aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa ****************** *NCAA Football 06* *Recruiting Guide* ****************** Table of Contents: 1) Guide/Contact Information [abc] 2) Introduction [acd] 3) Recruiting Basics [ade] 3a) About Recruiting [bcd] 3b) Recruiting in NCAA Football 06 [bde] 4) Terms to Know [aef] 5) General Strategies [afg] 5a) Your Team's Budget [bef] 5b) Players to Target [bfg] 5c) Spending Points [bgh] 5d) Determining Interest [bhi] 5e) Choosing a Pitch [bij] 5f) Official Visits [bjk] 5g) Position Changes [bkl] 6) Week-by-Week Breakdown [agh] 6a) In-Season Recruiting [blm] 6b) Offseason Recruiting [bmn] 7) Frequently Asked Questions [ahi] 8) Thanks/Legal Info [aij] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1) Guide/Contact Information [abc] NCAA Football Recruiting Guide/FAQ ver. 1.30 Created, edited, and maintained by Evil Dave (David Bernardo) evil_dave_faqs \\at// yahoo \\dot// com *Please include "NCAA 06 FAQ" in the subject line of any emails, and a handle to be credited by if you do not want your email address posted. To quickly navigate this FAQ, use your browser's 'Find' function (Ctrl+F in Internet Explorer) to search for the three-letter key for each section. Version History: v0.25 - The beginning. Framework, first few sections finished. v0.50 - More sections finished. Halfway complete. v0.75 - Nearing release version. Two sections remaining to finish. v0.95 - Only minor touch-ups, general editing left. Release imminent. v1.00 - Finally finished. Submitted to GameFAQs 11/06/2005. v1.05 - First minor revisions done. Added a FAQ and some other information. v1.10 - Added some more information. v1.15 - Minor edits, added a FAQ. v1.20 - More grammatical changes, and added another couple of FAQs. v1.25 - Added more information and a FAQ. v1.30 - Grammatical edits, rewrote Position Changes section, and added a FAQ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2) Introduction [acd] Maintaining a Dynasty in the NCAA Football games has long been one of my favorite videogame pastimes. The challenge of bringing a middle-of-the-road university up to the level of national powerhouses is something that, as a college football fan, I find very entertaining. One of the most important ways to do this in the NCAA Football games (as in the real world) is by recruiting well. Through plenty of trial and experimentation, I have found methods that allow me to consistently bring in extremely talented recruiting classes with nearly any school. Given the dearth of recruiting information available for this year's version of NCAA Football on GameFAQs, I feel that I should share my techniques with everyone who is interested. This FAQ will focus on the recruiting portion of NCAA Football 06's Dynasty Mode. I will break down every aspect of both the in-season and offseason recruiting periods, and will offer my hints and tips on making sure you get the best possible recruiting classes for your school. This FAQ will *not* cover any other aspects of the Dynasty Mode. I just do not have the time necessary to create a full-fledged Dynasty FAQ, and so all areas of the game outside of recruiting will only be referenced as they pertain to the recruiting itself. I also should remind everyone that this guide will not serve as a substitute to your team winning games. It will certainly help you acquire the best players you possibly can, but you will still need to actually win games for your program (and concordantly, the quality of your recruits) to improve overall. Recruiting, as important as it may be, will never guarantee results on the field! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3) Recruiting Basics [ade] 3a) About Recruiting [bcd] Right now, you're probably asking yourself, "Just what in the heck is this crazy recruiting thing?" Well, I'll tell you: recruiting is the method that universities use to fill their quota of athletic scholarships for any sport that offers them. The basic premise here, from the perspective that you will be taking (that of the university) is one of supply and demand: the better the players you try to bring in, the harder it is to get them. This means that you have to do certain things to increase your chances of getting those players. Since other schools are directly competing with you for those recruits, _how_ you recruit becomes almost as important as _who_ you recruit. Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to find the best available players, and then try to convince them that attending your school is the best option for them. 3b) Recruiting in NCAA Football 06 [bde] NCAA Football, being a videogame, cannot portray the recruiting effort in a 100% accurate manner. This meant that some creativity was necessary on the part of Tiburon, the game's developer. The end result of their efforts is a setup that, while not entirely realistic, gives a good feel for the process, and is both easy to pick up and difficult to master. So, how did they do it? The term that I feel best defines recruiting in the game is 'points.' No, not points you score on the field; the points that I'm referring to are, of course, your recruiting budget. Yes, that's right; one of the main challenges of recruiting in NCAA Football is managing a budget. That's not to say that everything is all a numbers game. Your primary tool for attracting your targeted players is the 'pitch.' This is basically your selling point, or what you will tell these players to convince them to attend your university. Since this is a game, there are only six pitches, and you must choose which one to give to each recruit. The goal with these is to give the player a pitch that he likes, thus putting your school in the lead to sign him. The third factor in NCAA Football's recruiting that you must learn to handle is timing. There are two separate periods during which you will be able to pursue players, and each period is additionally broken up into individual weeks. You must navigate these time frames, trying to ensure that important events occur at important times (or, more often, as soon as possible). These three dynamics, and how they interact, present the brunt of the challenge in NCAA Football's recruiting. There are other, less important things to understand as well, which I'll discuss in a bit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4) Terms to Know [aef] Athlete - A player who does not have a particular position that they are going to play at the collegiate level. Recruiting one of these players (their position abbreviation is 'ATH') means that you must choose which position to play them at. Commit - When a recruit accepts a university's scholarship offer, it is said that they have committed to attend that school. DNQ - An acronym for 'Did Not Qualify.' Used when a player does not meet the NCAA eligibility standards to play for an athletic team. In this game, denotes a player who did not sign with any school during the Offseason recruiting period and thus will not play for any team in the upcoming season. Pipeline - A state/territory that has provided your school with at least three enrolled recruits within the past two years. While the benefits of these seem fleeting, occasionally players from a Pipeline State are more