aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa1aaaaaaaaa ****************** *NCAA Football 07* *Recruiting Guide* ****************** Table of Contents: 01) Guide/Contact Information [abc] 02) Introduction [acd] 03) Recruiting Basics [ade] 03a) About Recruiting [bcd] 03b) Recruiting in NCAA Football 07 [bde] 04) Terms to Know [aef] 05) General Recruiting Strategies [afg] 05a) Determining Who to Pursue [bef] 05b) Choosing a Pitch [bfg] 06) In-Season-Only Recruiting Strategies [agh] 06a) My Restrictions [bgh] 06b) Choosing Your Targets [bhi] 06c) Spending Points [bij] 06d) In-Season Pitches [bjk] 06e) Official Visits [bkl] 07) Offseason-Only Recruiting Strategies [ahi] 07a) Your Team's Budget [blm] 07b) Choosing Your Targets [bmn] 07c) Determining Interest [bno] 07d) Spending Points [bop] 07e) Position Changes [bpq] 08) Week-by-Week Breakdown [aij] 06a) In-Season Recruiting [bqr] 06b) Offseason Recruiting [brs] 09) Differences Between the PlayStation 2/XBox & XBox 360 Versions [ajk] 10) Frequently Asked Questions [akl] 11) Thanks/Legal Info [alm] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 01) Guide/Contact Information [abc] NCAA Football Recruiting Guide/FAQ ver. 1.15 Created, edited, and maintained by Evil Dave (David Bernardo) evil_dave_faqs \\at// yahoo \\dot// com *Please include "NCAA 07 FAQ" in the subject line of any emails regarding this guide, as well as a handle to be credited by if you do not want your email address posted. Also, all user submissions that contain grammatical or spelling errors are subject to my editing before they are re-posted here in any fashion.* To quickly navigate this FAQ, use your browser's 'Find' function (Ctrl+F in Internet Explorer) to search for the three-letter key for each section. Version History: v0.25 - The beginning. Began reviewing 06 edition for information still useful in 07 game, and transferred framework of 06 guide into new guide. v0.35 - Completed majority of the work of translating 06 guide info into this year's guide. Began re-writes. v0.75 - Completed re-writing information from 06 guide. Began expanding and adding info for 07 version. v0.95 - Completed main body of guide. Finishing work on quick navigation, headers, FAQs, and general formatting. Release imminent. v1.00 - Final spelling/grammar check complete. All framework and formatting complete. Submitted to GameFAQs 8/01/2006. v1.05 - First update. Added some user-submitted information, a FAQ, and a section detailing the XBox 360 version's differences. v1.10 - Added some info, re-wrote a handful of troublesome sections. Did some minor touch-ups as well. v1.15 - More slight touch-ups to grammar and syntax, added more user- submitted information, including stat conversions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 02) Introduction [acd] Another year, another round of EA Sports games. So it goes, and will go, from here to eternity... Ahem. NCAA Football is, in my thankless opinion, the most appealing title in EA's sporting videogame lineup. Having played the game since it first appeared on PlayStation 2 back in 2002, I've seen the series' highs (the debut of online play in 2003, for instance) and lows (the seeming lack of a decent pass defense in, well, always). Mostly, though, I've seen Dynasty mode. A whole darn lot of it. I play my Dynasties in NCAA Football very passionately. Being the huge football fan that I am, the rush that I get from taking a low-prestige team - usually my beloved UConn Huskies - and transforming them into a national powerhouse is something that I will likely never outgrow. So, every year I'm back at it, trying to resuscitate some school's football dreams. Of course, the most reliable way to do this is through intelligent, well- focused recruiting. Luckily for me, I have found through the years that not only do I greatly enjoy recruiting, but that I am also fairly good at it. My teams consistently show significant improvement over the course of the first few years that I control their recruiting, and by year ten of any given Dynasty they will likely have at least two BCS game appearances under their belts. Keep in mind, now, that I do not play any of my team's games myself; I stick strictly to simulating them, in order not to influence the results. This FAQ will focus on the recruiting portion of NCAA Football 07's Dynasty Mode. I will break down each facet of both the in-season and offseason recruiting periods, and will subsequently offer my hints and tips on the proceedings. This FAQ will *not* cover any other aspects of the Dynasty Mode; all areas of the game outside of recruiting will only be referenced as they pertain to the recruiting itself. I also should remind everyone that the methods in this guide will not serve as a substitute to your team winning games. This guide should help you find and acquire the best possible players for your team, but you will still need to actually win the games themselves. Your program - and the quality of your recruits - will only increase in prestige by following up your recruiting with results on the field; after all, as important as recruiting may be, it will never guarantee victory! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 03) Recruiting Basics [ade] 03a) About Recruiting [bcd] Right now, you're probably asking yourself, "Just what in the heck is this crazy recruiting thing?" Well, I'll tell you: recruiting is the method utilized by universities to fill their quota of athletic scholarships for any sport that offers them. The basic premise here, from the perspective that you will be taking (which is to say, that of the coach of the offering university) is one of supply and demand: the better the players you try to bring in, the harder it is to get them. Any free-market capitalist like you or I should understand that, in order to increase your chances of getting those prime players, you will need to direct a more concentrated effort towards them in your pursuit. Another key thing to remember is that you are competing directly against other schools for each and every one of your recruits. This means that you will need to make your school's offer stand out from the rest of the scholarships your targets are seeing. Seeing as we aren't dealing with real people here, _how_ you recruit in NCAA Football 07 becomes almost as important as _who_ you recruit. Ultimately, your job - and the main challenge of recruiting - is to find the best available players whom you are interested in having play for your team and then try to convince them to attend your school. 03b) Recruiting in NCAA Football 07 [bde] NCAA Football, being a videogame, cannot portray the recruiting effort in a 100% accurate manner. Heck, it can't even get it remotely right - after all, have you ever met a computer that feels emotion? Anyway, this means that Tiburon, the game's developer, was required to take some creative license in the process of modeling recruiting for their videogame. What they've ended up with here is a setup that, while not very realistic, still manages to emulate the practice of recruiting in a manner that is fair, simple to understand and engage in, and difficult to master. So, how did they do it? Well, like any good bunch of computer programmers, they boiled recruiting down into a numbers game. Yes, you read that correctly; the main challenges of recruiting in NCAA Football involve managing budgets. For those of you who loathe math, never fear: recruiting is in no way entirely a numbers game. No, your budgets are used simply to divide up your attention between activities and players. The actual tool you will use to interact with your targeted players is the 'pitch.' Your 'pitch' is, essentially, your selling point; it is the one facet of your program that you will relate to these players to convince them to attend your university. Since this is a game, there are only six generic pitches available, and you must decide which one to sell to each recruit. The eventual