Player Evaluation
The most important thing to learn (before any of the more detailed) stuff below is to be able to answer the question "Which players are good at each position and why?
The first things to realize is that (1) This game is complex, (2) The total overall rating a player has means roughly nothing, and (3) ath/de tend to be really important. It's best to evaluate a player by looking at each rating separately, and thinking about how that effect their effectiveness at each position.
I urge you to think of players as having 4 major ways they can contribute: scoring, defending, rebounding, and playmaking/distributing (not turning the ball over + setting up teammates).
Scoring can be either Perimeter based (outside) or Low Post based (inside). Other than PER, Spd/Bh/Pa (in that order) are really important for shooters. Other than LP, Ath/Per/Spd/Bh are really important for interior scorers. Note that guards can score better down low with lower LP than bigs. If a guard has 30-35 LP with good ath/spd/bh they will be a super strong scorer in D3. Bigs can pretty much never score well with 30 LP in D3, unless they have 100 ATH or something (and even so, they will never be a top option).
Defending is primarily based on of the rating "Defense" but Ath/Sb are really important (in that order) for Bigs and Spd/Ath are really important for guards.
Rebounding is about 70% reb and 30% ath based.
Distributing is primarily PA, secondary BH, and also a little bit of Ath/spd.
If you want to think of players more rating by rating instead of skill by skill, here is a good list:
PG: Primary Ratings (really important): Defense/Passing/BH
Secondary Ratings (still super important):Spd/Per/Ath/Lp
Complimentary Ratings (don't worry about these too much):SB/REB
SG: Primary Ratings (really important): Defense/PER
Secondary Ratings (still super important):Spd/PA/BH/Ath/Lp
Complimentary Ratings (don't worry about these too much):SB/REB
SF: Primary Ratings (really important): Defense
Secondary Ratings (still super important):Spd/PA/BH/Ath/Lp/Reb/Per
Complimentary Ratings (don't worry about these too much):SB
PF: Primary Ratings (really important): Defense/Reb/Ath/Lp
Secondary Ratings (still super important):Sb
Complimentary Ratings (don't worry about these too much):Spd/Per/BH/PA
C: Primary Ratings (really important): Defense/Reb/Ath/Lp
Secondary Ratings (still super important):Sb
Complimentary Ratings (don't worry about these too much):Spd/Per/BH/PA
IQ isn't that important to consider in D3. As long as you are putting 20+ minutes into your sets, your players will grow in IQ fine. It's actually quite important though. I value ratings at about 90% and IQ at about 10%. Since IQ builds up over a player's career, this makes upperclassmen more useful.
This is a good read from a legendary coach named
aejones. This guide was really really useful to me and transformed by ability as a coach:
The most important thing in recruiting is player evaluation. I frequently scratch my head at some of the guys that are signed, players that I wouldn’t touch on my D4 team with a 10 foot pole. Why would you ever sign someone who won’t get to 30 in athleticism? Why would you ever sign someone who won’t get to 30 in defense? There are, of course, exceptions to the rule (to the former, you could find someone who is like a 90 speed/25 athleticism guard with good skills, he could definitely be serviceable; to the latter, you could find someone with low defense who you planned on being an offensive force off the bench, but you might be in some trouble if he ever had to start); but they are exceptions for exactly that reason: the rule should be that everyone has to be athletic and be able to defend.
But, there are many strategies to win, and it takes all types. If you recruit a team full of athletic defenders, you won’t have anyone to score, and scoring is half the battle. To combat this, guards with good speed/perimeter/ball handling is essential. Bigs with good athleticism and low post moves are nice as well.
Most importantly, it’s about taking what is available to you and maximizing talent. If I’m really searching for a defensive minded PG but I find one who is a decent defender but boasts excellent perimeter shooting, I’m not going to pass up having another offensive option just to fill a “need.”
Overall, it’s important not to have needs. Don’t pay attention to positions. Recruiting versatile players is key. If you recruit a SG who happens to have 25 rebounding, you can likely slide him to either wing position if you find a guy who happens to be pegged into the SF (like a low perimeter role playing type) or SG (a guard with a 1 in rebounding, for instance) position.
Don’t be afraid to recruit role players. Nearly 50% of the players I recruit are defensive players, rebounders, passers or some combination of the 3 and will never be a viable offensive option in their entire career. I am fine with that, because a player like this won’t hurt me, whereas a marginal offensive option who struggles on defense will typically foul too much and allow too many points to be scored on him. You’re only as good as your weakest link on defense, because an opponent can always target the position or player you’re weak at and up his distribution to reflect your weakest defender.
