WVU gives EA SPORTS insight into recruiting

[JeffHCross]

EA Sports had never consulted with a college about recruiting.

Glad to hear it. I don't mean "about time" in a negative way ... just that, well, it's about time!

I'll be curious to see if the changes are reflected in the next edition (as the article suggests) or in the next-gen version (which I expect is more likely).

[morsdraconis]

Woah! That was unexpected news. Awesome to hear.

[steelerfan]

Interesting. Surprising to see that more changes are coming to recruiting after we've had so many in 13.

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[baseballplyrmvp]

Interesting. Surprising to see that more changes are coming to recruiting after we've had so many in 13.

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recruiting is, imo, one aspect of the game that should always be receiving updates. wonder what they have in mind though?

[JeffHCross]

recruiting is, imo, one aspect of the game that should always be receiving updates. wonder what they have in mind though?

I'd imagine the coaches advised on changes to the Commit process.

[baseballplyrmvp]

I'd imagine the coaches advised on changes to the Commit process.

[baseballplyrmvp]

here's another site with an article on it

hopefully decommitments make it. also seems like a juco's could see some love and the pipeline process could get some work. those were some specific issues mentioned.

[JeffHCross]

Psst: Same site, same article.

[CLW]

Yeah some of the biggest things I can think of would be (1) De-commits / verbals (2) all of the rules about when/how often coaches can contact players; (3) i imagine there aren't as many phone calls and its more text messages now

[bdoughty]

I got a good laugh from this.

Hammond and Dorchester bought the most recent game a few weeks before their trip. They spent one weekend when Hammond's wife was out of town simulating the games and giving great time and attention to the recruiting process.

[JeffHCross]

Yeah, as a former journalist I can't fathom why the author chose to include that tidbit. Almost seems like a backhanded way to say they weren't supposed to do that.

[natetcu]

If I had to guess what is coming I would say: No hard commits until signing day (only soft verbal), early enrollees (closest thing to a hard commit), closer recruiting rules (more texting and with new NCAA regulations unlimited social media communication), and of course in the power conferences using boosters to pay recruits.

[Jayrah]

@NateTCU I think you hit it with your first thought and just before reading your post that's where I was going. I'm hoping you were joking with your last thought though.... it's both not allowed and really not a way to replicate in game anyways.

But yes No HARD commits til signing day is a MUST if they want to make this at all realistic. That will make for some REAL recruiting wars where you have 3 or 4 even that maybe are 100% on all those schools. If there's a soft verbal involved that could make the difference but then if decommits are added as well it could be really intriguing.

[baseballplyrmvp]

If I had to guess what is coming I would say: No hard commits until signing day (only soft verbal), early enrollees (closest thing to a hard commit), closer recruiting rules (more texting and with new NCAA regulations unlimited social media communication), and of course in the power conferences using boosters to pay recruits.

the hard commits thing, i totally agree with.

for early enrollers, i think a recruit's gpa would have to be added (possibly a changing gpa?) and the recruit's grades would have to qualify in order to be accepted. also, year to year stat tracking would have to get a significant boost, as EE's count against your previous season's recruiting numbers. ie: if you signed 15 recruits the previous year, you're allowed up to 10 EE's this season. if you signed 25 though, you arent allowed any.

i can see the "phone call" getting another addition to it with how popular social networking sites have become. maybe have a texted conversation accounting for 5 minutes recruiting time?

and at the last one.

[SmoothPancakes]

If even half these changes are implemented this year, ugh, recruiting it starting to sound complicated as shit now. Recruiting already takes me forever and I'm constantly locked in battles with multiple teams to where maybe 13 players max get any time week to week for the first 8 or 9 weeks of the season. Depending on what they do, hell, I might be half tempted to just say to hell with it and keep going with NCAA '13 for my CC dynasty.

[natetcu]

the hard commits thing, i totally agree with.

for early enrollers, i think a recruit's gpa would have to be added (possibly a changing gpa?) and the recruit's grades would have to qualify in order to be accepted. also, year to year stat tracking would have to get a significant boost, as EE's count against your previous season's recruiting numbers. ie: if you signed 15 recruits the previous year, you're allowed up to 10 EE's this season. if you signed 25 though, you arent allowed any.

i can see the "phone call" getting another addition to it with how popular social networking sites have become. maybe have a texted conversation accounting for 5 minutes recruiting time?

and at the last one.

With the new NCAA recruiting rules that are being implemented this year there are no rules on texting, so texting a recruit should not count against your time limit at all. Also they pulled the rules on boosters contacting recruits via social media (because it was to hard to track and too easy for boosters of rival schools, to pose as a booster contacting a recruit, to get their rival investigate by the NCAA). So you can have your boosters do your recruiting for you via social media.

