I've done it so many different ways...which shows what a DDSCB freak I really am. I generally prefer Standard and have very infrequently used Sandbox. But I also like Universal mode when I want to see how a group of coaches do over time. Oh, and I also love to run the occasional Tournament Maker tourney.
I normally play with 1-year early-declaring for the pros, but have occasionally run an associaiton with no early declaring. But in most of my associations, early-declaring really doesn't impact my team since I typically have the coach at a low prestige school which doesn't get 5-star recruits...and if and when the team gets too good, I'm usually done with it and go back to some scum-sucking team. I do NOT EVER coach at Arizona State, because many years ago when I was pretty new to this game, I got fired by that freakin' school and will have nothing to do with it ever again in the game...or in real life in any way. In fact, if I'm on a driving trip, I will likely NOT drive through Tempe, AZ.
Typically I begin with the year we're presently in (because in most cases it doesn't matter to me and I'm lazy), but changing it to match a scenario in your mind is cool. I have yet to start an association at the dawn of time or the end of civilization as we know it...leaving that to the warped mind of Wayne23.
I always use "brutal" recruiting level. Even though Gary has done a good job of improving the AI's recruiting abilities over the years, I think a human player can still eat the AI's recruiting lunch so the tougher the recruiting is for the human, the better.
I also almost always have the injury level set to "200%" since even at that level, I don't feel there are as many injuries occurring as in real life.
I mostly play out my games rather than simming, but have one association going now where I'm simming (since it's a Universal mode association with 5 coaches...and not even I am a big enough glutton for punishment to play out 150+ games every season and get to REALLY KNOW 75 players every year).
In previous versions I used to play with cheating on, but only did 1 or 2 rather short associations where I actually cheated...I mean i gotta leave that aspect of my life for doing my taxes. (Disregard that if yoiu work for the IRS).
