NCAA Football 14 - A Deeper Look at Power Recruiting

[mattbooty]

My thoughts on the bonus for late visits.... One thing to keep in mind, when comparing it to "real life", if a kid goes on his first visit and commits, he still has the option to decommit and choose another school, and often that happens. A kid will commit early (often times just to get the recruiters off their back during their final season), then take a few more visits and possibly change his commitment. Since NCAA is (unfortunately) a single commit and they are done, we have to keep that in perspective... many times you will hear recruiting "experts" (admittedly may not be as knowledgeable as they claim) say that team X has a chance at nabbing a kid because they are his last visit before making his decision. That doesn't mean its a definite, but its widely considered to be a bonus...

Look at Jabrill Peppers... he was considered a Michigan lock most of the year, then leading up to his decision he scheduled PSU as his final visit and although he did end up sticking with Michigan, most people thought PSU at least had a chance because their visit would be freshest in his mind when he made his decision.

So I do think adding some value to being the final visit is legit. Now if it turns out the way it is programmed getting the final visit is some sort of "cheat code" to locking in any recruit you want, then its poorly done. But just giving you a relatively small boost i think is valid.

[Strategizer]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheDelta

You make it sound like waiting until the very last moment would be the only way to ever gain commitments in 14, nothing they said so far implied that from what I heard, they still got insta-commits so I'd say it should still be possible to lock up a few players early, some over the course of the season and the rest, including many high-profile prospects that get chased by a lot of schools, drag it out until signing day, doesn't sound so far off to me.

Yes, exactly. His point didn't really make sense because guys will still commit before they take all or any of their visits. The devs have said this is one of the risks of scheduling that visit as late as possible. Also the new lockout feature could come into play if you wait too long to schedule a visit and you fall too far behind other schools.

I also don't understand how he knows all of these early commits didn't care about competitive visits. Did he read interviews with all of them saying they didn't care to be visiting with multiple recruits at the same position? Seems unlikely.

I can understand being a little wary of how new additions to the game will work, but if you are going to compare them to a real world situation to express your concern, the comparison needs to make sense. That said, I would like the idea of a set period of "preseason" recruiting where you can begin scouting and recruiting players before the season actually starts. I think that paired with a decommit system would be a great way to build on the changes and additions EA made this year.

[Colorado Cooler]

Quote: Originally Posted by Strategizer

Yes, exactly. His point didn't really make sense because guys will still commit before they take all or any of their visits. The devs have said this is one of the risks of scheduling that visit as late as possible. Also the new lockout feature could come into play if you wait too long to schedule a visit and you fall too far behind other schools. I also don't understand how he knows all of these early commits didn't care about competitive visits. Did he read interviews with all of them saying they didn't care to be visiting with multiple recruits at the same position? Seems unlikely. I can understand being a little wary of how new additions to the game will work, but if you are going to compare them to a real world situation to express your concern, the comparison needs to make sense. That said, I would like the idea of a set period of "preseason" recruiting where you can begin scouting and recruiting players before the season actually starts. I think that paired with a decommit system would be a great way to build on the changes and additions EA made this year.

I made the comment about recruits not caring about competitive visits because these players committed before their respective schools have even built their 2014 visit lists (per Rivals data bases). They will take their officials later. Thus, competitive visits were not a factor in their decisions. I do not dismiss the significance of competitive visits or the last visit as long as they're kept in perspective. My main point here as reiterated by fcboiler is commitment lists fill up much faster in real life as in this game, and if realism is a goal, that needs to change. In years past, many top 3 and 4 star recruits in the game lasted into the middle of the season without an offer. Anything EA can do to close the gap between their game concept and reality, I'm all for.

[Strategizer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Colorado Cooler

I made the comment about recruits not caring about competitive visits because these players committed before their respective schools have even built their 2014 visit lists (per Rivals data bases). They will take their officials later. Thus, competitive visits were not a factor in their decisions. I do not dismiss the significance of competitive visits or the last visit as long as they're kept in perspective. My main point here as reiterated by fcboiler is commitment lists fill up much faster in real life as in this game, and if realism is a goal, that needs to change. In years past, many top 3 and 4 star recruits in the game lasted into the middle of the season without an offer. Anything EA can do to close the gap between their game concept and reality, I'm all for.

