The country needs a connecticutectumy. Just remove the whole damn state. It takes like three hours to drive through and no one stops there. It's just in the way of where I want to go.

Seriously, what the hell is in Connecticut except pizza they think is good, a college not named Princeton and some McDonalds that sell lobster rolls in the summer?

Posted by pkoopman on 12/6/2017 10:32:00 AM (view original):
When I started playing HD, MPI was part of a D3 superconference in Allen. They won a title and were in multiple championship games. So even at the end of the earth, you can compete if you devise and execute a good game plan.

As a game tester, we were always told to explore the fringes of games to highlight weaknesses. MPI was my test case when I started playing HD and one of the reasons I fell in love with this game as hard as I did is because it was possible to form a winning, competitive program there despite being hard pressed to locate anything that was actually working in the school's favor. I've been toying with the idea of picking it up again in another world just so I can compare/contrast recruiting there in 3.0 vs. what I recall from being there in 2.0, but I'm carrying 4 teams now and really feel like that's my saturation point for keeping up with stuff.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 12/6/2017 2:27:00 PM (view original):
The country needs a connecticutectumy. Just remove the whole damn state. It takes like three hours to drive through and no one stops there. It's just in the way of where I want to go.

Seriously, what the hell is in Connecticut except pizza they think is good, a college not named Princeton and some McDonalds that sell lobster rolls in the summer?

It only takes 3 hours to drive through for out of state dipshirts who block a whole line of cars doing 71 in the fast lane. We do have some dope pizza though, damn fine beer, an embarrassing capital city, and some pretty decent Men's and Women's college basketball. Bonus points: CT doesn't smell like a sewer like NJ.

Posted by bhansalid00 on 12/6/2017 9:55:00 AM (view original):

Posted by rednu on 12/5/2017 3:32:00 PM (view original):
Maine, Presque Isle is easily the worst D3 location IMO. Canada is a wasteland to the north and anything that spawns within the state is often 200+ miles from campus, placing you at a distance disadvantage even against the other schools from your state. Going outside the state is a challenge because you're in the super-saturated New England area that has a gazillion D3 programs. It might be a little better now under 3.0 (though I'm not sure) since theoretically there's a broader pool of talent to target now than under 2.0. I can't imagine the change would be enough to shift it from being anything but the least-friendly place to coach from in D3. Basically, you're always going to be in competition for prime targets and you're rarely, if ever, going to be operating from an advantageous position in going after those targets.

Sul Ross State (mentioned above) also wasn't a bed of roses under 2.0 because, aside from the occasional D1 recruit that shows up in El Paso, hardly anything spawns in western Texas, leaving you 300+ miles for just the in-state kids. It was markedly easier there than M-PI though because you at least had an in-state boost from Texas and New Mexico generated enough good D2 talent that was rarely contested that there were pipelines to be had.

Thanks for the info, rednu! I'm intrigued by how crappy M-PI sounds...

Maine, Presque Isle was the very first HD team I had (in Allen). It was terrible trying to recruit from there but this was also pre-potential, pre-dropdowns/pulldowns, recruits capped by division, etc. It also didn't help that I really didn't know what I was doing either.

I coached Maine in D1 Tark for several seasons and have often thought about going back to Presque Isle in some world and trying it again. I'm pretty sure I'd have a little better luck signing players now than I did way back when, ha ha.

In Allen, I had a lot of success at Maine-Presque Isle (I made 2 title games and several other deep runs in the tourney), but I was also aided by the extra recruiting money the NAC brought in. I spent a fair amount of time preparing for recruiting as most of my players were more than 1,000 miles from campus. You had to be incredibly patient and FSS states where the D2 and D3 populations were thinner in hopes of landing dropdowns. The guy that coached Castelton St for years didn't start recruiting until the final 24 hours and was a perennial title contender.

I also coached Suny Potsdam in Tark in 2.0 and it was an empty conference. That school is on the Canadian border and only had about 20 kids within 200 miles of it. But the strategy was the same-wait for dropdowns and either sign them for the minimum (40 calls and 40 letters) or a start and scholarship. I think I had 2 FF runs there in 4 seasons.

When 3.0 started I wanted to try to recruit only internationals on a D3 team. I had some stud kids at Suny Farmindale in Smith but ultimately hated the waiting game that was D3 recruiting and left. Long story short, those remote locations in D2 and D3 are far easier to recruit from in 3.0 than 2.0 if, for no other reason, because you can get so much more info on international kids and you're on equal footing as any other team when it comes to recruiting in Slovakia.

Posted by darnoc29099 on 12/7/2017 8:24:00 AM (view original):
In Allen, I had a lot of success at Maine-Presque Isle (I made 2 title games and several other deep runs in the tourney), but I was also aided by the extra recruiting money the NAC brought in. I spent a fair amount of time preparing for recruiting as most of my players were more than 1,000 miles from campus. You had to be incredibly patient and FSS states where the D2 and D3 populations were thinner in hopes of landing dropdowns. The guy that coached Castelton St for years didn't start recruiting until the final 24 hours and was a perennial title contender.

I also coached Suny Potsdam in Tark in 2.0 and it was an empty conference. That school is on the Canadian border and only had about 20 kids within 200 miles of it. But the strategy was the same-wait for dropdowns and either sign them for the minimum (40 calls and 40 letters) or a start and scholarship. I think I had 2 FF runs there in 4 seasons.

When 3.0 started I wanted to try to recruit only internationals on a D3 team. I had some stud kids at Suny Farmindale in Smith but ultimately hated the waiting game that was D3 recruiting and left. Long story short, those remote locations in D2 and D3 are far easier to recruit from in 3.0 than 2.0 if, for no other reason, because you can get so much more info on international kids and you're on equal footing as any other team when it comes to recruiting in Slovakia.

Well put Darnoc. I tend to agree 100%.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 12/6/2017 2:27:00 PM (view original):
The country needs a connecticutectumy. Just remove the whole damn state. It takes like three hours to drive through and no one stops there. It's just in the way of where I want to go.

Seriously, what the hell is in Connecticut except pizza they think is good, a college not named Princeton and some McDonalds that sell lobster rolls in the summer?

The small town on "Gilmore Girls" is based on a town in Connecticut and my girlfriend is obsessed with the idea of moving there.

Hawaii can be really tough if the recruits generated end up being crap. It’s tough to venture out.