goal with pitches is to figure out which of the six your targeted player will fall for, and then repeat it to him ad nauseum until he capitulates to your pleas and signs with your school. A third factor that plays into recruiting in the NCAA Football games is timing. There are two separate periods during which you will be able to pursue players - In-Season and during the Offseason - with each period being additionally segmented into individual weeks. You must navigate these time frames, trying to ensure that important events occur at opportune times (which, more often than not, ends up being as soon as possible). These three dynamics, and how they interact, present the majority of the challenge when you are recruiting in the NCAA Football games. Needless to say, there will other, less significant (but still important) factors to comprehend as well, but on the whole you will most need to learn to deal with budgets, pitches, and timing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 04) Terms to Know [aef] Athlete - A player who does not yet have an assigned position that they will play at the collegiate level. Recruiting one of these players (their position abbreviation is 'ATH') means that you must allot them a position to play during an offseason event. Commit - When a recruit accepts a university's scholarship offer, it is said that they have committed to attend that school. In this series, a commitment is 100% binding. DNQ - An acronym for 'Did Not Qualify.' Used when a player does not meet the NCAA eligibility standards to play for an athletic team. In this series, denotes a player who did not sign with any school during the Offseason recruiting period and thus will not play for any team in the upcoming season. Pipeline - A state/territory that has provided your school with at least three enrolled recruits within the past two years. While the benefits of these are ambiguous, occasionally players from a Pipeline State are more likely to have interest in attending your school. Pitch - A reason why a player should choose to attend your university instead of other schools; you will give these to targeted recruits during your pursuit of them. There are six generic pitches: Program Prestige - Your program's importance and tradition. Your selling point is that your target should choose your school because of its storied past and national recognition. Location - Where your school is located, nationally. Your selling point is that your target should choose your school because of how close it is to their home town/city. Playing Time - The amount of time a player will be on the field. Your selling point is that your target should choose your school because they will be able to play during their first year with the team. Coaching Style - The type of plays you typically call during your games. Your selling point is that your target should choose your school because the plays you call fit well with what the target's abilities. Coach Prestige - Your personal importance as a coach. Your selling point is that your target should choose your school because of how impressive your standing as a coach is. Academics - Your school's academic standing. Your selling point is that your target should choose your school because of the educational opportunities that it offers. Ratings - Your recruit's statistics for each ability. You are not able to view the actual numerical statistics for any players you pursue; instead, you are given the statistical 'ratings' as part of the player's personal information. These translate roughly into the actual numbers of a player's attributes. Here is what each correlates to: 40 Time: Speed (Spd) Field Awareness: Awareness (Awr) Vertical: Jumping (Jmp) Hands: Catching (Cth) Bench Press: Strength (Str) Squat: Break Tackle (Btk) and Run Blocking (Rbk) in offensive players; Tackling (Tak) in defensive players Arm Strength: Throwing Power (Thp) Throw Accuracy: Throwing Accuracy (Tha) Leg Strength: Kicking Power (Kpw) Kick Accuracy: Kicking Accuracy (Kac) Potential: That player's potential for improvement Discipline: That player's self-discipline Potential and Discipline are not measured stats. Potential determines how likely a player is to improve by a higher amount of points during the 'Training' event in the offseason, while Discipline correlates to how likely a player is to commit any infractions during the football season. Scholarship - An offer given by universities to pay a student's tuition if the student attends their school. In athletics, scholarships are given to athletes in exchange for the athlete playing for the university's athletics teams. Scout - To test a player to see what his 'ratings' are. By spending budgeted points to 'scout' a prospect during the offseason recruiting period, you reveal more accurate stat ratings for the recruit than the ones listed in the player's personal information. Soft Verbal - This indicates that a targeted player has made a non-binding verbal agreement to attend a university. These agreements are not considered commitments, and can be broken by the players who give them. Stars - The preliminary determination of how talented a player each recruit is. Each recruit is assigned a measure of stars by the game. Players with more stars are considered better players than those with fewer stars. There are only a limited number of maximum-rated (5*) players; these recruits receive the most interest from teams, and are called Blue-Chip recruits. Visits - When a player tours a school's facilities. These can be either unofficial or official. Unofficial visits are out of your control, and have little bearing on your recruiting efforts; official visits must be scheduled during In-Season recruiting, as each player is limited to taking three of these. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 05) General Recruiting Strategies [afg] These strategies apply to both In-Season and Offseason recruiting, and are the core aspects of recruiting. 05a) Determining Who to Pursue [bef] Choosing which players to pursue is the first thing you will do in either phase of recruiting, and so it is a good place to begin. Before you begin recruiting, you should figure out which positions on your team you will focus on during recruiting. The Team Overview screen, which is viewable by holding down the Circle button in both recruiting periods, is helpful in sorting out your roster. Any position where you need immediate help (i.e. you are below the game's required number of players for that position), should be one such focus. If you are solid at most or all positions for next season, you should then focus on positions where you have more upperclassmen (Juniors) than lowerclassmen (Freshmen and Sophomores). Once you've decided what specific areas need improvement, you can begin to search for individual players to fit those holes. If given the choice, always opt for Top 50 players over others at the same position; this is due to the fact that, more often than not, the position rankings are an accurate indicator of each recruit's ability, relative to other players at the same position. It is always a good idea to try to choose targets from local areas (and especially your home state) over ones from further-away places. By building a proverbial 'wall' around your home area, you practically ensure that all of the talent that comes out of it over the years stays within your program. The easiest way to build up a lower-prestige school is to focus on keeping native talent home, and so it becomes even more important to try to target those home-grown players whenever you can. Higher-prestige programs should always make it a priority to pursue neighborhood talent as well, although they should never pass up a more-skilled player from out of town as a result. Another way to differentiate between players with the same star ranking is their stats; the stats given are only approximate, but certain ones like Awareness are good indicators of how