Work ethic! I will devote an entire paragraph to work ethic, because I believe it is paramount. I like to get the most out of my players. If someone has a 50+ work ethic, you will never have to worry about his development. He will frequently be nearing his caps around his junior season, and will almost always cap out in everything by his senior year. If someone has 40-50, he may struggle to get to his caps until the end of his senior year unless he is aided by starting his sophomore year or redshirting a year. If someone is in the 30-40 range, he will typically need just a little bit more of a nudge. If he has a good HS GPA or has a few categories that are already low potential (therefore allowing you to put more practice time into his categories with good potential), he will likely develop fine, but if he doesn’t, he will probably struggle to reach his caps until the end of his senior year. I rarely recruit players who are under 30 in work ethic, although I will make an exception if they are very talented and I can get them a redshirt, some starts early in their career, or they have very few categories to actually improve in. If a player is under 20 in work ethic, he will barely improve over the course of his career (that doesn’t mean you can’t find some that are reasonable because they are already very strong in core categories). If a player is under 10 in work ethic, he will always be too busy playing Halo in the offseason to make him a worthwhile player, and will therefore lose any progress he made in the last season in the offseason “improvements.” Getting a player to his caps as soon as possible should be your goal to maximize your chances of winning.
A more specific guide to what I'm looking for my players to get to in terms of minimum speed/athleticism requirements. Note that there are exceptions to every rule, and these should only be used for a guide and not a steadfast rule. At d3, I am looking for my guards to be a combination of 120 in speed/athleticism; a PG to get to at least 70 speed/50 athleticism (or some combination very close to that), SG to get to 65/55, SF to get to 60/60. Again, if I find someone who is just under those marks but is spectacular in their skills, I can make exceptions. For bigs, I am looking for about 70 athleticism in my PF, 60 athleticism in my C. I value speed very little in bigs, but I value it slightly more in my PF than my C, where I don't value it at all (I might if I played the press anywhere). At D2, use all of the guides I just mentioned but add 10 to each number (so, a total of 140 speed/athleticism for my perimeter players). There are exceptions-- Edward Bradley is one of my better players on my SW Baptist team and he is only 65/64 in speed/athleticism, a total of 129 (11 under my recommended guide for D2 perimeter players). However, he is 76 defense, 89 perimeter, 83 ball handling, 76 passing, and 56 (and still growing) low post. Despite his marginal speed/athleticism ratings, he is able to get 15 PPG on 44%/40%/75% in 17 MPG off the bench. That is elite scoring efficiency against tough competition.
Potential
HD ratings improve until they reach their "cap" with practice time. Based on the color of a rating, here is how much that rating will improve before it "caps." Ratings with high potential develop faster, and ratings with low potential gain slower. A lot of players that starts with 30 WE won't even get ratings fully maxed (will come up a point or two short, since the last point or so is hard to get), since red/yellow ratings usually gain the most during the offseason.
Red: 0-3
Yellow: 3-7
Black: 7-21
Blue: 21-28
Green: 28+
Player Development
The most fun part of the game (especially at the start!) is watching your players develop. Watching the guys you recruited turn into stars, score 10+ PPG, win awards, and push your team into the Top 25. But it is important to understand how players develop. How quickly players develop is based on FOUR factors:
1. Work Ethic
Higher work ethic players improve faster.
2. Potential Left
Green ratings improve the fastest, followed by blues, blacks, yellows, reds, etc.
3. Practice Minutes
The more minutes you put in, the faster a rating develops. Diminishing returns really start to kick in at 20+.
4. Playing Time
The more minutes per game your player gets, the faster all of his ratings develop. In game experience is key!
The first three are obvious, but number four is very important! Often, I will see coaches only play a stud freshman with 35 WE only 7 minutes off the bench on a mid-seeded tournament team. This is super sub-optimal, especially if you are changing lineups each day and have easy games (often against sims) where you can play the younger guys a bit more. Does it really matter if you drop from a 4 to 5 seed if you are optimizing development? There is always a balance between current and future success, but it is definitely something to consider.
Practice Plan
Team Practice:
For team IQ in D2 and D3, I do from 22/22 to 25/25 depending on how much potential my guys have. More potential I need more minutes in skill categories so I do 22/22.
