NCAA 11 Recruiting Bible Part One: 10 Tips for Filling the Board

NCAA 11 Recruiting Bible Part One: 10 Tips for Filling the Board

By Booya Gadget

Collectively, Booya Gadget has over 100 NCAA Dynasty years under our belts.  One thing I've always loved is the recruiting aspect of the game.  What a great feeling to lock up the #1 recruiting class in the nation.

NCAA 11 Recruiting Top Class Listed Teams
NCAA 11 Recruiting Top Class Listed Teams

Besides that, your team gets awesome, and you get an Achievement / Trophy respectively depending on your PS3 or XBox preference.  Booya Cuz and Booya TRJ have both experienced the exhileration that comes with landing the best recruiting class in NCAA, amazing. So let’s get you there.

Here we focus on 1 thing, which is the first step, filling the board in your offseasons.  Here are 10 solid tips and fundamentals that will form a solid base to deply your strategy.  EA Sports recruiting is somewhat Science, and somewhat Art.  The key is just to try it.  If you hate recruiting, then just skip it.  But for Booya Gadget, it is a big part of the game.  We are Dynasty mode junkies more than any other mode.

NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Part One:  Filling your recruiting Board

How to fill the board, and “who should I recruit?”

NCAA TOP RECRUITING CLASS Trophy
NCAA TOP RECRUITING CLASS Trophy

#1 :  GET LOCAL

Make local and Pipeline state targets a priority. The #1 reason for this is receive extra recruiting points on every call.   The “pipeline bonus”  adds up, and helps you compete vs other schools recruiting your prized player. Pipeline recruits are “cheaper” and allow you to be more effective with every call. I will add a handful of non-pipeline players, but in general I require that I am top 1 or 2 of their choices for me to add them.  Get lucky and receive a x2 call bonus for a pipeline player and you will be #1 on his list quick!

NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Pipeline Bonus
NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Pipeline Bonus

#2:  GO FOR THE GREEN

Get the “Green Dot” Interested guys, they want to go to your school right off the bat. You can also do a search for targets that have YOUR SCHOOL listed as their top choice.  These guys along with the green dots should be the core of your recruits..  Ideally, at least 10-15 recruits at any time will have me ( WSU Cougs ) as their top school.  If your are mostly ranked 5-10, then you are going to have to spend a lot of your 10 hrs / week on only a handful of guys, or you are toast.   They don’t HAVE to be a green-dot interest level, but they should get priority consideration. It’s not a requirement, but man this sure makes it easier to sign them early, or get a head start. Feel free to add 30 5 Star players, but when you end up #85 in recruiting, please consider re-reading this article.

NCAA 11 Recruiting tips Green Dots
NCAA 11 Recruiting tips Green Dots

#3:  FILL THE VOID

Always try to fill the positions you need. If you don’t, you get walkon’s that you can expect to be rated at in the 50’s max, Walkons blow.. If for any reason you can’t get the position filled, don’t worry too much there are fixes later in the game. In the offseason, I commonly change positions of players in high depth positions to low depth(walkon filled) positions. The other fix, based on tip #8 is to fill spots with “Athletes”..Depress right analog to see your school’s position needs.

#4 TOAST ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Turn off all Auto Options. I never allow the computer to offer scholarships, schedule visits or fill my recruiting board. Managing your recruiting plan is not brain surgery, but it does require paying attention, and having a system for best results. The computer’s action just screws up my plans. They re-add guys I removed, or offer scholarships to turds etc. I go all out in recruiting, I am coach,general manager, president, and the athletic director!

#5:  K.I.S.S.  YOUR RECRUITS

If you get confused or overwhelmed even slightly, then simply group your recruits BY POSITION and go through each position prioritized by what you need first, where you are weak second. KEEP IT SIMPLE SUCKA!    Often times, I will sort by player Caliber, and go after my 5-10 favorite guys. After that, I will switch to viewing by position and really attack my problems areas, or remove players in a position that I had too many recruits.  Otherwise, I hope you can remember and organize a list of 25-30 fictionally named characters and keep em all straight.  Don’t be afraid to just break it down to small chunks and don’t get flabbergasted.

NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Sort by Position
NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Sort by Position

#6:  DO THE MATH

You don’t need to fill the entire 35 man recruiting board.   If you follow rule #2, you shouldn’t need 35 players on the chart. 10 hours = 600 minutes. If you fill the board with 35 recruits and “balanced” your calls you would give each recruit 17 minutes, and trust me, that ain’t enough time to call a top recruit unless he signs in the first week with a Scholarship offer ! The faster you sign guys, the more time you’ll have later to pump out 60 minute calls on guys, and hope for a x2 bonus call where you can sneak in 700-900 points on a single call !  Sometimes I’ll end up with a 35 man board to begin with, but I will intentionally ignore some guys.  Rarely if ever have I ever made a call to a full recruiting board in a single week.

#7:  Go with the “O”

Always take Offensive and Defensive Lineman when available. I have found that you can never have enough depth on the line. They’re tough to recruit excellent lineman, and they are not as plentiful as positions like HB and WR. I love recruiting stud lineman when I get a chance. If your offensive OR defensive line sucks, you’re gonna have a tough year. Running backs and wide receivers are plentiful, but try getting consistently talented O Line, D Line, or even FB..  As a general rule, when available and interested, I will add almost any linemen to my list.

NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Offensive Linemen
NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Offensive Linemen

#8:  JUST DO IT!

Bo Jackson, Neon Deon Sanders ?  These are athletes, and they are valuable to teams.   Recruit the forgotten position, Athletes.. Personally, I love recruiting athletes, I think they get forgotten by some Dynasty mode coaches out there. Many “Athletes” tend to be tied to a single position, commonly HB, WR and CB… However, it is quite frequent, that I sign an Athlete and he is able to play 3 or 4 positions at 65-75 rating as a true freshman, this adds great flexibility, especially if you are thin or weak at a postion..

NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Athletes List
NCAA 11 Recruiting Tips Athletes List

#9 WHEN IN DOUBT

If you’re still uncertain of your strategy then sort by abilities ! If I have “room to spare” on my board, or it’s late in the season and i’ve signed a bunch of guys already, I tend to sort the last batch of recruits by their physical abilities, most oftenly Speed. It’s very possible to get a 1 or 2 star recruit that has a “A” Speed rating. That is about 93-95 Speed. At this point in recruiting, you’ve added the guys you really Need, want or like. You’re gonna be left with 1,2 and 3 star available players, the “leftovers”. What I do is take this group and sort by speed.

#10:  OWN IT

If you struggle, or the difficulty makes recruiting a chore instead of a blast, then reduce recruiting difficulty.   It’s your game and your personal experience if you want to speed up your team’s growth by a few dynasty years, then lower the recruiting difficulty. If you prefer the challenge and reward of a tough recruiting battle, then pump it up and leave it at Heisman. You have the option. Both Booya Cuz and Booya TRJ roll recruiting on Heisman difficulty.  If you are patient, and start off with a terribly rated team like WSU Cougs, then be prepared for a 4-5 year wait before all your hard work comes to fruition and you turn the corner. I love online dynasty mode, and recruiting just as much as playing 4 quarters with my beloved and #10 ranked WSU Cougs !

Thanks, hope this helps.  I love recruiting in EA Sports NCAA 11.