Recruiting Issue

[Holden]

Hi all, I am basically new to the series and have run into a potential problem recruiting.

I just completed my first season with Radford in Challenge Mode and was able to sign 3 players to fill all 3 scholarships I had available to me. The first 2 commitments came very early and one even signed in the early LOI period.

Fast forward to year 2 with Radford and I've hit the beginning of the season and nationally there were only a small handful of recruits even interested in the school compared to last year. On top of that, the 3 recruits I went after hard and thought I'd get at least 2 of all signed with George Mason. Now I'm at a point where zero recruits that aren't committed elsewhere show any interest any me. Like literally zero recruits have any interest in my school. I've contacted every recruit in VA and nearly every recruit inside the region and the obvious high quality recruits aren't interested, but even the worst rated recruits are showing None as the interest status and the message on their player card shows they have no interest in signing with my school.

Am I just SOL this year? Am I missing something?

[Wayne23]

1. Call locals, particularly in state, but all for whom Scout Live costs $650, Host Recruit costs $550, and Visit costs $700. Calling can drum up interest. The costs reflect that they are "local" even if not in state, and they are more likely to develop an interest at some point.
2. International players are expensive to recruit but it is free to call. Again, calling can stimulate interest.
3. Save some money for Spring recruiting (March and April but start in March) if you can. Players who were not offered to by the schools they wanted may now be interested.
Most importantly- make those calls. A recruit who has no interest may suddenly have "Cool" next to his name after you call. Then you Scout, Host, Visit to heat up the interest.
You didn't ask but when I first started playing this game I started a new association, learned things from it, made notes, killed the association, then started a new one. When I felt that I had some sort of understanding of this deep, rich game, only then did I start an association with the idea of keeping it going for a lot of years.
Good luck! And keep asking. This is a very "user friendly" forum!

[Holden]

Thank you for your reply. I have been calling people nonstop, but they all come back with the note that they aren't interested in coming to my school and show as "None" for the interest. There are a few recruits I've kept on my board because I don't forsee them getting offers from their top 10 schools, but many I've moved on as I've continued to call around to find anyone who will give me a chance.

I might have missed one or two, but I believe I've called every single 1 and 2 star recruit in the Atlantic region and then all 1 and 2 star players in border states in other regions like Tennessee, but no luck so far. I've also called who knows how many international players and been told they have no interest.

I guess I'll continue calling some of these guys anticipating that they will remain available late into the year and they may have interest then. Like I said, I have kept some guys on my list anticipating they won't get an offer from their top schools. The 1 star kid from Radford, VA who has UVA, Duke, and Maryland as his top 3 schools probably won't be going there, so my hope was my continued insistence to talk to him may end up paying off in the long run.

[Wayne23]

Interesting. What is your head coaches Recruiting rating? What is the Recruiting Assistant's Recruiting rating? What's your school's Team Prestige rating. I've never seen this, and I play low rated schools often.

[Holden]

The head coach is a 2 star in all, the recruiting assistant is a 2 star in recruiting and scouting. The school's team prestige I don't remember off the top of my head exactly, but I believe it is very low around 20.

I initially had less than 10 guys that all had cool interest after calling a ton of people to start the 2nd year once recruiting opened, and I got 4 guys to hot interest and was 1 or 2 for those guys, but then all of these guys committed to other schools. I've kept them on the call lists, but anyone that isn't verbally committed to another school right now has zero interest in my program.

I've even got desperate and went and sorted by the worst ranked recruits in the nation and called the bottom 100 recruits and none had interest, but granted, the majority of them were all from far away states, but like I said in my other post, I've called every 1 and 2 star in VA and neighboring states and no one likes my school lol.

I do have a backup save from the summer before recruiting started so I may just go back and start from there and see if anything changes.

[Wayne23]

Something's wrong. Yes, I'd go to the backup save. If it is still happening I'd zip up the files and send them to Support with an explanation; the link is on the homepage.

[PointGuard]

Yeah, try again. Call repeatedly and some of the recruits should get to at least Cool level of interest. Do campus visits for those with at least Low level of interest. Scout Live those who you want and think you have a fair chance of recruiting...as long as they have at least a Cool level of interest. Get as much info about the interests of those you may want to offer scholarships. In September maximize Home Visits (and have offers out to those you visit). Do followup Home Visits for those who show a high level of interest in your school and to whom you have offers outstanding.

By the way, what recruiting difficulty level are you using? If you're new to the game, I'd suggest you set it at EASY if you're new to the game and just beginning to get familiar with recruiting.

Agree with Wayne re sending files to Support if this doesn't work for you when you run the recruiting for the Backup save.

[Holden]

Thank you for all of the replies. What ended up happening is a buddy of mine actually watched me play my first season. I streamed it throughout last week while we were in Discord. He surprised me today by asking if the game had multiplayer and when I said yes he immediately bought the game.

So we started a new career in multiplayer. I am Radford again and we have made it to Novemeber in year 1. I had 5 scholarships and already had 3 commits, 2 signed LOIs already, and I have 2 guys I'm hoping commit eventually. So the recruiting is going better this time around. We will see if I have year 2 recruiting struggles again when we get there.

[PointGuard]

Glad to hear it's working for you (and your buddy). Good going!!!!