You go from F to B- really quick during FR year then usually you get B- to B+ during SO, B+ to A- during JR and A- to A during senior. Players with a better Work Ethic/HS GPA combo will gain IQ grades faster.
Player Practice:
Green/Blue develop super fast.
Black develops decently
Yellow/Red barely develop during the season and these categories will usually max over the offseason
For minutes I try to stay 25 or below per category but my priorities are:
Green/Blue Core ratings
Black Core rating
Green/Blue less meaningful ratings
black less meaningful
yellow cores
yellow less meaningful
Recruiting Budgets
BUDGETS:
Note: Maximum of 6 PLAYER CLASS SIZE still in place.
Note: You do get scouting and recruiting dollars for any walk ons + seniors that are on your team
Note: If you release a player that you did not recruit, you get full scouting and recruiting dollars immediately.
SCOUTING BUDGET:
Division 1:
35K base + 4K per opening
Division 2:
25K base + 3K per opening
Division 3:
15K base + 2K per opening
ATTENTION POINTS BUDGET:
20 Base + 20 per opening across all divisions
RECRUITING BUDGET:
Division 1:
5K base + 3K per opening
Division 2:
3K base + 2K per opening
Division 3:
1K base + 1K per opening
You will *
NOT* get any resources if you cut a player
you recruited (if SIM recruited or by another coach you will receive resources). You only get those resources at the start of the 2nd recruit period however since that is when you can cut players.
Scouting
Scouting Info (credit to chapelhillne):
Each recruit's ratings/preferences are gradually revealed though these scouting actions. There are 4 levels of information:
- Level 1: Very basic information. It gives combined letter grades for Physical (A, Spd, St, DU), Offense (LP, PE, BH, P), Defense (Reb, Def, Blk), WE, and FT. It does let you know the letter grade for WE and FT, so you can see which players have extremely low or high WE. It also gives an overall letter grade for the player.
Level 2: Gives a letter grade for each individual attribute.
Level 3: Gives a letter grade for each individual attribute, and color codes the grades, but only in black, yellow or blue. Yellow may really be red at level 4, and blue may really be green at level 4. It also extends grades to +/- to give more accurate information (e.g. A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc.).
Level 4: This provides complete information with actual numbers instead of letter grades. It is even better than current HD because it has 5 colors.
POTENTIAL INCREASES:
Green is High High (28+ Points)
Blue is High (20-27 Points)
Black is normal (8-19 points)
Yellow is High-Low (4-7 points)
Red is Low Low. (0-3 points)
NUMERICAL EQUIVALENTS OF LETTER GRADES:
A+ = 85+
A = 80-84
A- = 74-79
B+ = 69-73
B = 64-68
B- = 58-63
C+ = 53-57
C = 48-52
C- = 42-47
D+ = 37-41
D = 32-36
D- = 26-31
F+ = 21-25
F = 16-20
F- = 0-15
Scouting Methods:
At D3, D3 projected players generally end up being unsignable (bad), so most coaches tend to focus on scouting projected D1 players or projected D2 players. There are 4 viable ways to scout players on the East Coast: FSS, Assistant Search, Individual Scouting, and Private Camp.
FSS is the most efficient way to scout recruits ($15 bucks per level), but you can only get recruits up one level. So it can't be your entire strategy.
Assistant Search is great because it is cheap ($60 bucks per level) and you can use it to get guys all the way to level 4. It is especially good at scouting guys at a large distance because the $60 bucks is a flat cost that doesn't depend on distance.The downside is there is no flexibility and you can't scout specific types of players. You will spend a lot of money scouting guys to level 4 that you know are unsignable after you see their level 2/3 ratings.
Private Camps scout guys within 500 miles. They are very strong. They get each player 2 levels, so Private Camp + FSS gets players to level 3. The downside is that Private Camps are pretty inflexible, as you only get to choose the division of players.
Individual Scouting is pretty manageable budget-wise at a close distance, but gets ridiculously expensive fast. It is very very flexible.
Scouting Strategies:
So many different scouting strategies are valid! Every coach I have ever talked to does it differently. Part of the fun is playing around and figuring out what you like.
Here are two different ways coaches often scout players:
1. FSS+Assistant Search Combo (best for scouting all D2 players near you---great for new D3 coaches)
FSS D2 states. It is often good for them to be states around you. but you can also scout other states (at lost distances if you feel like it) if you think your local area is very difficult for recruiting.
Then Assistant Search these players to level 4 using the "scout further discovered players" option in the assistant search function.