likely to have interest in attending your school. Pitch - Your choice of argument to each player. Essentially, this is the angle you are taking in trying to explain why that player should choose to attend your school. There are six of these: Program Prestige - Your program's importance and tradition. Your pitch is that this player should choose your school because of its storied past and national recognition. Location - Where your school is located, nationally. Your pitch is that this player should choose your school because of how close it is to their home. Playing Time - The amount of time a player will be on the field. Your pitch is that this player should choose your school because of how much time they will play as a Freshman. Coaching Style - The type of plays you typically call during your games. Your pitch is that this player should choose your school because the plays you call fit well with what they can do as a player. Coach Prestige - Your personal importance as a coach. Your pitch is that this player should choose your school because of how impressive you have been as a coach. Academics - Your school's academic standing. Your pitch is that this player should choose your school because of the good education that they may receive. Ratings - Your recruit's statistics for each ability. These translate into the numbers that determine their overall rating. Here is what each correlates to: 40 Time: Speed (Spd) Field Awareness: Awareness (Awr) Vertical: Jumping (Jmp) Hands: Catching (Cth) Bench Press: Strength (Str) Squat: Break Tackle (Btk) and Run Blocking (Rbk) in offensive players; Tackling (Tak) in defensive players Arm Strength: Throwing Power (Thp) Throw Accuracy: Throwing Accuracy (Tha) Leg Strength: Kicking Power (Kpw) Kick Accuracy: Kicking Accuracy (Kac) Potential: That player's potential for improvement Discipline: That player's self-discipline Please note that Potential and Discipline are not measured stats, and are only noticeable when either going through training in the offseason or when disciplining that player (respectively). Scholarship - An offer given by universities to pay a student's tuition if the student attends their school. In athletics, scholarships are given to athletes in exchange for the athlete playing for the university's athletics teams. Scout - To test a player to see what his physical abilities are. You can spend budgeted points to scout a prospect during the offseason recruiting period, thus revealing the most accurate stat ratings for the recruit. Stars - The preliminary determination of how talented a player each recruit is. Each recruit is assigned a number of stars, with more stars indicating a higher-rating. There are only a limited number of maximum-rated (5*) players, and so these recruits receive the most interest from teams, and are called Blue-Chip. Verbal - When a player gives a non-binding verbal commitment to a university. These are, at times, broken by the players who give them. Visits - When a player tours a school's facilities. These can be both unofficial and official, although each recruit may take only three official visits. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5) General Strategies [afg] Since In-Season and Offseason recruiting are so different, each aspect of strategy that changes between the two will be noted. 5a) Your Team's Budget [bef] Before even beginning Offseason recruiting, you must set your school's budget for the following season. This determines how many points you have to work with in the following recruiting period, so the budget you set needs to focus on your team's priorities. There are, in my experience, three types of situations you will find your team in during each offseason, and I have come up with three corresponding budgets that will help your team through each. Situation One is the most common situation. In this state of affairs, your team has graduated a fair amount of starters and key players, but you also return a good portion of these players as well. Given the split need between filling holes and training your current players to get better, it's best to split your budget evenly as well. My budget in years like this is kept at 40% recruiting, 40% training, 20% discipline. Situation Two is one of the extremes that you can experience. In years like this, your team graduates or loses early to the NFL almost all of your starters and key contributors, leaving you with a largely inexperienced group of returning players. Your needs here are clearly in the talent department, and recruiting should be a priority when you decide your budget. For seasons like this, I set my budget at 60% recruiting, 20% training, 20% discipline. Situation Three is the polar opposite of Situation Two. With seasons of this type, you return most of your players (including nearly all of your starters). Given the lack of need for immediate help here, your budget's focus should definitely be on training your current players. Situation Three years for me result in a budget of 20% recruiting, 60% training, 20% discipline. Please note that the percentage I use for discipline every year, 20%, is for a team that has good overall discipline, with few suspensions necessary. If your team has more of a discipline problem, you will likely need to take points from another area to cover the deficit. 5b) Players to Target [bfg] Choosing which players to pursue is the first thing you will do in either phase of recruiting, and therefore it is the best area to start with. To start out, figure out which positions need help the most (the Team Overview screen, viewable by holding down the Circle button, is helpful in sorting out your roster). For any position where you need immediate help, you should target several players. If you are solid at most or all positions for next season, you should then focus on positions where you have more upperclassmen (Juniors) than lowerclassmen (Freshmen and Sophomores). If given the choice within the restrictions, always opt for Top 50 players over others at the same position; this is due to the fact that, more often than not, the position rankings are an accurate indicator of each recruit's ability. Another way to differentiate between players with the same star ranking is their stats; the stats given are only approximate, but certain ones like Awareness are good indicators of how good a player's stats will ultimately turn out. In general, you should look for players whose stats are balanced between all areas that contribute to the player's overall rating. You should always try to pick players who fit your playing scheme; for example, if you run the ball more often, you should try to get more HBs and strong OLs, whereas in a passing offense you will need better WRs and smarter, more technically sound OLs. Figure out what players fit your play calling style, and target them over others who might not. There are also a couple things you should not do when selecting players to recruit, either In-Season or in the Offseason. Never, ever, EVER (I can't stress this enough) pursue too many players at the same position. Not only does this cut down the field of people you can go for at other spots; should you successfully recruit all or most of these players, you will be left