good a player's stats will ultimately turn out. In general, you should look for players whose stats are balanced between all areas that contribute to the player's overall rating. Speed is a key stat to pay attention to. You've probably heard the saying 'speed can't be taught,' and the saying applies very clearly to this game; each player's speed stat will rarely increases by 2-3 points the course of their career, so any recruits that you find with excellent speed should be treated as a prized commodity. Discipline is another factor that should be considered when recruiting. When choosing between players, it is beneficial to pursue players with 'excellent' discipline over those with 'poor' discipline, but it isn't essential. In fact, if you run your team wisely, you can get by with a team comprised entirely of 'poor' discipline players, so never rule out a prospect just because he has bad discipline. It is also a good idea to pay attention to each recruit's 'potential' rating when targeting players to recruit, although not as much so as discipline. In fact, the only real use for potential is in differentiating between two recruits who are otherwise very similar; if one has a higher potential rating, that's the one you should make your primary focus. Potential ratings are somewhat misleading - you never really know how any player will progress during offseason training, regardless of their rating - so you should only use them as a tiebreaker. You should always try to pick players who fit your playing scheme; for example, if you run the ball more often, you should try to get more HBs and strong OLs, whereas in a passing offense you will need better WRs and smarter, more technically sound OLs. Figure out what players fit your play calling style, and target them over others who might not. Finally, there is one thing you should never, ever, _EVER_ do, in either recruiting period: pursue an excessive number of players at any one position. For starters, it's unrealistic to the point of being nonsensical for a team to sign a half-dozen players at one position, despite the fact that CPU- controlled teams have a tendency to do just that. Regardless of your feelings about its realism, though, if you do sign a large number of players at one position, only one or two of those players will end up receiving any meaningful playing time when the regular season starts. This means that the ones whom you signed that end up sitting on the bench are likely to end up transferring out of your school! So, by signing too many players for one position, you will wind up not only having used up a valuable roster spot on an unneeded player, but also having trained and improved a player and who will probably only see playing time for a team that isn't yours. Very foolish, no? 05b) Choosing a Pitch [bfg] With a selection of six different pitches to choose from, you will almost never be lacking in a sales point to throw at your recruits. Of course, just giving any old pitch to your targets is a foolish way to operate, so you'll need to figure out which of the six pitches is most likely to get that positive response you're looking for. When the game generates a recruit, it assigns a specific pitch to the player alongside their statistics. Your job in recruiting is to figure out which of the six pitches is the magic bullet, and then push it on them repeatedly until they commit to sign with your university. This lends the pitch system the feel of a six-pronged process of elimination, with each unsuccessful pitch bringing you 1/6 closer to the correct one. Obviously, you would like to find that correct pitch as soon as possible, so you can get a jump on the competition in the race for the player's services. Simply put, the best way to narrow down your choices is to use a bit of common sense when choosing your primary pitch. Upon your initial examination of any given player, there should be one or two of the six pitches that would logically seem the most likely to appeal to the recruit. By utilizing the fine art of educated guessing, you can greatly increase your chances of finding the correct choice sooner, and thus enhance your prospects of landing the player. The following is a simple description of the type of player most likely to respond positively (and negatively) to each pitch: Program Prestige - If your team has a prestige rating of 3* or higher, this is a fairly safe pitch to give; however, if your target is being recruited by higher-prestige schools, the pitch may end up as a negative. Location - If a player's hometown is close to your school ('close' meaning geographically), this pitch is safe to give; however, if your target is being recruited by schools closer to their home, the pitch may end up as a negative. Playing Time - If your targeted player is likely to end up as the starter at their position in their first year with your team, this pitch is safe to give; however, since overall ratings are by no means uniform between players with the same star rating, you can never be 100% sure that the pitch is correct. Also, if you are recruiting two players at the same position with this pitch, and one commits before the other, the pitch may turn into a negative for the other. Coaching Style - If your play calling style would give your targeted player a lot of playing time, this pitch is a good one to use; however, you need to be certain that your play call style does correspond with the player's position. If you play all of your team's games, you can change your play call sliders (under Coach Options --> Strategy) to reflect the style of game you like to play; this seems to help land Coaching Style recruits, especially when the Defensive Aggression slider is set to very aggressive. Coach Prestige - If your coaching prestige rating is 3* or higher, this is a fairly safe pitch to give; however, if your target is being recruited by higher-prestige coaches, the pitch may end up as a negative. This pitch works in the same manner as Program Prestige. Academics - The most difficult pitch that you will be faced with figuring out, as it is somewhat rare to find. There is really no surefire way to know if a player will be interested by this pitch, so it's best to use it only as a last resort when all other logical options have been exhausted. If your school's Academic Prestige rating is above average, there is a larger chance that this will be the correct pitch. You will, of course, encounter situations where multiple pitches have a strong possibility of being correct for any specific recruit. With players like this, you should just use your best judgment to select your initial pitch. A quick and fairly accurate gauge of any recruit's interests is the list of schools that the player would like to attend. Make sure to scan the 'wish list' that is included with each player's bio to look for patterns between the other teams on it; you may be able to tell that, for example, all of his desired destinations are close to his hometown, or that they are all high- prestige universities. With no other reliable ways of gauging the player's interests, it becomes very important to use whatever information you have at your disposal to the best of your ability. Unfortunately, no matter how well you plan your strategy out, no pitch is ever guaranteed to work for any player, regardless of how well the pitch would seem to suit their interests. You will definitely encounter times when your target's preferred pitch is completely different from what you're expecting, and you may not figure it out until it's too late. Using common sense is always going to be the most sound method of guiding your pitch selection, but it is hardly foolproof, so you should expect a fair amount of failures along the way; the important thing to remember, though, is that you're still putting yourself in the best position possible to fill out your roster with the most talented players available. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 06) In-Season Only Recruiting Strategies [bef] In-Season recruiting differs from Offseason recruiting in that you are given the choice of whom you wish to pursue with your scholarship offers, rather than having to look for players who already have interest in your school. The pool of potential signees here is significantly higher in average star rating than that of Offseason recruiting as well, although these players usually end up inferior to their equally-ranked offseason counterparts once you get to see their actual statistics. The process here is rather simple: you begin with a total of twelve scholarships to offer, starting in the Preseason. You choose whom you will recruit from the pool before Week One, and then you begin your season as usual. Throughout the course of the campaign, you pursue your recruits by assigning them a numerical percentage of your attention, while at the same time passively obtaining information about the recruit's preferences and ratings. Eventually, each player narrows their list of schools down to three, and then that player takes an official visit to each of those three teams. Your goal here in In-Season recruiting is to keep your school in your target players' top three until they choose to visit your school, and then to select the correct pitch during their visit to your team, which will hopefully take place during a victorious outing by your existing players. The following strategies pertain only to In-Season recruiting, and should only be used as such. 06a) My Restrictions [bgh] The major problem with In-Season recruiting in this game, in my opinion, is that it is possible (and easy) to pursue and even sign players who would not be remotely feasible recruiting targets for your chosen school in reality. Upon the realization of this fact in last year's game, I decided to implement my own set of restrictions on my In-Season recruiting, which I have carried over into this year's version. Now, you are free to use or ignore these guidelines when you're playing your own Dynasty, but I've found that using them not only adds to the realism of the mode, but also adds a bit more tension to the proceedings as well, since every recruit matters so much more with lower prestige teams. Either way, here they are: 6* prestige: If your program is at 6* for prestige, there are no restrictions. 5* prestige: If your program is at 5* for prestige, there are no restrictions. 4* prestige: If your program is at 4* for prestige, you may only pursue 5* recruits who are from local states/territories, or from Pipeline States. There are no restrictions on 4* recruits. 3* Prestige: If your program is at 3* for prestige, you may only pursue 5* recruits if they are from your home state. You may only pursue 4* recruits who are from local states/territories, or from Pipeline states. There are no restrictions on 3* recruits. 2* Prestige: If your program is at 2* for prestige, you may not pursue 5* recruits. You may only pursue 4* recruits from local states/ territories, or from Pipeline States, up to a maximum of three players. There are no restrictions on 3* recruits. 1* Prestige: If your program is at 1* for prestige, you may not pursue 5* or 4* recruits. You may only pursue 3* recruits who are from local states/territories, or from Pipeline States. If there are not enough local 3* recruits to fill the 12-player quota, you may pursue any 4* players from your home state, or from any Pipeline States, until the quota has been filled. Again, I use these restrictions simply as a method to ensure deeper realism in my gameplay experiences, so they are in no way mandatory to use. 06b) Choosing Your Targets [bhi] Since you are always given the exact same amount of scholarships and percentage points to work with during In-Season recruiting, I find that it is always best to always offer out all twelve of your scholarships, since it gives you the most chances to sign many of the players whom you are pursuing. Some players do not use all of their scholarships, choosing instead to focus a larger number of early percentage points on a smaller number of players. This strategy is sound if you don't have a lot of holes to fill on your roster, as it is an almost certain way to land those players whom you target; however, I can't recommend it as a general policy, since you are needlessly reducing your chances of signing more players. Regardless of how many players you pursue, make sure to search through the entire list of prospects for players who are of specific interest to you. Always go through your home state's list of players first, followed by neighboring states, then Pipeline States, and then finally from anywhere you can find them. Don't be afraid to look for players in far-off parts of the country (or Canada) to fill your quota; In-Season recruiting guarantees you at least a fair shot at pitching to every one of your targets, so distance should never be a disqualifying factor. If you're following my restrictions, make sure to look all over to find the most talented players available who fit within the parameters. With no game-imposed barriers as to who can sign with your school during In-Season recruiting, there's no reason not to go all out in search of talent. Make sure you've targeted the absolute best players you could possibly want before you advance to Week Two of the season. 06c) Spending Points [bij] You are given 100 percentage points to divide up between your twelve (or however many) targeted players. The key to spending these is to avoid spreading them too thin between your recruits; after all, "If you chase two hares, you will catch neither," as the Ukrainian proverb goes. Once you reach in Week 2, you will be able to allocate points between your targets. Each of those players will have a list of eight interested schools, ordered from the one they're most attracted to attending (at the top of the list) to the school they would least prefer to attend (at the bottom of the list). Given my experiences, these are the averages I have come up with for where your school will be on each player's list (these averages assume that you have used all twelve possible scholarships): #1-3: 1-2 players #4-5: 3-4 players #6-8: 4-6 players Please be aware that these are only averages from my past experiences, so this distribution is not guaranteed to occur every season. Anyway, once you know your initial standing on each player's list, you can begin to divide up your points between the ones you wish to continue trying to sign. If you're ready for another chart, here's how I typically divide up my 100 points: 1/2 on initial list: 15 points 3/4/5 on initial list: 10 points 6 on initial list: 5 points 7/8 on initial list: 0 points Obviously, you will want to put more points towards players who are highly interested in attending your school, and so I feel that fifteen is a good amount to start out with. Anyone who has your school in slots 3-5 offers you plenty of opportunity to move up on their list, and so I think that ten points works well as a placeholder for the time being. Finally, anyone who has your team lower than spot 5 is more than likely not going to move you up their list, without a huge point expenditure (i.e. 25 or more), so unless you're highly interested in signing those players, you should only spend minimal (or no) points on them. In the weeks that follow, players will move your team up and down on their lists. Check your progress with each recruit, and respond accordingly to the player's reaction to your pursuit. To do this, simply remove points from players who have moved you out of reach on their lists, and add those points to your another player that has your team higher. Every week, be sure to allocate out any points that were returned to your pool from recruits who dropped you from their lists entirely. In-Season recruits respond well to increases in the amount of points you spend on them, so try to 'bump up' the total percentage for each player