Congratulations to llamanunts' Bowie State team on the DII National Championship win over NC Central!  

That made for the 3rd all CIAA National Championship game in the past 14 seasons.  As far as I know, the CIAA is full for next season.

Congratulations to Fayetteville State on the DII National Championship!  That makes back-to-back CIAA national champions.  There will be plenty of bonus cash spread around.  NC, F4, E8 & S16 =  $$.  There are 2 good openings this season:

Virginia St. -  5 openings & a B+ prestige on this fastbreak & pressing team.   This team has an idiosyncratic build type that really makes that system work (check out those stamina ratings!).  This would be a very good position to take over, if you are partial to the running game.

St. Paul's - 3 openings exist on this exceptionally athletic team.   Step A on the rebuilding process is complete.  The returning 9 players average out to a 71 ATH at present.  That's a strong foundation laid.  Maybe there will be some offensive struggles to address, but this should be a NT team.  Taken!!

Congratulations to St. Augustine's on another D2 National Championship!  The Central put 8 in the NT, 3 of 4 in the F4, and now has a B+ conference prestige - not too shabby for D2.   There is plenty of bonus cash available.  Only one opening.  If you are D2 eligible, you should take it:

Virginia St. - the jobs list shows only 4, but I believe there will be 5 openings (and 5 openings worth of recruiting cash w/ a transfer).   A 2-25 season is largely the product of the most difficult schedule imaginable at D2 (the NC schedule was filled while it was a SIM) and an attempt to change offensive system.  The team has schedule 10 sims in the NC for next season, so that won't repeat.  It's now a Motion & Press team.  Pretty good choices for D2.  Palm looks like a very good developing PG.  The only player that does not belong is Mitchell Wills.  I would cut him on entering the building.  After that, you've got 6 strong players and a team that probably wins 14 and stands a chance at the NT.

So...yeah...  Elizabeth City St. made the championship game & 7 Central teams made the NT - there'll be plenty of bonus cash.  There are 3 open jobs all in the south Central:

St. Paul's - 6 openings; motion & m2m; B- Prestige - I've no clue why Manuel has never been allowed to play, he's pretty good.  The team has a non-qualifier Freshman that looks good too.  This team is primed for a great recruiting cycle and to turn the corner.

Shaw - 5 openings; triangle & press; B Prestige - Returning Srs Scarlett & McQuary & Sr/5 Brown can play.  So, this team is well positioned to be competitive.

Virginia St.- 1 opening; motion & press; C- Prestige - Looks like this program lost its way and doesn't know what it is right now.  

Congratulations to Virginia Union on the National Championship!  That's 7 of the last 12 Championship game participants coming from the Central (including 1 in each of the last 6 title games).  We have the most openings in a while, but plenty of tourney cash to go around:

Johnson C. Smith - 3 schollies, B+ Prestige, Motion & Man - this team is a solid lock to make the NT...'nuff said.  Taken!!

Livingstone - 3, C-, Motion & Press - This is a very young team (the 3 openings were all walk-ons...on a pressing team that was death).   Thibodaux & Andrews developed well, but this team could really thrive with some help for them in the backcourt.   A savvy coach might just sign 3 juniors to this team and let them bonus cash start to pile up, but signing 3 freshmen with potential my be the safer bet.   Taken!!

Shaw - 5, C+, Triangle & Press - Once White & Dixon are shown the door, this team will retain 5 very good players as a base from which to rebuild.  This next season might be rough, but the one after could be stellar. 

St. Paul's - 4, C+, Motion & Man - another team that will have no seniors.  Carrick will need to be moved out.  The 4 rising juniors will be good, but the team might not be well suited to continue playing man defense.  

Virginia St. - 3, C-, Motion & Press - Bartell is good; Rogers may turn into an excelled 3pt threat.  The 4 human-recruited players are good.   This could be trimmed down to those 6 and taken forward from there.  That would be a good core, but might not be able to press effectively with those staminas.

[Edit - 2 teams taken.  The brutal North Central is full, the South Central still has 3 positions available.  You need to take one of these!]

A bit of disappointing Tournament for the Central; 7 teams in, but only NC Central made it as far as the F4.  Four made the S16, so there's some cash.  Same 3 openings remain:

Virginia St. - 5 schollies and a C Prestige.  With 6 returning seniors, this is the year to take over and start the rebuild.  Rogers & Bartell are the core of this team.  John Ary, the only player with more than 1 year remaining, doesn't look terrible.  This is a big budget to start the turnaround.  3 seasons later, this team could win it all!

St. Paul's - 0 schollies, playing motion & man...However, the returning seniors are pretty good.  Liedtke is excellent and actually has 2 years of eligibility remaining (and a 3 GPA!).   If you take over this season, then cut 4 and sign only 1.   Take 3 walk-ons to free up 6 scholarships for next season.  The starting lineup of Primeaux, Moses, Sells, Liedtke, & Willis, backed up by Farmer, Baker, Jones, & whoever you sign, is actually a potential NT team.  Seriously, it is.

Shaw - with only 2 open schollies...avert your eyes!   Shaw has not yet hit rock bottom.  All you could do is join the ride on down...