[oweb26]

If even half these changes are implemented this year, ugh, recruiting it starting to sound complicated as shit now. Recruiting already takes me forever and I'm constantly locked in battles with multiple teams to where maybe 13 players max get any time week to week for the first 8 or 9 weeks of the season. Depending on what they do, hell, I might be half tempted to just say to hell with it and keep going with NCAA '13 for my CC dynasty.

I thought I was the only one who thought recruiting already takes entirely too much time already. I normally start quick calling around week 8 because either I have who I already want or I am just tired of trying.

[SmoothPancakes]

I thought I was the only one who thought recruiting already takes entirely too much time already. I normally start quick calling around week 8 because either I have who I already want or I am just tired of trying.

Exactly. I do agree that some changes need made to recruiting, especially when it comes to decommits, soft commits and pipelines. But beyond that, there's a point where trying to get realistic becomes detrimental. I keep a spreadsheet for my week to week recruiting purposes. The first week alone takes over an hour due to updating the spreadsheet and finally recruiting. After that, I'm spending well over a half hour each week recruiting, maybe, 10-12 recruits, and then going through everyone else on my board and updating my ranking and how many points ahead/behind I am on my spreadsheet.

And this is after already spending 3 hours playing a game, typing up my game recap for my dynasty thread, and then typing up the national recap for the week. Between playing games, making the relevant posts in my thread, and recruiting, it takes close to 4 hours (sometimes longer) just for a single week in my dynasty. It's to the point where time is at a premium to play my dynasty and I'll be lucky to get in more than one game a day (or longer) if recruiting gets a massive overhaul and becomes complicated and more time consuming.

There's also the issue of new people. My friend and I are always looking for games to play together, with the current rotation being Black Ops, Halo: Reach and Madden 13. I've been trying to talk him into getting NCAA, but if recruiting becomes as time consuming and complicated as it potentially could this year, there's no way I'd be able to convince him to buy NCAA 14 and put him through a more complicated recruiting process as a new, first time player. He's a semi-casual player, so he'd be more interested in playing the games. Trying to jump cold turkey into a more complicated recruiting process would completely kill any interest in the series for him.

[WarEagle]

IMO, the 'no hard commit until signing day' has another edge to the blade, one that I don't think the game can re-create.
IRL, a coaching staff has countless hours of which to make call that are not even limited to an hour, if they so choose (and as an ex-D-I coach in another sport, I know of at least one instance where a coach kept phone calls long b/c he knew, at least for that time period or evening, no other coach was getting into the recruit's ear). I don't think the current situation can be simply a one-step process of adding the 'no hard commits...' concept without also offering an bonus on hours if you do get a soft commit. Otherwise, you'd have numerous soft commits on your board that you'd be spending minutes, even hours on, eating up the time that should be available to move on to secondary recruits on your board.

(simple) Example 1: 5* program with 10 'needs' which include a FB. Maybe its recruiting board starts off with 12-15 players -- and now doesn't decrease in number via an instant-commit to any program -- and of those only 1 real FB option (not to mention if the one FB on the board appears to be a Bust after scouting). Week 8 sees 5* with 9 soft commits but the FB has committed elsewhere. Without gaining a bonus for its own soft commits -- which still need phoned -- most minutes/hours would go to your own soft commits making it horribly difficult (I avoided stating 'impossible' but that might still be appropriate) to add another FB prospect to the board and climb to the top of his list.

(simple) Example 2: 2* program that needs to put 25 guys, at least, on its board, or at least needs to improve a dozen positions on its team. Any soft commits it does get will, like Example 1, still require minutes likely eliminating the ability to improve its ranking on other recruits on the board. I believe the long term picture in this example would be that 2* program sees the gap between it and 3*'s grow even wider. I think this would happen between each ?-star level gap. The rich would get richer, and I believe more quickly, while the poor would grow poorer.

So, maybe the game allots an extra 10 min. for every 20 min. (arbitrary ##s) you spend on a soft commit? At least then your recruiting wouldn't be over when you get around the 10-soft commit level of recruits.

[oweb26]

I understand the point of wanting to still be able to recruit kids after they have signed or even not getting any hard commits until later in the season, but I honestly feel like that would make it entirely too time consuming! If I have to keep talking to a kid after he has committed it would make it more real ( lets be real we are talking video games and what happens in real life isn't always the best option for a video game), but the time spent in recruiting would have to jump by a noticable amount of time. I couldn't get past a few season in 2K basketballl at a time because of the amount of time it takes to recruit and all the other stuff.

I fear I am in the minority with on this though.