Don't FSS too many states other wise you won't be able to get guys to level 4. Divide the total scouting budget you have by 195 to see how many players you can get to level 4 ($15 bucks for 1 FSS level and $60 for each assistant search level). So if you start with 28k in scouting cash, you can get 28000/195 = 143 guys to level 4.
2. FSS+Private Camp + Individual Scout/Assistant Search Combo
Draw a 500-mile circle from your campus
I use this website:
https://www.mapdevelopers.com/draw-circle-tool.php
FSS the states within this radius. You can do D1, D2, or a mix. Then you have to decide how many guys to FSS. Private camps cost $60 per 2 levels, which may seem awesome because it's twice as cheap as assistant search, but the downside is it forces you to scout within a very specific area (0-500), while assistant coach lets you scout wherever (0-100 and across the country if you want). Make sure you check the boxes for the same division of private camp guys that you FSSed. Then you can scout out everyone using the assistant search or use individual search to only get the guys you like to lvl4 (I prefer using individual scouting since a lot of players are just totally unusable.
Depth Chart
The first thing I recommend you do is go to your depth chart, flip the substitution method to "fatigue" and forget it. 95% of coaches use fatigue, and nearly every top coach does as well. It is just better.
The #1 rule when setting your depth chart is to start your best players, but it's more complex than that. I always choose my PG first. I want players with high BH, and above anything else high PA at the 1. When deciding who to play at the 1 and who to play at the 2, I choose the player with better ball skills (BH/PA) at the 1 and the player with better offense/defense (PER/LP/ATH/DE) all other things being equal.
Next I'll choose my 2 starting big men. Generally, you want your 2 best ath/reb guys starting at the 4 and the 5, and the better SB at the 5 and the better SPD/BH/PA at the 4. DE and LP do not hurt, but these two ratings are just as effective at the 3 as the 4/5. Of course if your guys has limited spd/bh/pa they need to play the 4/5 instead of the three though.
When choosing my 2/3, I really want some shooting in my starting lineup. I love high ath/de guys but I'm willing to sacrifice it at the starting 2/3 to get some shooting in. If you have anyone 70+ they should most definitely be starting if they are your only shooting option. If you run a zone, they will be hidden a little. If you run a man, you can use doubleteams to take defensive pressure off them. When choosing who to play at the 2 and at the 3, I mainly focus on SPD and ball skills, since I want my better ball skills/spd guy at the 2. If the speed and ball skills are similar, I'll put my player with better REB/SB at the 3.
Feel free to experiment this year with different lineups, it's a good idea and it's instructive.
Team Gameplan Page
I'll take this time to talk about offensive/defensive sets, one of the more important decisions you'll make as a coach that crafts your team. The team you took over has "inherited" sets, which the previous coach or SIM AI has been using. Using the Team Practice function on the practice plan page, you train your players in a specific set so they develop IQ. IQ is very important and you can't run sets without any IQ for it and expect to succeed at all.
Offensive Sets:
With the exception of fastbreak, all offensive sets are considered to be pretty similar. Triangle values LP/PER a little bit more and ATH/SPD a little less than Flex/Motion. Flex/Motion are *really* similar, although Motion is generally considered slightly harder to have lopsided scoring with and the PG'S PA rating is slightly more important.
Fastbreak is very different, as it cannot be played at Slow Down tempo (defaults to Normal), naturally balances scoring, and focuses on taking quick shots in fastbreak situations, even off of made baskets or short rebounds. The downside of fastbreak is it makes your guys really tired and you need a super deep bench to run it (11 guys is best but 12 is ideal).
Defensive Sets:
Defensive sets are far more distinctive than offensive sets. I really don't recommend Zone for beginners, it's complicated and considered inferior (especially if the coach doesn't know what they're doing). The benefit of Zone is it saves your players' energy (you can run a super shallow bench) and since zone averages your players' ratings, you can hide weaker defenders that really contribute on offense. Zone is a very weak rebounding set, and SB is considered very important for your 5 (in a 2-3 zone) or your 4 and 5 (in a 3-2 zone).
Man is kind of the "default" defense and it's really easy to run. The plus of man is that you can match up your strongest defenders with your opponents' best scorers, but the negative is that your opponents can attack your weakest defenders. If you run man, it's best to move around your lineup a lot and to stay unpredictable. So weak defenders aren't attacked too easily, many man coaches have to choose to bench their best scorers who are weak defenders so they can play minutes at multiple positions so they can't be attacked as easily. Man values DE slightly more than Press/Zone.