with a significant number of talented backups at that one position, meaning that you are susceptible to players transferring. Besides, it's not very realistic for a team to sign a half-dozen players at one position, despite the computer's tendency to do just that. Discipline is another factor that should be considered when recruiting. When choosing between players, it is beneficial to pursue players with 'excellent' discipline over those with 'poor' discipline, but it isn't essential. In fact, if you run your team wisely, you can get by with a team comprised entirely of 'poor' discipline players, so never rule out a prospect just because he has bad discipline. Potential is another aspect that should be on your mind when targetting, although on a much smaller level than discipline. In fact, the only real use for potential is in differentiating between two recruits who are otherwise very similar; if one has a higher potential rating, that's the one you should make your primary focus. Potential ratings are somewhat misleading - you never really know how any player will progress during offseason training, regardless of their rating - so you should only use them as a tiebreaker. You should also never allow a position of need to go unfilled by a recruit. Even a 1* recruit is going to be better than a walk-on, so once you get towards the end of Offseason recruiting, make sure that you've covered every empty position where you are below the minimum. IN-SEASON - Since you are allowed to choose who you pursue in In-Season recruiting, there is an open window to abuse the system, and recruit players who would not be feasible in the real world (such as a 2* prestige team only pursuing 5* players). Due to this, I've decided to implement my own restrictions, which you are free to use or ignore. Either way, here they are: 6* prestige: If your program is at 6* for prestige, there are no restrictions. 5* prestige: If your program is at 5* for prestige, there are no restrictions. 4* prestige: If your program is at 4* for prestige, you may only pursue 5* recruits who are from local states/territories, or from Pipeline States. There are no restrictions on 4* recruits. 3* Prestige: If your program is at 3* for prestige, you may only pursue 5* recruits if they are from your home state. You may only pursue 4* recruits who are from local states/territories, or from Pipeline states. There are no restrictions on 3* recruits. 2* Prestige: If your program is at 2* for prestige, you may not pursue 5* recruits. You may only pursue 4* recruits from local states/ territories, or from Pipeline States, up to a maximum of three players. There are no restrictions on 3* recruits. 1* Prestige: If your program is at 1* for prestige, you may not pursue 5* or 4* recruits. You may only pursue 3* recruits who are from local states/territories, or from Pipeline States. If there are not enough local 3* recruits to fill the 12-player quota, you may pursue any 4* players from your home state, or from any Pipeline States, until the quota has been filled. **Another method for recruiting during this period has been brought to my attention by GameFAQs user PSmurf88. His method involves initially targeting only a few players, rather than the maximum of twelve, thus allowing you to spend many more points per player. In my opinion, this strategy is best suited for situations where you only have a few scholarships to fill for the following season, and you want to focus as narrowly as possible on the best players to fill those spots. I can't recommend using this method regularly, though, as you would be severely limiting your pool of potential signees. OFFSEASON - Your options are limited here, since (unlike In-Season recruiting) all players who are interested in your school are pre-determined. This means that you'll have to put more effort into finding those players, which is the main challenge of Offseason recruiting. For more information on gauging interest, see section 5d, Determining Interest. Once you know who is interested, the same rules as from In-Season recruiting apply here. To recap, those were: focus on need positions, recruit players who will fit your playcalling style, and make sure to fill every roster spot if you can. Since you'll be recruiting more than just 3* and above players in this period, it's more important to know which players are better than their contemporaries with the same star ranking. Make sure you're checking position ranking and stats before deciding between two players of the same rating. Scouting is one of the most important ways to figure out who to pursue during Offseason recruiting. Once you scout a player, you get accurate measurements for all his statistics - *very* important when you choose between similar players at the same position. Make sure that, if you have some points to spend, you spend them on scouting; this will help you see whose stats are actually better, and will give you a better chance of finding a steal or two. For more information on scouting, see section 5c, Spending Points. 5c) Spending Points [bgh] Now for the budgeting. Points are different between In-Season and Offseason, so each period will be discussed separately. IN-SEASON - You are given 100 points to divvy up between your twelve targets. The key to spending these is to avoid spreading yourself too thin; after all, "If you chase two hares, you will catch neither." Once you're in Week 2, each of your twelve targets will show their list of eight interested schools, and you will be able to allocate points to those you choose. Given my experiences, these are the averages I have come up with for where your school will be on the players' lists: #1-3: 1-2 players #4-5: 3-4 players #6-8: 4-6 players These are only the averages from my past experiences, so understand that your players could turn out significantly different. Anyway, once you know your initial standing in every target's list, you can begin to divide up your points between them. If you're ready for another chart, here's how I divide up my 100 points: 1 or 2 on initial list: 15 points 3, 4, or 5 on initial list: 10 points 6 on initial list: 5 points 7, or 8 on initial list: 0 points Obviously, you're going to want to put more points towards players who are highly interested in attending your school, so fifteen is a good amount to start out with for those highly interested recruits. For anyone who has your school in slots 3-5, you still have plenty of time to move up, so ten points is a good placeholder for the time being. Finally, anyone who has your school lower than spot 5 is more than likely not going to move you up their list, so only spend minimal (or no) points on these players. Now, in the following weeks, players will move you up and down their lists. You should respond accordingly to this movement, taking points away from players who have moved out of reach, and adding them to players who have your school on the rise. Make sure to check every week to allocate any points that returned to your pool from recruits who have dropped you from their list. There is another important item to note on allocating points. Throughout the season, as you pursue your targeted players, you will casually make pitches to them. You have no control