that interests you every week. Finally, make sure to use up all of your points every week. They will never carry over from one week to the next, so to not use them all is to waste them. 06d) In-Season Pitches [bjk] Throughout the course of the season, as you pursue your targeted recruits, you will casually garner feedback regarding their reaction to each of the six pitches. The catch here is that you have no control over which pitches you receive a response for, or even if you get any information about them at all. This means two things: first, you need to be very alert to each recruit's preferences, since what few pointers you do get become terribly crucial, and second, that every recruit for whom you find a successful pitch should immediately become a primary target. The results of whatever pitches you are able to see a reaction for will show up on the Pitch Feedback list, which you can view by holding Circle at the Prospect Info screen. Whenever you find that one of the prospects has given a positive response to a specific pitch, you should immediately increase the amount of points you have allocated to that player to 15-20. You will only see a positive reaction to a pitch in about 25% of the players you recruit In-Season will respond positively to one of your pitches, and so if you do get one, it's imperative to try your hardest to bring them into the fold. Usually, by increasing the points you've apportioned to that player, you can move your school up high enough on his list to gain an Official Visit, which means you've won an important victory in the battle to sign them. If you happen to receive a negative response to one of your pitches, then you may wish to write off that player right then and there. A negative response means that your targeted player's correct pitch is one that you cannot use effectively for them - say, they prefer the Location pitch, but your school is located halfway across the country from their home. If the player is already very interested in your school, then you may want to keep chasing them, but you are at a distinct disadvantage against other schools that may fit what the player is looking for. Of course, if the player drops your school on their list even after you've found their preferred pitch, or if they've already had you at the bottom for several weeks, there's little likelihood that you'll sign them anyway, so you shouldn't waste any points trying to change your fortunes. Situations like that are rare, though, so never jump to any conclusions before writing off a player. 06e) Official Visits [bkl] Official Visits are your greatest weapon during In-Season recruiting, and are where the vast majority of your commitments during this recruiting period will occur. The formula for them is simple: schedule them during a home game, win, and offer the recruit the pitch that they want to hear, and the player is very likely to give you a commitment right then and there. Once a recruit has narrowed his field of suitors down to three, he will schedule an Official Visit to each of the three teams. As soon as you see that one of your targets is scheduling visits, make sure that you sign him up to come to your campus as soon as possible. You should always schedule any Official Visits as soon as possible, because you want to beat the other two teams to the punch for each player's services. As mentioned in the section above, you will casually receive feedback for random pitches for each of your targeted players during the season. These come into play once a player's Official Visit rolls around, as you must choose a pitch to give to the recruit during their stay on your school's campus. If you get the pitch right, it helps tremendously, but it isn't the only part of the equation here; after all, the player is also (hopefully) there to see your team play a home game, and you will certainly want to impress him with their performance. Based on my experiences with Official Visits, here are the odds that I have calculated for each different scenario that may occur: Win Game + Correct Pitch + #1 Team on List: 90% Commit, 10% Soft Verbal Win Game + Correct Pitch + #2/3 Team on List: 50% commit, 25% Soft Verbal Win Game + Incorrect Pitch + #1 on List: 66% Commit, 34% Soft Verbal Win Game + Incorrect Pitch + #2/3 Team on List: 25% commit, 25% Soft Verbal Lose Game + Correct Pitch + #1 Team on List: 33% Commit, 50% Soft Verbal Lose Game + Correct Pitch + #2/3 Team on List: 0% Commit, 25% Soft Verbal Lose Game + Incorrect Pitch + #1 Team on List: 10% Commit, 25% Soft Verbal Lose Game + Incorrect Pitch + #2/3 Team on List: 0% Commit, 0% Soft Verbal So, from our little chart, it becomes clear that the most important facet of the player's visit is to show the player a win by your team. Winning by blowout seems to help even more, as does beating a favored opponent or rival, but just getting the win is the real key. Obviously, if you can also achieve the other two pieces of the 'trifecta of positives,' you are extremely likely to land a commitment from your recruit. If you have received a negative response to one of your pitches during the season, but the player still has scheduled your school for an official visit, then be sure not to use the negative pitch during the visit. Any other pitch will do for the visit; none of them will be right, but the important thing is not to push a negative down on the player while he's there. Since this type of situation means that you can only achieve at best two of the three potential positives from the chart above, it is not very likely that you will end up signing the player - especially if he is being pursued by other schools that do meet his requirements for preferred pitch. Players who give a Soft Verbal commitment are, in my experience, only 33% likely to end up signing with your school in the end. Unfortunately, there is little way to tell whether or not a player is going to give a full commitment to your school after they give a Soft Verbal, so you will just have to wait out their other visits (and hope that their other target schools lose!). There is one final note on the Official Visit process. Since getting a win during a recruit's Official Visit is so important, it is greatly to your benefit to schedule a patsy team for any bye week you may have during weeks 7-13 of the season. By doing this, you will have an easy team to beat up on during a potential visiting weekend from a targeted player, thus giving you a discreet advantage over the other schools in pursuit of the recruit. While this may not seem very sportsmanlike, it is still technically a realistic approach, especially if you have a tough conference schedule surrounding the patsy. After all, almost every Division I-A team plays a game against a weak team during their season, so why not give yourself the same benefit of the doubt? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 07) Offseason-Only Recruiting Strategies [ahi] Offseason recruiting is the heart of recruiting in the NCAA Football series, and is where you will fill out the majority of the holes on your roster for the upcoming season. Here, you are faced with a country full of recruits, but only a small percentage of which will even consider attending your school. Unlike In-Season recruiting, this period's most difficult challenge is the process of identifying those willing players. You are given a time window of exactly five weeks to perform your recruiting during this phase. Each week, you must offer scholarships to players of your choice, and then select both a pitch to persuade them with and a method of delivering that pitch. Over the course of the five weeks, you will be tasked with finding the correct pitch for each player you pursue, and then using the most powerful method of persuasion you can afford based on your recruiting budget to convince them to commit to your school. The strategies in this section apply only to Offseason recruiting, and should only be used during that period. 