Press is a great defense, as it forces a ton of TOs and allows your to generate offense from your defense. The downside is it gives up a lot of easy baskets as fouls a TON, especially if you don't have good SPD and ATH. SPD is a super important rating in Press, and Press teams can succeed with much less talent than Man teams. That being said, Press just drains your players' stamina and bench (because of foul trouble), so you need a lot of depth.
Postioning:
Under Defense -> Primary -> Positioning, you can play from -5 to +5. Generally, it is best to stay between -4 and +3 until you have more experience. If a team has no shooting, -4 is the best. If a team shoots 10-15 threes per game, I usually play -1. I'll go up to +3 if teams are shooting 25-30. You'll get a feeling for what works as you gameplan more.
I generally put auto-adjust positioning on losing by 5 or more.
Tempo:
I base tempo off of a variety of factors. The more of an underdog I am, the more I want to go slowdown (and vice-versa). The deeper I am as a team (or the stronger my bench is relative to theirs), the more I want to go uptempo (and vice-versa). Finally, if I play man or zone I am more likely to go slowdown and if I play press the more likely I am to go uptempo, just to accentuate the strengths of my sets. That being said, if I play Press and am worried about fatigue or foul trouble or something, I might be more likely to play slowdown to cancel out of weaknesses of my set.
I generally put auto-adjust tempo on never.
Late Game Settings:
Don't worried about these too much. These are the ones I use, feel free to copy them:
https://imgur.com/Ro4nqnh
Player Gameplan Page
Play Distribution:
This sets how often your players receive the ball. Try to evaluate how good your players are at scoring, and the better they are the more distribution it makes sense to give them. Try to make sure the efficiency of your players is pretty comparable. If someone is too efficient, you need to raise their distro. If they are inefficient, then lower it. Use a stat like EFG% to evaluate how efficient a player is.
3pt Frequency:
This depends on the division, and different people like to do it differently. Going for pure efficiency alone, usually, anyone at 60 PER or over you can put at -1 in D3 and they can shoot some. But since players that drive into the paint will draw more fouls, and this gets players in foul trouble and also causes so fatigue issues, generally most coaches will have their non-elite shooters mostly take 2s. If a guy is 90+ PER at D2/D3, or 95+ PER at D1, you're going to want to only have your player take 3s (+2). Elite 3pt shooting is the most powerful thing in the game any player can have.
Doubleteams: Double-teaming is an integral part of man and zone defense. If you aren't double-teaming at least one guy per game against humans, you are missing out. Don't think of double-teaming as a true sell-out where every time a player touches the ball they are doubled, but instead as a more intermediate form of defense. For example, double-teaming a big means a second guy comes down when they take a dribble/catch the ball in the post. And double-teaming a guard means hedging hard on pick and rolls so the guy guarding him can go above the screen in exchange for a bit of a scrambling rotation by your defense to recover. I will often even double two players per game against a human coach. It's important to align your doubles to make sense with your positioning. For example, if a team has 3 elite perimeter scorers and 1 elite LP scorer it makes sense to play +2/+3. But then it's very important to double the LP scorer to compensate.
Recruiting
Everyone likes to go about recruiting differently. First off, you'll need to learn some logistics here, so I'm pasting a wonderful writeup by
chapelhillne below that will help you with logistics (tremendous guide).
RECRUITING COSTS: ONLY HVS AND CVS HAVE A COST. ATTENTION POINTS, PROMISES, AND SCHOLARSHIP OFFERS ARE FREE.
Home Visit = $200 + 30¢ Per Mile, Maximum = $1,000
Campus Visit = $400 + 50¢ Per Mile, Maximum = $1,700
RECRUITING CREDIT:
During the active recruiting periods, every 6 hours (5/11 am/pm eastern time), a process will run to process recruiting actions (attention points, home visits, campus visits, guaranteed starts and playing time promises). You'll get recruiting credit at that time.
For example, say a coach assigns 10 attention points to Player A and 20 points to Player B. When each cycle runs, those points are counted toward building interest for the recruit in that school. The more points assigned to a player, the more credit that school gets. The credit stays on that player, even if attention points are then shifted to another player in the following cycle.
For each recruiting action that generates credit, the amount of credit is modified by the school's prestige as well as how your school matches up with the recruit's preferences.