over which pitches are given, or when, and you are not guaranteed that all (or even any) of the different pitched will be used; however, whatever pitches do end up being given become very important during the rest of the recruiting process. The results of whatever pitches you were able to give will show up on the Pitch Feedback list, which you can view by holding Circle at the Prospect Info screen. If you find that one of the pitches was elicited a positive response, then you should immediately increase the amount of points you have allocated to that player to 15-20. Only about 25% of the players you recruit In-Season will respond positively to one of your pitches, and so when you get one, it's important to try your hardest to bring them into the fold. Of course, if the player lowers you on their list even after you've got their attention with the right pitch, you should still drop their points as you would normally. OFFSEASON - There are two separate ways to spend points in Offseason recruiting: scouting and scholarship offers. How you use the two will be the key to your success in Offseason recruiting. Regardless of how you use them, though, if you have points free for any given week, just make sure that you *do*. You can choose to scout any player, at the cost of recruiting points, by pressing Select at the Prospect Info screen. When you scout a player, you will immediately notice that you get accurate measurements of that player's stats. This is the primary function of the Scout feature; for a sacrifice of a few points, you get an accurate look at a player's stats. That isn't the Scout feature's only use, though. When you scout a player, the game acts as though you offered that player a scholarship, with the Program Prestige pitch. This hidden benefit - which is likely a glitch - serves as a sort of 'temporary scholarship' that allows you to keep your interest from a recruit high without actually offering that player a scholarship. This helps in situations where you have a few more players whom you want to sign than scholarships open; by scouting those players that you haven't offered, you can essentially keep their interest in your school high for a couple of weeks, until a scholarship opens up. Scholarships are your school's enticement to recruits. In order to offer a recruit a scholarship, you press the X button at the Prospect Info screen, choose an amount of points from the menu, and then press the start button. Of course, unlike In-Season recruiting, you can't simply choose who you want to pursue out of all the available prospects; here, *you* have to go out of your way to find the players who are interested in your school! There are two basic rules that you should almost always stick to when it comes to actually offering scholarships out. These two 'Golden Rules' are gospel for me when I go through offseason recruiting, and they will help you maximize the results you get from your recruiting points. The first rule, and the one that you should never violate, is this: "Never, ever offer a scholarship to any player that hasn't indicated interest in your school." This rule is by far the most important one about Offseason recruiting, because it will save you lots of recruiting points each year. Once you know how to differentiate between interested and uninterested players, there is never any reason to waste points on the uninterested ones. (For reference, I will cover how to determine who is interested in your team later on in the guide.) The second rule, which is subject to a few exceptions, is this: "Never, ever spend more than the minimum amount of points on any scholarship to a player for whom you have not found a pitch that interests them." This is another good way to cut down on wasted recruiting points between each week. Using only the minimum amount of points per week will allow you to experiment with all of the different pitches at a minimal cost, which gives you freedom to pursue other recruits beyond those who have a clear interest in your school. Figuring out when to spend more than the minimum is easy as well. By now, it should be obvious that, once a recruit has taken a liking to one of your pitches, you should raise the amount of points allocated for that recruit. Raising the amount of points for a recruit should ramp up his interest (if your school has the inherent appeal mentioned earlier), and so you should put as many points into these players as you can afford each week. Putting the maximum amount allowed is only recommended in the case of players whom you strongly want, since it is very costly to do. While a successful pitch is generally the only reason to increase the points you are spending on a player, there are two common exceptions to rule number two: a) A very talented player, whom you would seem unlikely to sign, indicates interest in your school (through the methods I will cover in a bit), and you want to push your team into his top choices. b) Your team is neck-and-neck with another school in recruiting a certain player, but you haven't found a pitch that the player likes. In either of these cases, it is not unreasonable to raise the amount of points expended each week on the targeted player, so long as they have the inherent interest to your program. These are rare exceptions, however, and should only be used if the player involved is one who you particularly want to land, since they involve spending points daringly. 5d) Determining Interest [bhi] This section, it should be easy to see, only pertains to Offseason recruiting. So, how do you figure out who is interested? It's actually more complex than it will seem at first. A good example of this is the interest bar; while it seems helpful, it is, in fact, _not_ a good indicator of whether or not a recruit is interested in signing with your team. Whether or not a player is interested in attending your school is 'built-in' to the player when they are generated by the game. No matter how high their interest bar is, if they do not have their attraction built in, you will never sign them. That's okay, though, because figuring out who will be interested is simple, once you know what to look for. There are two ways to figure out whether or not your school has that inherent enticement to a player: a) The player has your school in their top five list. This is noted by a green circle that appears next to the player's name in the list of prospects, and is the easiest way to tell. b) After week 1 of recruiting has passed, the player's interest in your school has either increased (if you have scouted the player) or decreased (if you had done nothing with the player). That's it. If a player does not fit within either category A or B, there is no chance that you will sign them, regardless of how many points you throw at them. Using these two simple categories, you can quickly narrow the field of potential recruits down to only those you have a chance of signing. From there, you can easily prioritize between recruits, and come up with your weekly budgets. 