07a) Your Team's Budget [blm] Before even beginning Offseason recruiting, you must set your school's budget for the following season. This event determines how many points you will have to work with in the following recruiting period, so the budget you set needs to focus on your team's priorities. There are, in my experience, three types of situations you will find your team in during each offseason, and I have come up with three corresponding budgets that will help your team through each. Situation One is the most common situation. In this state of affairs, your team has graduated a fair amount of starters and key players, but a good number of these players return as well. Given the split need between filling holes and improving your current players through training, it's best to split your budget evenly to meet those dual goals. My budget in years like this is kept at 40% recruiting, 40% training, 20% discipline. Situation Two is one of the two extremes that you can experience. In years like this, your team graduates or loses early to the NFL almost all of your starters and key contributors, leaving you with a largely inexperienced group of returning players. Your needs here are clearly directed towards finding replacements for those departed players, and so recruiting should be your top priority when you decide your budget. For seasons like this, I set my budget at 60% recruiting, 20% training, 20% discipline. Situation Three is the complete opposite of Situation Two. With seasons of this type, most of your players are returning for the next campaign, including nearly all of your starters. Since you're already well-stocked on talent in season like this, your budget's focus should definitely be directed towards training your current players. In Situation Three years, I use a budget of 20% recruiting, 60% training, 20% discipline. For all of these potential budgets, please note that the percentage I use for discipline, 20%, is for a team that has good overall discipline, with few suspensions necessary. If your team has shown discipline problems in the past, or is currently on probation, you will likely need to remove points from another area to cover an increase in your discipline budget. 07b) Choosing Your Targets [bmn] Unlike In-Season recruiting, the players who might potentially attend your school are pre-determined. This means that you will need to put a strong effort into finding the best possible signees available if you wish to ensure that you're getting the most value for your scholarships. (Wondering why you can't just go after whoever you wish? See section 7c, Determining Interest.) Once you've narrowed down the field of potential players to only those who you have a chance of signing, the same old rules on choosing your targets apply here. Make sure that you're always comparing different players who play the same position, so you always pick the one that has a better chance of being helpful. Also, make sure that you aren't wasting scholarships on too many players at one position; it's very easy to mistakenly sign an excess of recruits for one spot in the offseason, so always try to distribute your offers evenly. Since you'll be recruiting more than just 3* and above players in this period, it becomes vital to be able to tell which players are better than their contemporaries at the same position with the same star ranking. Make sure that you're checking position ranking and stats before deciding between two players to fill one spot; you'd be surprised how much better a 2* player ranked at #75 for his position is than one ranked #125. Scouting first becomes available for use during the Offseason recruiting period, and it is a crucial tool when it comes time to differentiate between players. Once you use the 'scout' command on a player, you get to see accurate measurements for all his statistics; this becomes *very* important when you must choose between otherwise similar players at the same position. Make sure that, if you have plenty of extra points to spend, you spend them on scouting; it will give you a much greater chance of finding a steal or two amidst the chaos. For more information on scouting, see section 7c, Spending Points. One final note of consequence during Offseason recruiting is that you should never allow a position of need to go unfilled by a recruit. Even a 1* recruit is going to be have a better ovr rating than a walk-on, so once you get into the last two weeks of Offseason recruiting, make sure that you've at least filled every position on your roster where you are below the minimum. 07c) Determining Interest [bno] So, how do you figure out which players are interested in attending your school? If you're thinking that it has anything to with that interest bar next to the player's name, you're dead wrong; it's actually much simpler than that. That bar, while seemingly helpful, has no bearing on whether or not a recruit is interested in signing with your team. No, whether or not a player is interested in attending your school is, in fact, programmed into the player when they are first generated by the game, alongside their other features; no matter how full their silly interest bar is, if a recruit did not have that attraction generated into them, you will never be able to sign them. The process of determining who has that inherent interest is terribly easy, once you know what to look for. There are two signs that will indicate that any given player has interest, and is capable of signing with your team: a) The player has your school in their top five list. This is shown by a green circle appearing next to the player's name in the list of prospects. b) After week 1 of recruiting has passed, the player's attraction to your school has either increased (if you had either scouted the player or offered him a scholarship) or decreased (if you had done nothing to the player). Changes in attraction are shown by an arrow appearing next to the interest bar; a green arrow indicates an increase in attraction, whereas a red arrow portrays a decrease in attraction. That's it. If a player does not fit within either category A or B, there is no chance that they will sign with your school, regardless of how many points you attempt to lure them with. Using these two simple criteria, you can quickly narrow your field of potential recruits down to only those you have a chance of signing. From there, you can easily prioritize between recruits, and come up with your weekly budgets. 07d) Spending Points [bop] There are two separate (yet equally valuable) ways to spend points during Offseason recruiting: scouting and scholarship offers. How you use the two will be the key to your success here, so be sure to understand the benefits of each before diving in. In order to scout any player (which costs a set number of recruiting points), you can press the Select at the Prospect Info screen. When you scout a player, you will immediately notice that you get access to accurate measurements of that player's ratings. This is the primary function of the Scout feature; for a sacrifice of a few points, you get an accurate look at a player's stats. That isn't the Scout feature's only use, though. When you scout a player, you also trick the game into thinking that you offered that player a scholarship, along with the Program Prestige pitch. This hidden benefit - which I believe to be a glitch, although the fact that it has remained in the game for several
years now seems to indicate otherwise - serves as a 'temporary scholarship' of
sorts, allowing you to keep your interest from a recruit high without actually
committing a scholarship to that player. This helps immensely in situations
where you have a few more players that you want to sign than available
scholarships; by using the Scout function on those players extraneous players,
you can keep them interested in your school for a couple of extra weeks, in
case one of your targets commits elsewhere.