UNLOCKING RECRUITING ACTIONS:
Attention Points essentially represent the low level recruiting actions like letters, calls, and texts. These points may be allocated to recruits in any manner, so a coach can put all of his points on one player or spread them out to many players. I believe they are significantly more powerful than calls and letters were in the old game.
In the first cycle, the only thing you can do is use attention points. This is because all actions, including scholarships are locked until a certain level of interest has been achieved. The only way to unlock the recruiting actions is through Attention Points. The more Attention Points devoted to a player, the faster the other recruiting actions will be unlocked. There is a meter by each recruiting action that will tell you what percent of that action has been unlocked. The first thing that can be unlocked is a scholarship offer. Once that is unlocked, if you know you want the player, you should offer the scholarship, as this helps unlock the other actions that need to be unlocked. Better players take longer to unlock, but there is a cap.
Scholarship offers for recruits at or below your division in the final 24 hours of recruiting are unlocked.
Recruiting efforts by D3 teams have less effect than efforts by D2 teams, and much less effect than D1.
Everyone is recruitable - even a 5 star guy can go to a D- team D3 team, but that would be pretty impossible. But if you find a player that matches up well with you on preferences, you have a decent shot at them, even if they would be unrecruitable in the current game. I was able to sign a 5 star player with a C+ prestige team. Keep in mind that this was Beta, and coaches were experimenting with strategies, and there was a lower number of active coaches than in the real worlds. But this was a player that matched preferences really well with my team. I was also able to sign two 5 star players with only 3 openings with a B prestige team by finding players that matched preferences well, offering a start and minutes early on, and by using my attention points wisely.
The recruiting actions are
Scholarship
Home Visit
Campus Visit
Guaranteed Start
Guaranteed Minutes
Once you start recruiting a player, you can look and you will see that the player has differing levels of interest in your school. Before you start recruiting it will be very low, it will then move to low, then moderate, then high, then very high. However, these levels will change depending on what other schools are doing. For example, you may be of moderate interest to a player, but a more powerful school may come along and recruit that player heavily, and this will cause you to drop to low or very low.
In cases where a team is chasing a recruit from a higher division, interest level is limited to Moderate until the start of the second recruiting period in cases where it's a one-division difference, or until the final 24 hours of recruiting if it's a D3 team and a D1 recruit. In other words a D3 team cannot sign a D1 recruit until the last day of recruiting.
LONG DISTANCE RECRUITING IS POSSIBLE:
You can recruit longer distances in the new beta. There are also not the artificial 200, 360 and 1440 mile barriers where prices increased in the current game. 201 miles is almost the same cost as 199 and 361 is not a big jump from 359. If you find a player across the country that wants far from home as a preference, you have a shot at him, because of the 20 HV limit and free attention points. In Beta, Stanford recruited a top player out of New York that wanted to go Far From Home as a preference.
RECRUITING BATTLES:
One of the fundamental background changes is this: Remember how you approached battles in the current HD? You check on the considering list...click on the team battling...count how many open scholarships it has...click on the recruiting tab...count how many players are considering...check whether there are any battles...figure out how the conference fared in the NT to figure out bonus cash...try to figure out whether there was rollover...all that...gone.
After the update...that information is hidden. You might be able to brute force your way through the TOP 100 recruits and see whether an opponent is in battles, but, as far as I can tell at this point, you won't know how much it cost the school to get to "very high" or "high" or whatever. You can figure out # of open scholarships by looking at their roster, and the number of players signed, so you can figure out how many attention points the other team has to use.
One item addressed is that recruits may be considering 10 schools, but if one is out front by enough, only that one will be identified on the recruit profile page as the leader. There may be other schools at Moderate, Low or Very low. "Multiple" means that more than one team is at high or very high. However, this may mean 2 or 3 D3 schools are being highly or very highly considered by a "D1" recruit, if it is in the second recruiting period, since in the first period they are relegated to a maximum of Moderate. But you can look on that player profile and see which teams are battling for that "multiple" player.
SIM RECRUITING:
Sims will switch recruits if they know they have no chance. They recruit each cycle. They can do multiple Home Visits each cycle. They are still not too difficult to beat though by a coach who is putting a lot of effort into a player, unless that coach is trying to recruit a player from a higher division. Sims also have the same distance restrictions normal teams now. So, when you see a sim team, it will most likely recruit in its general area, especially at lower divisions.
Important Note: You need to push down sims to VERY LOW to get them to stop putting in effort. If you are at Very High and a sim is at Low you need to put in more effort to eliminate them.