Bowie St. made it to the NC game, but came up just a little short.  Someone needs to take one of these 3 (links added):

St. Paul's - 3 schollies, motion & m2m - C - Willis & PF - Liedtke (SR/5) will be outstanding. At present the rest of the lineup isn't much to write about: PG - Primeaux; SG - E. Collins; SF - Baker. Maybe keep Lamons, Carrick & Jones to bring off the bench and show Steve Collins the door and you will at least have LP & PER to spare. Not impossible to sign a JuCo or Transfer guard and a freshman post player, take 2 walk-ons and compete with this team now.

Virginia St. - 8 schollies (with that many openings, who cares what they know?) - If you're up for the challenge, cut Westrick and return just those 3 (Renshaw, Mosely and Ary). My move might be to change to motion & zone and just recruit 5 starting freshmen, but one could keep pressing and shoot the moon and sign 8 or 9.

Shaw - 5 openings...that's the best that can be said about this. There'll be plenty of cash to work with. Can't cut the returning seniors, probably want to keep Koger & Thompson, but Eddy can go. I'd switch to zone and set up 6 open scholarships for next season by taking 2 walk-ons. It's a few seasons away at this point.

Bowie St. won the NC game this time around.  Congratulations to llamanunts!  The same 3 openings exist as last time around.  St. Paul's and Shaw will have the maximum amount of cash you can find in this world at D2.  Shaw is the better pick.  Virginia St. is more of an uphill climb.   

Same 3 openings as the last 3 seasons.  The conference had a disappointing end to the NT.   At a quick count, 3 2nd rounds, 2 E8, & 1 F4 exit, we probably had one more team in...and that's a down year for our conference.  If you're thinking about Knight D2, it's a mistake not to think about one of these rebuilds.

So...it's been suggested that having full conferences to take advantage of tournament cash is a bad thing.  Perhaps there are those that prefer the quiet and solitude of a coaches corner replete with only the commissioner's ramblings; there are 360 openings in Calhoun or Boeheim or Valvano, DIII or whatever.  Maybe that's your thing.  If so, stop reading now.  Seriously, just stop.  You only feel envy that we are having fun while you plaintively ask eleven sim-AI coached teams "how'd you do in recruiting?  I feel empty inside...like a husk...."   Our conference has the bonus cash that you wish yours had.  Until the rules actually change, here are the openings in Central, DII:

Virginia State - see here's the big thing for me - this post has 5 openings.  That's $25,000 plus bonus cash (~ $30k).  Now that dumpster fire of a post sounds pretty good.  You should be saying 'with that much cash I could win a national championship in 4 seasons'.  See fun.

Livingstone - Human-recruited team!  Unfortunately, just not suited to playing fastbreak & press.   I'd probably stick 25 minutes in zone and run a FB/3-2 zone/press combo with this team.  The cupboard is not bare.

Shaw - Did I already use 'dumpster fire'?  Hmmm...  There are a few decent players on this team.  No idea about Maurer; coming off an ineligible year.  However, I actually like Webb.  Purvis improved well too.  There are a couple underclassmen to cut and a switch needs to be made to play zone, rather than press, but the needle can be moved here.

St. Paul's - So maybe you don't have time to recruit this season, right?  That's all I've got.  There's no other possible reason to take this post.  You want to sign up and roll over bonus cash for next season.  Here's an interesting thought: without bonus cash, or the ability to recruit your own players to coach in year 1, why would you ever apply to a rebuild position?

Rogelio : I am pretty sure that conference will fill! It has too. It's your favorite conference! I am starting to like Shaw. Nice colours and all. D is tough but you can suit up and play for pride for a bit.

It has been filled at various points.  We had 2 in the Final Four this past season.  The problem is that many coaches get tired of being beaten up while rebuilding.  That's understandable.  So, yeah.  Don't join the CIAA.  There will be a ton of bonus cash, but I reckon you're against bonus cash in principle and think of benefiting from it as quasi-collusion.  So, live in an empty conference having taken a vow of poverty and discontent, then quit.  Fine.  Just wait for the Great Pumpkin...I mean...Beta World.

Besides, the only half-decent opening is Elizabeth City State.  If you didn't have time to recruit this season and really wanted to take advantage of bonus/rollover cash, then this would be the choice spot to take.  5 guards with between 80 - 98 PER.  4 rising seniors & 8 rising Juniors (Swarts was Inel, so he actually has 3 left).  Not much inside, except Angel Avila.  Madruga looks really good, but I'd probably just play him at the 4 and let the guards shoot.  So, even though this team could be managed into an E8 team....nothing to see here.

In case you were wondering...Bowie St. just won back-to-back NC's. llamanunts is better than fair at this game. The Central had 3 out of 4 Final Four teams. So, we have more bonus money than Croesus. Also, and I wasn't planning on mentioning this, there's an odor rising off of whatever conference you're in now. Pungent.

There are 4 openings, Livingstone, JCS, Virginia St., & St. Paul's. St. Paul's is the only one worth looking at right now. 6 open scholarships and the returning underclassmen look fairly strong. It's pretty clearly superior to wherever you're at right now. Maybe you take a flier on JCS with 5 open scholarships, but the returning players aren't as good.

I'm supposing that the game will be changing at some point in the future, but hasn't yet. Join.