13 ST and 10 HV's....the  I guess the big difference between me and trail and brian is I had to pull my guy down

Oddly enough Joe, I had to pull down this player as well. He came down with the first round of 10 scouting trips. I guess I just got lucky after that! 

4/8/2015	home visits - (3)	$918
4/8/2015	declined guaranteed minutes - (15)	$10
4/8/2015	scholarship offer	$100
4/8/2015	scouting trips - (10)	$1,560
4/8/2015	phone call	$10
4/5/2015	call current coach	$10
4/4/2015	Added to Watch List	N/A
	Total	$2,608

Wow, that's like nothing....you don't remember how many openings the D2 team had, do you?  I thought that sims recruited as a percent of their budget but they might just use flat effort......you landed that guy for like 4 HV's....that's only a little more than a 1k of a SIMS budget