What exactly is the best profile to build to land those jobs? In Stagg, I lost 2 elite jobs to 2 other coaches with less total wins, less conference championships, less national championships in their profile. Is it because all of my natty's are in 1AA? Is there an amount of time, and a type of D1 program, that lends itself better for those elite jobs? Just curious............ thanks in advance for any advice.

I don't think it is truly known but it is believed last 4-5 seasons are all that matter - It doesn't pay too much attention to Division 1A vs 1AA as a lot of 1AA coaches get it with better resumes in that division than coaches applying in 1A

Then I'm mystified as to why my success didn't land me either of those jobs.... huh

What was your rep and loyalty scores? Anything below A+ will disqualify you for elites.

Personally, I believe it is heavily influenced by final rankings of the coach's last 3 seasons. Looking at the 2 coaches that got picked over you, I still believe that's true...

Posted by bhouska on 8/21/2025 12:33:00 PM (view original):
Personally, I believe it is heavily influenced by final rankings of the coach's last 3 seasons. Looking at the 2 coaches that got picked over you, I still believe that's true...

makes sense, thanks!

I just got picked for the Oklahoma job in Bryant. I didn't think I'd get it. I had a great record. I was 422-26 with three national championships but none in the last seven seasons. I was also just coming off a championship game loss the season I was picked so I wonder if that made a difference.

Which coach profile is better?

Coach A - Avg. rank 12 / 67 wins - 12 losses / .848 win% / won the natty in most recent season

Coach B - Avg. rank 16 / 59 wins - 18 losses / .766 win% / has not won a natty; has not advanced past round 2 in the last five seasons

The above data is from their last 5 seasons, all of which were in the same division.

Coach A. It's not that difficult to make the playoffs. Heck even I do it pretty consistently! Haha. But it is difficult to win multiple games in the playoffs.

Also I personally believe 1A coaches should have an advantage over 1AA coaches in the elite job hiring process. I haven't spent lots of time over the years at 1AA, but I've found it to be substantially more difficult to achieve top-tier success at the 1A level.

Best path to land an elite is to come from 1AA.

It's wrong, but that is the way it is set up.

I don't know everything, but I've both talked to devs and run experiments over the years. Here is what I know and think.

I am 90% certain the look back period is 4 years. It may be longer, but it's definitely not shorter.

There is either no cost to lower divisions or minimal. Based on how this game is built in other parts we understand, my guess is a win is a win, regardless of level.

The elites pay attention to total wins, CCs, and NCs over the look back period. They may also look at final ranking, but I'm less confident.

There is a slight bump in importance for recent season. I do not know if there's any other multipliers. My guess would be either no, or it's linear.

I ran an experiment in Yost. I started 36-0 with 2 NCs in d3. I followed it up with 1 d2 season and 2 d1aa seasons. None of those 3 were impressive. Mostly quarterfinals.

At 5 years played in Yost, I stopped playing to see if my 5 year resume was good with to get an elite. I went 1/6 on apps and eventually landed at Nebraska with only 2 d1aa seasons and a d3 in my last 4.