5e) Choosing a Pitch [bij] With six different pitches to choose from, there are plenty of potential combinations to throw at your recruits. Luckily for you, though, there are ways of figuring out which pitch is likely to get a positive response from your targeted players. Each player generated by the game has a specific pitch that appeals to them. Your job in recruiting is to figure out that pitch, and then push it to them until they decide to sign with your university. The pitch system works as a six-pronged process of elimination, with each unsuccessful pitch bringing you 1/6 closer to the correct one. There can be a method to the madness, however, if you use a bit of common sense when choosing your pitches. Each player that you pursue should be will have one or two of the six pitches that should be the most likely to appeal to them. By making educated guesses based on which of the pitches the player should be interested in, you can greatly increase your chances of finding the correct choice sooner. The following is a quick description of the type of player most likely to respond positively (and negatively) to each pitch: Program Prestige - If your team has a prestige rating of 3* or higher, this is a fairly safe pitch to give; however, if your target is being recruited by higher-prestige schools, the pitch may end up as a negative. Location - If a player is from a town close to your school ('close' is defined by a player who costs six points or less to scout, with farther distances indicated by higher costs to scout), this pitch is safe to give; however, if your target is being recruited by schools closer to their home, the pitch may end up as a negative. Playing Time - If your targeted player will likely end up as the starter at their position, this pitch is safe to give; however, since overall ratings are not uniform between players with the same star rating, you can never be 100% sure that the pitch is correct. Also, if you are recruiting two players at the same position with this pitch, and one commits before the other, the pitch may turn into a negative for the other. Coaching Style - If your play calling style would give your targeted player a lot of playing time, this pitch is a good one to use; however, you need to be certain that your play call style does correspond with the player's position. If you play all of your team's games, you can change your play call sliders (under Coach Options --> Strategy) to reflect the style of game you like to play; this seems to help land Coaching Style recruits, especially when the Defensive Aggression slider is set to very aggressive. Coach Prestige - If you have a coach prestige rating of 3* or higher, this is a fairly safe pitch to give; however, if your target is being recruited by higher-prestige coaches, the pitch may end up as a negative. Similar to Program Prestige. Academics - A new pitch for NCAA Football 06, and a big wildcard. Basically, there is little way to know if a player will be interested by this pitch, so it's best to leave until all other logical options have been exhausted. If your school has a high Academic Prestige rating, there is a higher chance of this being the correct pitch. There will, of course, be situations where multiple pitches have a strong possibility of being correct for a specific recruit. With players like this, you should use your best judgment to select the pitch that you think is best. A good gauge of the player's interests is the player's list of schools; check to see if they are all close to the player's hometown, or if they are all high-prestige schools, or if they are all run- or pass-heavy offenses or aggressive defenses. With some practice, you will be able to make very good educated guesses as to the predilections of your recruits. Of course, no pitch is guaranteed to work on any player, regardless of how well the pitch would seem to suit their interests. Sometimes, a player's preferred pitch will be completely out of the ordinary, and you may not figure it out until it's too late. Using common sense when selecting a pitch is a very solid way to do so, but it is hardly foolproof. 5f) Official Visits [bjk] This section will cover an In-Season recruiting only feature. Official visits are where you will gain the vast majority of your In-Season commitments. The formula is simple: win, and pitch what the recruit wants to hear, and the player is very likely to give you a pledge to join right then and there. Once a recruit has narrowed his field of suitors down to three, he will schedule an Official Visit to each of the three teams. As soon as you see that one of your targets is scheduling visits, make sure that you sign him up to come to your campus as soon as possible. The key with scheduling visits is to make them all as soon as possible, because you want your team to be the one to beat for the player's services. As mentioned in the Spending Points section above, you will casually offer random pitches to all of your targeted players for the duration of their interest in your school. Once a player's Official Visit rolls around, you must choose a pitch to give them while they're on campus. Getting the pitch right isn't the only part of the equation, though; after all, the player is also there to see your team play a home game. Here are the odds that I have calculated for different scenarios on Official Visits: Win Game + Correct Pitch + #1 Team on List: 90% Commit, 10% Soft Verbal Win Game + Correct Pitch + #2/3 Team on List: 50% commit, 25% Soft Verbal Win Game + Incorrect Pitch + #1 on List: 66% Commit, 34% Soft Verbal Win Game + Incorrect Pitch + #2/3 Team on List: 25% commit, 25% Soft Verbal Lose Game + Correct Pitch + #1 Team on List: 33% Commit, 50% Soft Verbal Lose Game + Correct Pitch + #2/3 Team on List: 0% Commit, 25% Soft Verbal Lose Game + Incorrect Pitch + #1 Team on List: 10% Commit, 25% Soft Verbal Lose Game + Incorrect Pitch + #2/3 Team on List: 0% Commit, 0% Soft Verbal So, as you can see from my experiences, the most important aspect to getting a commitment is winning the game. Winning by blowout seems to help a bit, as does beating a favored opponent or rival, but the win is the key. If you can get the trifecta of positives, you are extremely likely to land your recruit. Players who give a Soft Verbal commitment are, in my experience, only 25% likely to end up signing with your school. Unfortunately, there is little way to tell whether a player is going to end up with your school after they give a Soft Verbal, so you will just have to wait out their other visits (and hope that their other target schools lose!). One final note on the Official Visit process. It is greatly to your benefit to schedule a patsy team for any bye week you may have during weeks 7-13 of the season. If you do this, you have an easy team to beat up on during a potential visiting weekend from a targeted player. While this may not seem very sportsmanlike, it is still a realistic approach, especially if you have a tough conference schedule surrounding the patsy. 