NCAA Football 11: Understanding Team Pitches in Recruiting

[cdj]

You can view the page at http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/for...-in-Recruiting

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The average NCAA Football gamer spends several - if not many - seasons recruiting in Dynasty Mode as they work to build up their program to a championship level or strive to keep an already powerful program at the top.

In recruiting, one of the keys to success is matching your top Team Pitches to the categories of importance for each recruit. However, what causes these Team Pitches to go up and down each season in Dynasty Mode? NCAA Football designer Ben Haumiller has been kind enough to share with the community the exact factors that can help you increase your Team Pitches during the course of your Dynasty.

After reading the list, share your thoughts with the community. Also, if there are certain default Team Pitch ratings that you find too high or low for a particular school, feel free to discuss them as well.

Academic Prestige – There is a percentage chance that this grade will go up or down a half letter grade each season. A team’s performance does not factor in to the pitch changes.

Campus Lifestyle – This pitch does not change, The Grove at Ole Miss will always be a great draw.

Coach Experience – This pitch has a small percentage chance of increasing every year. This one never decreases.

Coach Prestige – The ability to meet contract goals in an offline dynasty is the main factor in determining this pitch. For online dynasties that don’t have coach contracts, team prestige is used (i.e. better schools = better chance of moving up in prestige).

Conference Prestige – This is static for each conference, the team can only change their value by changing conferences.

Championship Contender/Fan Base/ Facilities/ Pro Factory – The team’s previous year’s performance (i.e. win/loss record, final rank, etc.) are the key factors that determine if this pitch goes up or down. Basically, it does nothing but help you to win your games :)

Program Stability – Changes are based on a combination of the coach’s prestige and current contract length in offline dynasties (team prestige in online dynasty)

Program Tradition – A high final ranking in the final polls compared to the current pitch value determines if there is a change in the pitch value.

Television Exposure – the more regionally and nationally televised games that are played (and more importantly won) are the main factor in determining a change to this pitch.

Team Prestige – Team Prestige changes are determined based on a school’s current prestige rating:

1-Star: If your final rank is better than 80th, you have a chance to move up.

2-Star: If your team has a bowl bid or finishes with a final ranking better than 60th, you have a chance to move up. If you finish worse than 100th, you have a chance to move down.

3-Star: If your team finishes worse than 75th, you have a chance to move down. If you finish better than 40th, you have a chance to move up.

4-Star: If your team has won a BCS bowl or finishes better than 20th, you have a chance to move up. If you miss a bowl or finish worse than 50th, you have a chance to move down.

5-Star: If your team has won the national championship or finishes with a final ranking better than 5th, you have a chance to move up. If you finish with a final ranking worse than 25th, you have a chance to move down.

6-Star: If you finish with a final ranking worse than 15th or win less than 8 games you have a chance to move down.

[CLW]

Good stuff. I always wondered how/why this stuff worked.

[JeffHCross]

I believe Program Stability has an undocumented factor in Online Dynasty. My team prestige did not change, but I did have red Job Approval at the end of the season. As we moved into season 2, my program stability dropped from A/A+ to C+. I think the coach contract / job approval is a factor in Online Dynasty as well.

[jaymo76]

Awesome! I have always been curious about this. However, I don't like that conference prestige is static. Of all of them it should go up or down based on performance. Take the PAC 10 for example... not too strong right now but turn the clock back to the early 90's...

[cdj]

FYI: Tomorrow we will have an article on how the dev team determines the Team Pitch ratings out of the box.

[CLW]

I'm curious as to whether there are rankings within a grade.

I.e. is Duke's A+ in academics more powerful/better than Vanderbilt's A+ or Virginia's A+ or are they all the same.

[steelerfan]

Good info. Thanks, Chris.

[cdj]

I.e. is Duke's A+ in academics more powerful/better than Vanderbilt's A+ or Virginia's A+ or are they all the same.

I'm pretty sure the ratings would have the same effect, but will see if we can find out for sure.

[CLW]

I'm pretty sure the ratings would have the same effect, but will see if we can find out for sure.

It's interesting especially since they admit to using US News.

If that is the case it would be easy to say

Stanford 5th

Duke 9th

Etc...

The question I guess becomes how much more powerful of a pitch should the #5 school in the country be compared to the #9. I don't obviously think Stanford's A+ should be twice as strong as Duke's but IMO it should be slightly stronger.

[JeffHCross]

I agree with jaymo that there should be some flucuation in the conference prestige rankings. If the Big Ten starts winning every national championship, they shouldn't be below anybody in terms of Conference Prestige.

Also, that runs counter to previous years. In NCAA 09 and NCAA 10, Independents would have A in Conference Prestige for the first season, but then drop down (usually to something like a C+) in Year Two.