CAMPUS VISIT LIMIT:
Each player only accepts one CV from 5 schools. So, if there's a guy you want, and you think he will be fought over, you want to be one of the first five teams to offer a campus visit. Campus visits are not rejected.
HOME VISIT LIMIT:
A team can only do 20 HVs on a player - so it’s not such a big deal if you are battling a team that has 6 openings because you can compete with them on equal footing. All teams can do up to 20 home visits on the same player - there is no limit on the number of teams that can do the 20 visits. Also, a team can’t come in a the last cycle and do 150 HVs after a guy has been considering you all along.
ATTENTION POINTS:
You also have attention points that you can use on players. These points essentially represent the low level recruiting actions like letters, calls, and texts. These points may be allocated to recruits in any manner, so a coach can put all of his points on one player or spread them out to many players.
Attention Points are totally free. Every team gets 20, plus 20 per open scholarship. This is where you can sometimes beat out a more powerful team, if you use all of your AP on one guy. I think that 20 AP = 1 HV in terms of power, or it may be 60. The value of attention points depends on several things, including your school's prestige and how well your school fits the player's preferences. You can sign a player using only AP and a scholarship.
The coach may reassign points at any time. So he may take 5 points away from Player A and put them on Player B to start building interest with that player.
Reassigning points doesn't affect any interest that's already accumulated, but will affect interest going forward. When each recruiting cycle runs (every 6 hours), the team receives recruiting credit for each recruit who has points allocated to him.
ATTENTION POINTS REDUCTIONS:
When a player signs, that teams attention points will be reduced based on the number of Opening Allocation of Attention points still available divided by the # of openings.
This means if you have 6 or less openings at the start, then you will lose 20 AP each time a recruit signs (The AP already assigned is reduced evenly among the allocated players based on their percentage of the available allocated AP).
If you have more than 6 openings, then you will lose less than 20 (ex. 8 openings but 140 AP, with first signing will lose 120/8 or 15 AP leaving you with 125 AP with 7 openings still).
SCHOLARSHIPS:
To be able to officially sign a player, you must offer him a scholarship. A scholarship may be offered at any time for free, but it's important to know that it may be accepted at any time after the start of the signing period, so a coach should only offer one if he's sure he wants to sign that player. Scholarship offers will help unlock the other recruiting actions faster.
SIGNINGS:
As mentioned in the preferences section, recruits are programmed to have a signing preference. They will either sign early, by the end of period 1, whenever or late. See that section for more details.
A team must be "High" or "Very High" on a recruits list to sign, unless it is the last cycle. On the final recruiting cycle, if a recruit has no valid offers from teams at High or Very High, he will accept an offer from a team at a lower interest level. So he would first look for a team at Moderate, then if there were none there, he would move on to Low, then to Very Low.
Battles are not totally decided by which team is actually "leading" in recruiting. It is possible for a team to be behind in recruiting by up to 35% (I believe) and still end up signing the recruit. The odds are not that great, but it does happen. Occasionally a team with "High" interest will beat a team with "Very High". The odds are not favorable, but it can and does happen. The further ahead a team is, the greater the odds they will sign with that team, but there is a chance that the player will go the other way. The reasoning for this was that sometimes a recruit changes his mind at the last minute, or that some factor has caused him to not go with the school that he was expected to go to. The only way to be sure he will sign with your school, is if you are the only school at High or Very High when he signs. There were 188 signings this season in Beta where more than one team was at or above High and had an offer out. 88% signed with a Very High team. 69% signed with the leading team.
AUTO SIGNING:
Human coached teams will now auto-sign players after recruiting ends to get to 3 openings or less. So, if a team has 5 openings, they would auto-sign 2 players. The auto-sign logic at the end of recruiting will only sign guys to teams at their projected level. That means teams won't get lucky with a leftover from a higher division, and also won't get stuck with a guy from a lower division.
PROMISES:
Many players want to get on the court right away. Once you've built up a certain amount of recruiting credit for a recruit, you can promise a starting spot or minutes. These options are free and valuable, but must be honored if the recruit signs, or he will react negatively and possibly transfer.
If you offer playing time and a start at the beginning of recruiting to a player you know you want, who has "Wants to play" as a preference, then every HV and AP and CV after that point is affected by that preference, so you want to offer these early. Promises of PT and a start are very powerful. Promises will always be processed first if multiple recruiting actions are taken in the same cycle, ensuring that any boost from preferences applies to all subsequent actions in that cycle.