5g) Position Changes [bkl] While position changes occur separately from recruiting on the offseason calendar, it's important to bring them up now, because they may affect your targets during recruiting. Unlike in NCAA Football 2005, there is now a forced stat penalty on position changes for non-Athletes; no longer can you expect your 3rd-string MLB to become a 90 overall LE upon changing his position, or your 1* TE to be a 5* FB. This is both a good and bad thing; while you don't get the ridiculous stat increases anymore, you do get a closer approxmiation of reality, which most Dynasty fans certainly appreciate. Regardless, you now have to focus a bit more energy on recruiting each position, although in some cases you can still use a smart position change to supplement your recruiting class. For those who aren't familiar with position changes, there are several player positions that translate well into other positions when changed. Obviously, you won't get any humongous stat increases anymore, but if you find your team in one of the following situations, you may as well try out a position switch, to see if it helps: 1) TE-->FB - If you can't get any 3* or better FBs, but you have an abundance of TEs, you can switch a good blocking TE of 3* or above to FB, and they will usually stay within 2-4 points of their overall rating at TE. 2) LB-->DE - If you can't get any 3* or better DEs, but you have an abundance of LBs, you can switch a quick, strong LB of 3* or above to DE, and they will usually stay within 2-4 points of their overall rating at LB. 3) MLB-->OLB - If you can't get any 3* or better OLBs, but you have an abundance of MLBs, you can switch a fast, strong MLB of 3* or above to OLB, and they will usually stay within 2-4 points of their overall rating at MLB. 4) LB-->SS - If you can't get any 3* or better SSs, but you have an abundance of LBs, you can switch a very fast LB of 3* or above to SS, and they will usually stay within 2-6 points of their overall rating at LB. 5) WR-->CB - If you can't get any 3* or better CBs, but you have an abundance of WRs, you can switch a fast WR of 3* or above to CB, and they will sometimes stay within 2-6 points of their overall rating at WR. Please note that these may not work in reverse. They are also not the only position switches that could be beneficial; once you've got your team to the position changes screen, try out different players at different positions to see if you can get any improvements. For all you know, that 6th-string WR may be a great CB, so don't hesitate to check them out! ATHLETES - These players are the great enigmas of recruiting. Of course, you now know that each athlete you recruit will need to be assigned a position in the offseason. You can assign these players to any position you choose, but they will likely have one or two positions where their ovr rating will be highest. This means that when pursuing an ATH, you need to be vigilant of their stats, in order to correctly predict where they will be fit when you get them on the field. Scouting ATH prospects is extremely key. Once you have an accurate picture of their measurements in each statistical area, you can compare them side-by-side to players at each position where their body type is likely to play. For example, if you're pursuing a 6'1", 190 lb ATH, you will want to compare their speed, strength, and hands to those of recruits at HB, WR, CB, SS, and FS. If the ATH's attributes measure up to those of the top recruits at one of those positions, you can bet that they'll end up with a highest overall rating when played at that position. Doing this with each ATH you pursue allows you to weed out players who will likely end up at positions that you do not need help at, which saves you scholarships and roster space. One thing to pay attention to when doing your comparisons is the information included on the recruit's stat page. If the stats show a position-specific attribute, then that player is much more likely to be highest rated at that position. This usually occurs with ATHs who will end up at QB or K. On a side note, every ATH's star rating seems to have little to no correlation to how good their ovr rating will be when you assign them a position. In fact, it is entirely possible that a 1* ATH who you signed as an afterthought may end up with a higher rating than the 4* in the Top 100 Prospects list! Of course, there is no guaranteed method of predicting when this may happen, so you will need to depend a bit on luck. Studying and comparing stats may help you a bit. Aa a result, my rule for dealing with ATHs is to always pursue them when you can spare the scholarship, so long as they appear to be capable of playing a position that you're recruiting at anyway. This means any ATH, not just 4* or 5* ones. In the end, even if you end up with a dud once in a while, it's good policy to recruit based on the potential for greatness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6) Week-by-Week Breakdown [agh] This section will give you a specific calendar to follow for each of the two recruiting periods. My goal for it is to simplify everything into a very easy format, so that everyone can follow it. 6a) In-Season Recruiting [blm] PRESEASON: -- First and foremost, go to Coach Options-->Coach Strategy, and turn 'Recruiting Assistance' to off; you definitely do *not* want the computer making any decisions for you! Once you turn it off, it will remain off permanently. -- Now, your first order of business is targeting players. You can choose twelve players, and since you likely will not get all of them, you had better choose well. So, who do you choose? See section 5b, Players to Target (search [bfg]) for more in-depth information. -- If you're planning to schedule a patsy team for any open week you have between Weeks 7-13, now is the time to do so. Should you choose to do this, it will help you quite a bit when it comes time for Official Visits. See section 5f, Official Visits (search [bjk]) for more in-depth information. WEEK 2: -- You've made contact with your recruits, and have their initial lists of eight. Now's the time for you to divide up your 100 points between them for the first time, and then go out and play some good football to impress them. See section 5c, Spending Points (search [bgh]) for more in-depth information. WEEKS 3-7: -- These weeks should be spent redistributing any points that are returned to your pool from players that drop you off their lists. Be sure to increase points on any player for whom you find a pitch that works. See section 5c, Spending Points (search [bgh]) for more in-depth information. WEEKS 8-13: -- Most official visits take place during this time, so keep an eye out for any player who trims his list down to three teams. Make sure you schedule visits as soon as possible, and try to make sure you get the pitch right when they come to town. See section 5f, Official Visits (search [bjk]) for more in-depth information. WEEKS 14-15: -- Any player who hasn't committed to a team yet will do so during there last two weeks, so be sure to put lots of points into whomever you have left to pursue. See sections 5c, Spending Points (search [bgh]) and 5f, Official Visits (search [bjk]) for more in-depth information. CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK: -- By now, everyone will have committed to a team. Hopefully, you've already gathered an impressive group of players to bring into Offseason recruiting. 