The question I guess becomes how much more powerful of a pitch should the #5 school in the country be compared to the #9. I don't obviously think Stanford's A+ should be twice as strong as Duke's but IMO it should be slightly stronger.

Well, but let's consider the target audience here.

To the average football player (i.e. not somebody like Craig Krenzel who was taking molecular genetics), does the statement "you will not find a better education than the one you could get here" apply equally to Duke, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the rest of the top echelon of US News & World Report? I'd say so, personally. Or, at the very least, you'd be splitting hairs.

To put it another way, I don't think Jim Harbaugh is going to be calling up a recruit that's also looking at Duke and using the academics as a wedge to differentiate between the two institutions. He might use that argument against other Pac-10 schools, but not Duke.

[CLW]

Well, but let's consider the target audience here.

To the average football player (i.e. not somebody like Craig Krenzel who was taking molecular genetics), does the statement "you will not find a better education than the one you could get here" apply equally to Duke, Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Princeton and the rest of the top echelon of US News & World Report? I'd say so, personally. Or, at the very least, you'd be splitting hairs.

To put it another way, I don't think Jim Harbaugh is going to be calling up a recruit that's also looking at Duke and using the academics as a wedge to differentiate between the two institutions. He might use that argument against other Pac-10 schools, but not Duke.

To the "average" player that's right. However, perhaps a way to distinguish those players from someone like Krenzel or the Rhode Scholar from FSU is only have players that have Academics as their "Most" pitch (a rarity in any event based on my experience) where it would make a difference between a Stanford and a Duke or a Duke and a Virginia.

I suppose in reality if a player is THAT into academics there are programs that Duke is better at than Stanford and vice versa.

I used the Academic one for obvious reasons.

However, the "issue" of A+ v. A+ would apply to the other categories as well.

[JeffHCross]

However, perhaps a way to distinguish those players from someone like Krenzel or the Rhode Scholar from FSU is only have players that have Academics as their "Most" pitch (a rarity in any event based on my experience) where it would make a difference between a Stanford and a Duke or a Duke and a Virginia.

There are some that have a Most. And honestly, even to them ... Duke vs Stanford is splitting hairs, in terms of overall education.

I suppose in reality if a player is THAT into academics there are programs that Duke is better at than Stanford and vice versa.

In terms of individual programs, absolutely. But I'll be very happy if we never go down this route.

I used the Academic one for obvious reasons.

Naw!

However, the "issue" of A+ v. A+ would apply to the other categories as well.

Agreed. But if you look at it from both the perspective of pitching a player and doing comparison pitches ... how many A+ coaches are going to try to convince a player they're better than other A+ coaches? Is Tressel really going to try to differentiate Ohio State's fan base from Nebraska's? Or Michigan's?

Maybe ... but overall, probably not. Not enough that we need to go down that route, imo. A+ vs A is about as much distinction as we need.

Now that said ... I don't think EA's Academic ratings are correctly representative (as discussed in the other thread).

[CLW]

Maybe ... but overall, probably not. Not enough that we need to go down that route, imo. A+ vs A is about as much distinction as we need.

Isn't it Nebraska that has some ridiculous weight room facilities? I seem to recall seeing/reading that their weight/training room rivals that of professional sports teams and that no team in the country's came close. However, that was several years ago and perhaps other schools have come close.

I suppose if a school was that dominant in a category they could just give them the only A+ like Notre Dame and t.v. exposure.

[psusnoop]

I believe Program Stability has an undocumented factor in Online Dynasty. My team prestige did not change, but I did have red Job Approval at the end of the season. As we moved into season 2, my program stability dropped from A/A+ to C+. I think the coach contract / job approval is a factor in Online Dynasty as well.

My program stability dropped from an A/A+ to a C+ this year in the Powerhouse dynasty. Thought that was kind of funny (also frustrating)

[JeffHCross]

My program stability dropped from an A/A+ to a C+ this year in the Powerhouse dynasty. Thought that was kind of funny (also frustrating)

Weird. Wonder if any others in the league had that.

[JeffHCross]

It seriously took me this long to notice who posted the actual article on the NCAA blog.

[JBHuskers]

It seriously took me this long to notice who posted the actual article on the NCAA blog.

[JeffHCross]

I see your and raise you

[CLW]

Quick question: What if anything affects whether Academic Prestige goes up or down? Is it just totally random or do the players you recruit have any impact on your rating in the future?

[morsdraconis]

Quick question: What if anything affects whether Academic Prestige goes up or down? Is it just totally random or do the players you recruit have any impact on your rating in the future?

As far as I know, it's totally random, but starting with an A+, you basically are fucked as it slowly goes down (or, at least, so far, that's been the case for me). I'm 7 or 8 years in and it was an A+ for my team to start out and now it's like a B+ or something I think.