I think you mean complimentary visits, as the competitive visit is what you don't want. And I don't see how that is any different than your point about late visits - if a recruit in '14 commits without a complimentary visit, which is obviously possible, then it wasn't a factor. So what do these real life recruits have to do with those new aspects of visits in the game?

I think your point about all the early commits would make more sense if you were arguing for a preseason recruiting period like fcboiler was. I just don't think it says anything about the new visit features, which do take into account early commits.

[EvanRG]

Phone calls were such a bother to me in the past few years. I loved recruiting great players, but this should make Dynasty flow much better this year.

If gameplay is even mildly improved over last '13, this will be a great last hurrah for NCAA Football on the current-gen.

[DorianDonP]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheDelta

You make it sound like waiting until the very last moment would be the only way to ever gain commitments in 14, nothing they said so far implied that from what I heard, they still got insta-commits so I'd say it should still be possible to lock up a few players early, some over the course of the season and the rest, including many high-profile prospects that get chased by a lot of schools, drag it out until signing day, doesn't sound so far off to me.

It's still pretty far off from real life, which is what we should be trying to emulate. This summer will have a ton of camps and most schools will be halfway to 2/3's of the way finished with their class.

Locking up "a few" players early, and "some" over the course of the season doesn't represent what actually happens all that well.

I think commitable offers would be the best solution to the problem and would add a huge strategy element to the game, but if that's not possible, then having a bulk of the recruits wanting to commit during the summer, a bulk wanting to commit during the season, and a bulk wanting to commit after the season would be the best way to go. Separate the recruits by when they plan to decide. That way a coach wanting to pretty much have his class about done by the start of the season could spend all of his time recruiting guys that will be deciding early.

On another note, is it confirmed that they took out in-home visits after the season? If so, this seems like another two step forward, one step back addition.

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by DorianDonP

It's still pretty far off from real life, which is what we should be trying to emulate. This summer will have a ton of camps and most schools will be halfway to 2/3's of the way finished with their class. Locking up "a few" players early, and "some" over the course of the season doesn't represent what actually happens all that well. I think commitable offers would be the best solution to the problem and would add a huge strategy element to the game, but if that's not possible, then having a bulk of the recruits wanting to commit during the summer, a bulk wanting to commit during the season, and a bulk wanting to commit after the season would be the best way to go. Separate the recruits by when they plan to decide. That way a coach wanting to pretty much have his class about done by the start of the season could spend all of his time recruiting guys that will be deciding early. On another note, is it confirmed that they took out in-home visits after the season? If so, this seems like another two step forward, one step back addition.

Well, Coach Sumlin said the recruiting was as real as it could possibly get in a video game, so we'll see.

[Strategizer]

Quote: Originally Posted by DorianDonP

It's still pretty far off from real life, which is what we should be trying to emulate. This summer will have a ton of camps and most schools will be halfway to 2/3's of the way finished with their class. Locking up "a few" players early, and "some" over the course of the season doesn't represent what actually happens all that well. I think commitable offers would be the best solution to the problem and would add a huge strategy element to the game, but if that's not possible, then having a bulk of the recruits wanting to commit during the summer, a bulk wanting to commit during the season, and a bulk wanting to commit after the season would be the best way to go. Separate the recruits by when they plan to decide. That way a coach wanting to pretty much have his class about done by the start of the season could spend all of his time recruiting guys that will be deciding early. On another note, is it confirmed that they took out in-home visits after the season? If so, this seems like another two step forward, one step back addition.

I seem to recall Ben saying or implying in the podcast that most of the recruits will commit before you get to the offseason, so it sounds like the majority of players will commit early or during the course of the season, and typically you will only be trying to close on a small handful of guys in the offseason.

Obviously the solution to make it at least a little more realistic is to have some recruiting before you get into the season. In thinking on it some more I doubt you're going to see a multi week preseason given their effort to reduce the time spent on recruiting in general. Perhaps they can add a huge amount of points to the preseason like they did the offseason, so in addition to filling your board and scouting, you can also offer scholarships and recruit kids how you want. In addition to insta-commits, you can have some kids ready to commit early if you offer and put in enough points, like 2,000 or so. The preseason could have even more points to distribute - say 15,000 or more - since it would be representing a longer amount of time. This would allow a lot of the schools to enter the season with a number of players already committed, all while simplifying the process and keeping recruiting from being a big time sink, which judging by comments made here a lot of people didn't like. Adding a decommit system to this would add a lot to the drama of recruiting while improving the realism, even if it isn't perfect.