NCAA: A Whole New Way to Recruit: Part I - blazer003's Blog

blazer003's Blog

NCAA: A Whole New Way to Recruit: Part I

Posted on February 10, 2011 at 06:45 PM.

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A Whole New Way to Recruit: Part I

I am a college football coach for a division I program. Ok, not really, but that's the ultimate goal of EA's NCAA Football dynasty mode, isn't it? To make you feel like you're master and commander of a school's storied, middling or fledgling football program; engineering it to be the pinnacle of college football.

Last year there was talk of a new recruiting engine in NCAA 11, and the tweaks made it feel slightly different, but not necessarily fresh. It was still the same old recruiting with an oil change.

While on a two hour drive between Eugene and Portland, my imagination started to wander. Next thing I knew I was talking out loud to myself. I started explaining to fans the brand new recruiting system that I had implemented for NCAA 12. I could picture myself doing a video blog right along side Russ and Nate as the tons of adoring fans like myself... back to reality. I'd probably get ripped to shreds by the 25% that wouldn't like my idea. But anyway here's my concoction of a realistic but fun dynasty experience.

1. The Pre-season
A. Spring Game
You start off the season doing the spring game for your school. A chance to get your team out on the field, see what some of the underclassmen can do. Very minor boosts to stats like awareness are given to those who participate and do well. (No stats are lost though, and it adds an interesting dynamic. If you torch the D, they won't improve, and vice versa.)
B. Scouting
You see a map. The map has red and blue shaded areas letting you know areas that are a hotbed of talent. Here's a somewhat random (and very low quality) look:

In addition to these maps of the states, you also have reports of individual prospects. Many of these prospects will be located at these hotbed schools, but some good 5* prospects, as well as more 4* and 3* prospects will be located at more random schools throughout the state. A few prospects will be juniors and sophomores too. More on that later.

In the future seasons these prospect lists will largely be a result of where you have recruited, along with a few guys from random places that are just interested in your school.

You must set up a schedule of areas that you want your coaches to visit in the time between the spring game and the start of fall camp. During this stage you can only meet with them and try to start gaining their interest (or continue to gain their interest if you have courted them as sophomores and juniors). You cannot scout the players during this time, you only have a rough idea of their skill set (again depending on if you scouted them as sophomores and juniors).

Part II will include my concepts of the actual recruiting engine. At this point you do weekly recruiting. This can be simmed of course for those that find this too tedious.

C. HS Camps
Invite local HS students to your training camps, and get a chance to scout and recruit local HS talent. If you're a smaller school in a talented area, like say, Fresno State, this is a good way to get on board with some locals and find some guys that weren't even rated yet by the recruiting service. If you're Washington State, you may find a guy here or there from Spokane but... have you ever been to Pullman?

D. Fall Camp
Another chance to get your players out, including your previous recruiting class, and get them some reps. Some slight awareness improvements, maybe a little addition to some catching stats for receivers, blocking skills and some strength for linemen are again awarded.
Just throwing this out there. Stats should realistically reflect what players do in real life. As the season progresses, players, and freshmen especially should get stronger, quicker and more aware. Speed will only be slightly boosted at the end of freshman seasons and by maybe 1 or 2 points (not too different from how it is now). The way I see it, college training may make you a little faster, but chances are, not much at all. You're going to get bigger and stronger, but most important, you're going to get more confident.

That concludes Part I. Next time, I'll get into the season and the meat of the recruiting engine. The actual recruiting won't be radically different, but much more realistic with some changes I would make. Let's talk about how NCAA 12 or 13 can be the greatest Dynasty mode in the history of this game. Share your thoughts! Give me suggestions!

Peace
-Blazer003

Comments

# 1 noda11 @ Feb 11

I absolutely love this way of recruiting. NCAA needs to do something to make recruiting better, and this is a good in-depth way to do that. Great ideas Blazer!

# 2 charter04 @ Feb 11

Love this stuff. I have wanted this for a while. 2K's College BBall game in 08 had this kind of depth. Love the spring game and fall game idea. The more depth the better for me.

# 3 raidersbball20 @ Feb 12

i really like the idea of this it reminds me of CH 2k8. I think it would make dynasty a lot more fun

# 4 44drob @ Feb 12

Nice ideas cant wait for part 2

# 5 MHammer113 @ Feb 12

I still say College Hoops 2k8 did a great job with recruiting. There should be diamonds in the rough and players should surprise you and there should be a way to evaluate players more specifcally without just going by stars. It would be great to have a few big busts and a few big booms. This would allow big programs to crash without guidance and small programs to flourish. I just cant wait for part 2.