I'm a one-team HD coach, playing in Tark, and I just moved up from D2 Chaminade (B+) to D1 South Florida (D+). I kept some data on my last few seasons' job change prospects that may be of interest to some folks, since my W-L results from year to year were unusually consistent and my options expanded season to season.

Background
I coached Chaminade seasons 112-116, took a break, and returned for seasons 127-129. My history:

2.0 era
112: 12-18 (8-8), RPI 163
113: 21-8 (10-6), RPI 82, PI first round loser
114: 18-9 (10-6), RPI 133
115: 24-6 (12-4), RPI 73, Conf RS champ, CT champ, NT first round loser
116: 24-5 (14-2), RPI 76, NT first round loser
<<took a break>>

127: 20-8 (11-5), RPI 65, PR 55, CCOY, NT first round loser
After season, I was eligible as a Longshot for four D- D1 jobs. I didn't apply for any of them.

128: 24-5 (13-3), RPI 39, PR 25, Conf RS champ, NT first round loser
After the season I was eligible for 52 jobs:

* 13 Longshot/D jobs. (Best baseline prestige = Miami OH, MAC, C baseline)

* 14 Qualified/D jobs (Best = Milwaukee, Horizon, C)
* 25 Qualified/D- jobs (Best = San Jose State, WCC, C)

I applied for one longshot and one not-qualified job. Denied for both.

129: 23-6 (13-3), RPI 59, PR 34, NT first round loser
After the season I was eligible for 133 jobs:

* 7 Longshot/C- jobs (Best = n/a, all were D baseline prestige)
* 21 Longshot/D+ jobs (Best = several MAC, MVC, and WCC teams, all with C baseline prestige)
* 1 Longshot/D job (Best = Bradley, MVC, C baseline)

* 24 Qualified/D+ jobs (Best = Ohio and Kent State, MAC, C)
* 53 Qualified/D jobs (Best = North Texas, MWC, C; and So Miss, CUSA, C)
* 27 Qualified/D- jobs (Best = Rice, CUSA, C)

I applied to a longshot/D+ and didn't get it. Then I applied to South Florida (Qualified/D at the time/C- baseline) and got it.

Epilogue
When I got the South Florida job, a couple unexpected things happened:
* USF's prestige immediately jumped from D to D+, where it now sits.
* The jobs process remained open to me to apply for another job. (I assume this is a bug and I'm not going to mess with it, I like the USF job and Seble has enough on his plate.) Anyway, I can see right now that all of my Qualified jobs are now Step Backwards? jobs, and all of my Longshot jobs are now Keep Looking jobs. In addition, two A-10 schools I was Not Qualified for before the USF acceptance are now Keep Looking, and three additional A-10 schools I was Not Qualified for before are now Longshots.

What it all means
The jobs process is one of the aspects of HD I've always found most interesting. I posted this primarily as FYI; I'm happy with the job I now have.

Part of why I'm posting this stuff is I'm curious whether anyone else sees anything interesting in it. Maybe the info will even be helpful to someone.

If anyone has questions about my data feel free to ask. I'm not normally a spreadsheets-for-WIS guy, but I made an exception here and I have some sortable details stored in Excel.

Thanks for reading this far, and feel free to join me in the Tarkanian Sun Belt! Go Bulls!

Great post thanks a ton. Super odd prestige moved up...

Very interesting -- thank you for tracking and posting this!

Posted by cubcub113 on 9/6/2017 10:55:00 PM (view original):
Great post thanks a ton. Super odd prestige moved up...

Thanks, and yeah, the prestige jump was weird.

Even weirder was that before my arrival, USF had actually gone down from D+ to D over the past season, even though it had improved from being a 5 win team to a 15 win team, and its RPI was 168 -- solidly in the middle of D1. So seems like it should have been a D+ regardless of having a human coach take over.

Prestige I believe is based on a 4 year window so it was dropping a 18W 68 RPI NT appearance season for a 15W 168 RPI non-post season one you would expect a drop in prestige. The small prestige bump by a new coach is typically a result of a head coaching change when a program is below its baseline.

