Things we didn't know!

[ghostdogg70]

I was today years old when I found this out. Recruits can commit to your school without you making them a scholarship offer.
I was recruiting a 5 star QB that I really wanted. I scouted him. He looked good on paper. Then I ended up in a recruiting war for 2 other top recruits and never spent any hours because we were top on his list. I figured I'd get the other 2 in and go back for him after as long as no other school was actively gunning for him. Then I played a tough away game against GT, which I lost in 4 overtimes, and when I advanced the week the QB had committed. Now I'm worried he won't be there at the end of recruiting because the game won't let me give him a scholarship post commitment.
I want to post a pic but don't know how or if it's even possible. If you do let me know.

[sherrane]

Quote: Originally Posted by ghostdogg70

I was today years old when I found this out. Recruits can commit to your school without you making them a scholarship offer. I was recruiting a 5 star QB that I really wanted. I scouted him. He looked good on paper. Then I ended up in a recruiting war for 2 other top recruits and never spent any hours because we were top on his list. I figured I'd get the other 2 in and go back for him after as long as no other school was actively gunning for him. Then I played a tough away game against GT, which I lost in 4 overtimes, and when I advanced the week the QB had committed. Now I'm worried he won't be there at the end of recruiting because the game won't let me give him a scholarship post commitment. I want to post a pic but don't know how or if it's even possible. If you do let me know.

I just discovered this last night as well, so I wonder if this was implemented in one of the patches. I'm wrapping up the 2029 season and was ranked 2nd behind Oregon, which would be my 2nd top 5 class to unlock Elite Recruiter. With all the 5 star and 4 star players unavailable to me, I added 8 3-Star recruits to get up to the 35 limit. I did not offer them a scholarship. I had 4 of these recruits commit despite never offering them a scholarship. I could not remove them from my board because they committed to a non-existent offer. I ended up reverting to the version before I advanced the week and removed all of them from my board.


I would expect your QB to be there. The game responds as if you did offer him a scholarship. You can't offer, can't remove, can't allocate hours. The game views him as if he has committed to you.

[Funkycorm]

The QB will absolutely be there. I have had this happen multiple times and the player always shows up.

[moTIGS]

I could be wrong, but I think it's always been like this. I've had a handful of accidental commitments from guys I didn't want and never offered but forgot to take off my board. But for me that has always happened at the end of the off-season recruiting period, when players commit to whoever is at the top of their list (if that school has them on their recruiting board, offer or not). The part I don't get with OP's case (and maybe it just wasn't clearly explained) is how the player's interest went up. If he had no offer and no points on him, then he should have stayed where he was, so getting that kind of commitment during the season is interesting.

A related thing occurred to me recently: I offered two five-star quarterbacks in the initial recruiting week but only put points on one of them. The second guy got that initial offer then nothing else from me.

He still committed.

I have never seen a five-star player get zero offers before. I don't think it's new or something I learned, per se, but it was very unexpected.

[ghostdogg70]

(The part I don't get with OP's case (and maybe it just wasn't clearly explained) is how the player's interest went up. If he had no offer and no points on him, then he should have stayed where he was, so getting that kind of commitment during the season is interesting.)

So the player was a 4 star QB. I found him late in the season. Like week 8. I was his top destination and no school had offered him. At the beginning I thought he'd be a guaranteed bust. I mean a 4 star with no offers in week 8? So I scouted him and his numbers were good. I never put points on him because I didn't have a need for QB's and I had 2 players that I did need wavering. I put the hours I had left toward getting them in. The way I saw it, if he hadn't gotten offered yet with his numbers it wasn't gonna happen until last minute. The battle for the other 2 players went longer than I thought. He committed during championship week. The second team on his list was UCF and his interest level in my program was at around 25% of the bar when I found him. All the others were at about 10%. No major school interests outside of mine. I didn't monitor him to see if interest grew over the season but I did notice that his deal breaker was playstyle and mine is A+ and his floor is B. He did end up being there and I feel he's gonna be really good after his redshirt year. 77 overall as a true freshman. He's 4th on the depth chart. The starter is a SR(rs) 88 ovr, #2 is SR(rs) 83 ovr, #3 is SO(rs) 80 ovr. There's 3 other QB's behind him on the chart.