Even if a player is "Neutral" towards playing time as a preference there is still a boost by offering playing time. According to Seble, "There is always pretty significant credit from the promise action on its own, regardless of preference. If they have a preference for playing, there is an additional boost on every recruiting action after the promise is made."
REDSHIRTING:
When a player redshirts, that means he sits out an entire season and doesn't lose a year of eligibility. However, he still practices and improves during that season. This is useful for a coach when the player isn't likely to play much right away.
A coach may want to inform the recruit that he will be redshirted. This will generally have negative value, but will ensure that the recruit will accept a redshirt if signed, without losing work ethic.
You can change your mind about this later, but then the recruit will expect to NOT be redshirted.
One nice feature in the new game is that you will know immediately if a redshirt is accepted. So, if you are setting your depth chart and decide to try and redshirt someone, you don't have to wait until the next cycle to finish setting the chart.
WITHDRAWING A SCHOLARSHIP OFFER TO A RECRUIT:
If you withdraw a scholarship offer, you pay a huge penalty. All of your recruiting actions will pretty much disappear on that player.
INELIGIBLES:
If you recruit and sign an ineligible, and they decide to go Juco, your efforts will still have some carry over the following year on that player, just like the current game.
Reaching up for Talent:
Every player is recruitable. Even D3 teams can go after D1 players, although they will not sign until the last day of the second cycle. D2 teams can sign D1 players at the beginning of the second cycle. The way you are prevented from signing these players before that time is that the maximum level of interest that a player above your division will show is "moderate", until the time that they are allowed to sign, and players only sign at High or Very High. Keep in mind though, that while you will not change from moderate to high/very high until the 2nd cycle (or last day of 2nd cycle) you are STILL earning credit on that recruit. And even though you are moderate, if you pump effort into the recruit, you will keep the other teams low/very low. It's not like this effort is being wasted.
SUMMARY:
D1 teams- Can sign any recruit during either session.
D2 teams- Can sign D2 and D3 recruits during either session. Can only sign D1 recruits in 2nd session.
D3 teams- Can sign D3 recruits during either session. Can only sign D2 recruits during 2nd session. Can only sign D1 recruits during last 24 hours of 2nd session.
Recruiting Strategy
Again, everyone does things differently and that is what makes this game great. Everyone allocates AP and spends money differently. The main important thing is to have a good list of *solid* players you would be happy to sign. Cash is more strapped at the D3 level, but if you have 4 openings still try to make a list of 20 guys you like. Make sure you have guys to rotate through, so if your top recruit gets taken by a higher prestige/division school, you have a backup option ready to offer a ship. Especially at D2/D3, teams who lost *their* primary options will swoop in and steal your primary options as a backup. So you need to have backup options of your own.
In an ideal world, in D3, you're finding quality guys who "slip through the cracks" and you end up as the only human coach offering a scholarship to them. Often you can get roughly 75% of your guys this way D3, and this strategy can be maintained higher up as well! My first D2 2 seed team was composed of 12 players that I only offered a scholarship to! And my first D1 Sweet 16 team at Weber State was similar (11 out of 12).
If you're at D3, don't battle higher division humans (D1/D2). But just because higher division humans are on the recruit, it doesn't mean they are sure to offer a scholarship to them. You can use your money to push down higher division Sim AI coaches or battle D3 humans, but if you can't get the sims to very low they will fight pretty hard!
But I can offer one more universal piece of recruiting advice, which is to unlock players and get a scholarship offer on them as quickly as possible. It shows other people you are interested and lets you gain a foothold on a player.
Scheduling
Scheduling is pretty simple. In my opinion, it's the most fun to play human coaches. A lot of coaches will schedule infinite home-and-homes, where you just go back and forth each year until someone decides to stop, or changes schools. But the issue with playing human coaches is only one coach can win, and if you are looking to get wins for whatever reason (increase PR ranking, run up prestige, meet win requirement for PI/NT) then you have to play sims. It's best to watch
this video to learn how to schedule optimally.
General Advice for New Players
There is a lot here and a lot to learn. Don't worry about it. Have fun. The most fun I've ever had with this game was at my first D2 school (2nd to 8th seasons) where I game-planned and micromanaged my depth chart/play distribution every day. It taught me a ton, even though we didn't even make the PI until my 5th season of HD (I recruited some terrible players in my few seasons... highlighted by a 1 WE guy and a 6 WE guy, along with tons of super low ATH players) it was a blast.