Posted by buddhagamer on 9/6/2017 11:35:00 PM (view original):
Prestige I believe is based on a 4 year window so it was dropping a 18W 68 RPI NT appearance season for a 15W 168 RPI non-post season one you would expect a drop in prestige. The small prestige bump by a new coach is typically a result of a head coaching change when a program is below its baseline.

I see that pattern affecting other years in USF's history too, so I think you're right. Thanks!

Two applications, two more, and then one more before you moved ... did that affect your loyalty?

Posted by l80r20 on 9/7/2017 11:21:00 AM (view original):
Two applications, two more, and then one more before you moved ... did that affect your loyalty?

Not in any way I could see. It stayed A+ the whole time, and the failed apps didn't seem to affect what other jobs I was eligible for.

Posted by l80r20 on 9/7/2017 11:21:00 AM (view original):
Two applications, two more, and then one more before you moved ... did that affect your loyalty?

I'm at Bowling Green in Tark and have unsuccessfully applied for six jobs in the past two seasons (3 each year). Still at A+ loyalty.

Season 130 at South Florida was a disaster, as I made a mess experimenting with offense defense and tempo changes. Despite a pretty OK roster, I went 7-22, RPI 210, PR about the same.

Despite my atrocious coaching, I was still "Step Backwards?" on 47 jobs (best baseline North Texas, C) and "Keep Looking" on 19 jobs (best baseline a couple B- jobs in the Atlantic 10). Everything else was "Not Qualified," I didn't show up as "Qualified" or "Longshot" for anything.

Season 131 is entering March Madness tonight. This season went better; I went 22-7 and I lucked into winning the CT as a #2-seed, with an RPI 128 and PR 118. I'm a #16 in the NT and will get housed tonight in R1, but I'm very curious to see what I'll be eligible for this time.

Why schedule so many home games? And why schedule home games against Sims in B6 who are likely to win 0 conf games? I know you're losing a lot next season but it'd probably still help to schedule low major sims who will at least win a few games.

Posted by Benis on 10/29/2017 6:06:00 PM (view original):
Why schedule so many home games? And why schedule home games against Sims in B6 who are likely to win 0 conf games? I know you're losing a lot next season but it'd probably still help to schedule low major sims who will at least win a few games.

This thread is about the jobs process. I'm not going to derail it with a discussion of scheduling strategy.

You are coaching my alma mater so keep winning. Go Bulls.

Thanks for posting KC. I’m fascinated with the jobs process too. I had a similar expercience in Phalen, jumping to low D1 and watching as my job options expanded. I’m really curious as to when you start getting some Big 6 opportunities as well.

Some of the keys I’ve found so far:
- With an average D3 resume, you need make the NT three times in D2 before the low levels D1 jobs will open
- You can jump straight from D3 to low D1 with very good NT success and about 9 seasons of coaching experience

The first one seems to align with your data. Hope you keep this updated in the future. I’m really interested to see how adding seasons of experience and NT success at low/mid D1 affects your prospects going forward.

Posted by slayterhill on 10/29/2017 10:42:00 PM (view original):
Thanks for posting KC. I’m fascinated with the jobs process too. I had a similar expercience in Phalen, jumping to low D1 and watching as my job options expanded. I’m really curious as to when you start getting some Big 6 opportunities as well.

Some of the keys I’ve found so far:
- With an average D3 resume, you need make the NT three times in D2 before the low levels D1 jobs will open
- You can jump straight from D3 to low D1 with very good NT success and about 9 seasons of coaching experience

The first one seems to align with your data. Hope you keep this updated in the future. I’m really interested to see how adding seasons of experience and NT success at low/mid D1 affects your prospects going forward.

Thanks for the reply, I'm glad to hear other folks find this aspect of the game as interesting as I do.

As you probably know, the 3-NTs rule hasn't always been as strict as it seems like it is now. With an unimpressive prior resume in Smith, I was able to move up from D2 to low D1 after first round losses in the S62 PI (RPI 114), S63 NT (RPI 49), and S64 NT (RPI 67). It doesn't sound like I'd be able to do that today.