6b) Offseason Recruiting [bmn] BUDGET WEEK: -- When setting a budget, be sure to make one that will effectively prepare your team for the upcoming season. This means putting more points into your recruiting budget if you have a lot of holes to fill, or into training if you return most of your key players. See section 5a, Your Team's Budget (search [bef]) for more in-depth information. WEEK 1: -- This week, you should focus on two things: offering minimum-point scholarships to any players on the Interested Prospects list who you want to sign, and spending the rest of your recruiting points for the week on scouting. Make sure to scout any player in the Top 100 overall prospects list whose interest bar is part full (but doesn't have you in their top five list), and any talented player in your home state in the same situation. See sections 5b, Players to Target (search [bfg]), 5c, Spending Points (search [bgh]), and 5d, Determining Interest (search [bhi]) for more in-depth information. WEEK 2: -- Your attention this week should be concentrated on increasing the points on the scholarships of any players who liked your pitch from last week, and searching for players who are interested in your school to fill up the rest of your scholarships. Remember to look for players whose interest has increased or decreased from the past week, and not to waste points on any player who hasn't moved you up or down (and doesn't have you in their top five). Also, if you run out of scholarships, remember to use the Scout trick to gain a few extra players' attention. See sections 5b, Players to Target (search [bfg]), 5c, Spending Points (search [bgh]), and 5d, Determining Interest (search [bhi]) for more in-depth information. WEEK 3: -- Keep increasing points on the scholarships of anyone who has liked a pitch of yours. If you lose a player, immediately fill his scholarship with another player. There's no point in leaving a scholarship open, unless your team is already over 70 players (which is unlikely). See sections 5b, Players to Target (search [bfg]), 5c, Spending Points (search [bgh]), and 5d, Determining Interest (search [bhi]) for more in-depth information. WEEK 4: -- You're getting towards the end of recruiting, so keep your scholarships full. By now, if some of your targeted players seem like they won't sign with you, it's best to cut your losses, and try to grab another player. Make sure you've got at least every position of need filled, and that any big talents remaining are being heavily pursued. See sections 5b, Players to Target (search [bfg]), 5c, Spending Points (search [bgh]), and 5d, Determining Interest (search [bhi]) for more in-depth information. WEEK 5: -- This is the last week of recruiting for this season, so there's no holding back with the points. For any players that you want badly, go ahead and spend as many points as you can on them, although do so reasonably if you have other players that you're pursuing as well. My experience has shown that, if you're going to offer scholarships to any players whom you had not previously targeted, the only shot you have at signing them is if they already have you at #1 on their list, so offer accordingly. Otherwise, try to ensure that any positions of need are filled in recruiting, since a walk-on will invariably be worse than any recruit you can get. See sections 5b, Players to Target (search [bfg]), 5c, Spending Points (search [bgh]), and 5d, Determining Interest (search [bhi]) for more in-depth information. POSITION CHANGES: -- Assign any ATH players you recruited a position, making sure to try them at every spot to see which one best suits them; however, don't be afraid to put them at a spot other than their best if you already have a lot of depth there. Be sure to also check if any players who are buried on your depth chart can help out at a different position. See section 5g, Position Changes (search [bkl]) for more in-depth information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7) Frequently Asked Questions [ahi] 1. Who the heck are you, and why did you write this FAQ? -- I am a longtime fan of the Madden and NCAA Football series, who has been waiting for an opportunity to share my expertise in FAQ form for some time. I recently found the time to sit down and write this thing, so I took it and ran with it. You may also see me in the NCAA Football forums, discussing the current college football climate, or around the forums of whatever game I may be playing at the time. Since this *is* my first FAQ, I appreciate any constructive criticism that you all have for me. My contact information is in section 2, so feel free to drop me a line - just please use proper grammar and spelling, for my sanity's sake. 2. Where can I get the names for the players for my rosters? -- Okay, I know this doesn't have anything to do with recruiting. I figure, I might as well answer this one, since the NCAA Football 06 message board sees this question asked about once a day. Here are the ways you can get the names for your roster file: a) PSXSports.com and several other websites (whom I do not have the URLs for) offer complete I-A and I-AA roster files for either download, receipt by mail, or purchase on a new memory card. I use DT's rosters from PSXSports.com, and I feel that they are the best available. b) A search for 'NCAA Football Roster' on eBay will net you many different sellers who will perform much the same service that you can get from DT's website, although you must bid to receive them. c) You can, if you have the time and the patience, manually input the names by checking every team's official roster on their athletics website. A Google search should bring you to each team's page. There. Now, if anyone asks me this question, I will invoke a voodoo curse upon your family. 3. Player XYZ has his interest bar 90% full, but no matter how hard I recruit him, he won't sign! Please help me! -- Don't pursue him. He's not going to sign with you, because the game created him without any interest in signing with your team - despite what that stupid bar shows. 4. How do you know? What makes you so darn sure? -- Hours and hours and hours of my life spent recruiting in this game. 5. Why should I restrict my In-Season recruiting? I like getting lots of 5* players. -- Personally, I prefer a more realistic experience. If you don't want to follow my restrictions, feel free not to. My strategies should still help you, regardless. 6. How do you raise your school's Academic Prestige rating? -- There is no guaranteed method to raising or maintaining your school's Academic Prestige rating; there are, however, certain things you can do to ensure that your school is always in a good position to do so. The most established way to help out your academic rating is to recruit only players with above-average discipline and high GPAs. This should ensure that you rarely have to mete out any academic suspensions when you play through the season, in addition to its effects on your NCAA interest. It has also been suggested that kicking academic troublemakers off of your team (by cutting them during the offseason) will have the same results; again, this makes sense, since it will definitely prevent some discipline problems during the season. These methods aren't by any means guaranteed to work. Personally, I've never seen or heard of anyone who has had their Academic Prestige increase by more than one star during a dynasty, and even a one star gain is fairly rare. My best advice is to always choose the smarter, better disciplined player over a lesserso one during recruiting. 7. 'How far up on the bar should I set my aggressiveness for my defense on the sliders in coaching strategy? Also, what percentage of run/pass should I set the bar at on defense to lure recruits?' (from cleonard _at_ gac _dot_ edu) -- Both of those questions depend on whether or not you actually play all of your games. If you do, then the Coaching Strategy bars don't mean anything, since you're calling the plays yourself in games. Those bars are only necessary if you simulate games. If you do play all of your games, set your bar fully towards aggressive, and move the Run/Pass bar to whichever side you want to recruit players for (set it more towards Pass to interest DBs and Pass Rusher DLs, or set it more towards Run to interest LBs and Rub Stopper DLs). If you simulate all of your games, the Run/Pass and Aggression sliders will determine your play calling during the simulations, and so you should set them to whatever style you would like your team to play as. Whatever settings you choose, they will still influence the recruits as previously stated. 8. 'Do you have any stat conversions?' (from qflash _at_ gmail _dot_ com) -- Nope. And I don't plan on sitting down and trying to figure them out, either. After recruiting for a while, you should be able to get a general feel for what numbers correlate to what stats, so I don't think that a full chart is really necessary. Just remember that unless you've scouted a player, the displayed stats won't be entirely accurate. 9. 'My friends and I finished (a) season and I finished #1 for the first time ... For some reason, I had no 5-star athletes that showed interest. Is there a reason for this?' (from qflash _at_ gmail _dot_ com) Winning the National Championship is not a guarantee of getting 5* recruits. You need to be competitive for a BCS game for several years consecutively, and to have your Program Prestige at 5* or 6*, in order to attract multiple 5* prospects. Even if you do meet those requirements, if you come from a smaller school (such as UConn, whom I use in Dynasty), you won't attract more than a few 5* prospects until you've really established yourself as a national powerhouse. Why did Tiburon change this aspect of recruiting? I would guess that they felt it should be harder to attract recruits when you're building up a lesser-known program. Whether or not this is realistic is debatable, but it does serve as a good way to ensure that you keep your team's on-field performance consistent in order to stay as a nationally recognized program. My suggestion is to make sure that you follow my method of pursuing interested players during Offseason recruiting, just to make sure that you aren't passing over a 5* player with interest in your program. Never assume that a player who doesn't start out interested isn't interested until you're sure of it. 10. 'Does the success of your program in Dynasty Mode have any affect on the quality or quantity of recruits from your state the computer generates each season?' (from user 'winrich81' on the NCAA Football 06 message board) Unfortunately, no. The general ratio of players/state you see in Season 1 is going to be the same in Season 30. The ratings of each player are randomly assigned when the player is created, without regard to the player's location; of course, the more recruits there are in a given state, the more likely the chances of there being better prospects there. 11. '...any tips on getting underclassmen to stay with your team or is it mostly luck?' (from mystikal_420 _at_ hotmail _dot_ com_) Unfortunately, only luck will help you convince your underclassmen to stay in school. Once an underclassman is determined by the game to be listed on the Players Leaving list, they are assigned a final choice on going pro, as well as a set of parameters for determining when their final decision will be shown. There is no way to change these, and there really aren't any ways to effectively predict what any given player's answer will be, despite the presence of that useless staying/leaving bar. To put it simply, once you get to the Players Leaving stage of the offseason, it's just a matter of going through the motions to see which players will stay. For example, let's say player X wants to turn pro with one year of eligibility remaining. Once the game determines that he will be included on the Players Leaving list, it assigns him some parameters (for this example, let's say that he will need to be convinced three times), and it assigns him a final decision (again, let's say that he will turn pro). You decide that you want X back, so you use the Talk Player Into Staying command to do so. His parameters state that after three tries of being convinced, his final decision - in this case, to turn pro - will be shown, and so you can no longer try to convince him. Each player will have his own set of parameters, and there is no way of knowing what they will be. Now, I have a problem with the way the game determines players who leave early. The game simply has anyone who produced good stats during the previous season try to turn pro, while in reality, college production is in no way a clear indicator of pro potential. The end result of this difference is that a large percentage of the players who leave early have no chance of making it into the Draft Class file that can be exported into Madden, effectively ending their careers early for no good reason. Therefore, I usually take my own measures to counteract the high number of players leaving early. I save my Dynasty right after the National Championship game, but before advancing to the offseason. I'll then go through to Players Leaving, and if there is a high number of underclassmen leaving school early (from all schools, not just mine) who will not make the cut into the Draft Class, I will reset my PS2, and go through the process again. This tactic may seem unrealistic to some, but I feel that it is the only way to effectively negate the lazy programming on Tiburon's part, and thus the best way to ensure more realistic Draft Classes in Madden. For the record, the top 12-15 players by overall rating at each position are the only ones who will make it into each Draft Class; anyone below there fits my description of a player who should have stayed in school. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8) Thanks/Legal Info [aij] Thanks go out to the following, in no particular order: Tiburon/EA Sports, GameFAQs, DT at PSXSports.com, Sony, everyone on the NCAA Football 06 message boards, everyone who has written in with suggestions or information, and the UConn Huskies, for getting good at just the right time to make me into a college football fan. Thanks also go out to the following people, for submitting information that led to revisions in this guide: -dvangorp _at_ uga _dot_ edu (for notes on Academic Prestige and the Squat statistic in recruits) This FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site other than GameFAQs, or otherwise distributed publicly, without advance written permission from the author. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Copyright 2005-2006 David Bernardo ~