In order to actually gain a commitment from a recruit, you must actually offer
him a scholarship. You can do this by pressing the X button at the Prospect
Info screen. Once you've hit X, you must choose a measure of points and a
pitch from the menu, and then press the start button. You are limited to 25
total scholarships during Offseason recruiting, and this number is also
decreased by the number of players you signed during In-Season recruiting, and
by any incoming transfers you are receiving from other schools.

GameFAQs user 'cirtap614 at yahoo dot com' has brought to my attention another
recruiting glitch that I have failed to mention previously. It is possible to
achieve a result similar to the scout trick (i.e., you can receive pitch
feedback and maintain an recruit's interest) by offering a scholarship to any
given prospect, and then removing that scholarship offer before advancing to
the next week. Now, this is definitely an exploit, and to use it will achieve
strongly unrealistic results; if, though, you wish to cheat to gain an edge,
then here is a good opportunity to do so.

There are two basic rules that you should almost always stick to when it comes
to actually offering your scholarships out to recruits. These two 'Golden
Rules' are set in stone for me when I go through offseason recruiting, and
they always help me maximize the results I get from my expenditures of
recruiting points. By following these rules, you will never waste points, and
will always put yourself in a prime position to sign a large number of the
most talented players available.

The first rule, and the one that should never be violated, is:

"Never, ever offer a scholarship to any player that hasn't indicated interest
in your school."

This rule is by far the most important point to understand about Offseason
recruiting, because it will save you tons of recruiting points each year. Once
you know how to differentiate between interested and uninterested players,
there is never any reason to waste points on players who you have no chance of
signing.

The second rule, which is subject to a few exceptions, is:

"Never, ever spend more than a minimal amount of points on any player for whom
you have not found a pitch that garners interest."

This is another guaranteed way to cut down on wasted recruiting points each
week. Using only a small amount of points per player allows you to cycle
through all of the different pitches at a minimal cost, giving you more points
to use for other endeavors, such as scouting players or offering other
recruits.

So, when should you increase the amount of points allocated to a recruit?
Simple. Once a recruit has taken a liking to one of your pitches, you should
raise the amount of points you have distributed to him into one of the higher
tiers. This should ramp up his interest (if your school has the inherent
appeal mentioned earlier), thus putting you on course to receive a commitment
from him. You should only spend the maximum amount allowed in case of a player
whom you strongly want, since the associated cost is very high; generally, the
second-highest tier is where I go when I'm increasing the points allotted to a
player.

While a successful pitch is generally the only reason to increase the points
you are spending on a player, there are two common exceptions to rule number
two:

a) A very talented player, who will be difficult to sign, indicates interest
   in your school (through the method covered in section 7c), and you want to
   go all-out in your efforts to sign him.
b) Your team is neck-and-neck with another school in recruiting a certain
   player, but you haven't yet found a pitch that the player responds
   positively to.

If you're ever faced with either of these two cases, it is not unreasonable to
raise the amount of points diverted each week to the targeted player, so long
as the player continuously moves your team up on his list. These are still
rare exceptions, though, and should not be used very often, since the chances
of wasting points when using either is high.

Lastly, make sure that you're always spending all of your points every week.
They don't carry over between weeks here either, so there's not reason not to.

   07e) Position Changes [bpq]

While position changes occur separately from recruiting on the offseason
calendar, it's important to bring them up now, because they may affect your
targets during recruiting.

For those who aren't familiar with position changes, there are several player
positions that translate well into other positions when changed. You will
almost never see a player have a higher ovr rating at a different position
than at the one he was recruited at, but there are several positions switches
that usually won't decrease a player's ovr rating by very much. If you find
your team in one of the following situations, you should try out one of these
position switches, to see if they offer relief:

  1) TE-->FB  -  If you can't sign any 3* or better FBs, but you have an
                 abundance of TEs, you can switch a good blocking TE of 3*
                 or above to FB, and they will usually stay within 2-4 points
                 of their overall rating at TE.
  2) LB-->DE  -  If you can't sign any 3* or better DEs, but you have an
                 abundance of LBs, you can switch a quick, strong LB of 3* or
                 above to DE, and they will usually stay within 2-4 points of
                 their overall rating at LB.
  3) MLB-->OLB - If you can't sign any 3* or better OLBs, but you have an
                 abundance of MLBs, you can switch a fast, strong MLB of 3*
                 or above to OLB, and they will usually stay within 2-4 points
                 of their overall rating at MLB.
  4) LB-->SS  -  If you can't sign any 3* or better SSs, but you have an
                 abundance of LBs, you can switch a very fast LB of 3* or
                 above to SS, and they will usually stay within 2-6 points of
                 their overall rating at LB.
  5) WR-->CB  -  If you can't sign any 3* or better CBs, but you have an
                 abundance of WRs, you can switch a fast WR of 3* or above to
                 CB, and they will sometimes stay within 2-6 points of their
                 overall rating at WR.

Please note that these changes may not work in reverse. They are also not the
only position switches that could be beneficial; once you've got your team to
the position changes screen, try out different players at different positions
to see if you can get any improvements. For all you know, that 6th-string WR
may be a great CB, so don't hesitate to try him there!

*GameFAQs user bd1woody has brought to my attention an interesting glitch that
occurs with position changes in this year's game. Normally, switching a player
from their original position to another one results in a hefty decrease to
that player's statistics, due to a forced penalty given out by the game to
simulate the difficulty of learning a new position. Bd1woody, however, has
discovered that in some cases the stat penalty can be negated through what
seems to be a mistake in the game's programming. Apparently, when switching a
non-Freshman from LB to DE, the game initially enforces the stats penalty as
usual, but after the Training event, the player's stats always return to their
original state! This means that any backup, non-Freshman LBs can be moved to
DE, and usually see a major increase in their ovr rating, potentially to the
point where they are even the best DE on your roster!

Having tested this glitch a bit, I can confirm that it works with all LBs that
can take part in Training during the same year that they are switched to DE.
Some further experimentation has shown that it is possible to see this same
glitch occur in Training during the year _following_ a position switch for any
Freshmen, when the player being switched is moved between MLB and OLB, or the
reverse. I have not seen it work in any other circumstances, although I have
not tested it extensively enough to say absolutely that it won't.

Now, since this is a glitch, it is easy to abuse, and so I can't recommend
making use of it often. If you're looking for guidelines on when to use it
realistically, though, then I would say that you could use this on any tall
(meaning 6'2" or more), heavy (230 lbs or more), backup LBs that don't figure
to play much during their careers with your team; to be even more specific,
you should still only utilize this trick when your team needs the help at DE,
such as when the switched player will compete for a starting job right away.

ATHLETES - These players are the great enigmas of recruiting. Each athlete
that you recruit will need to be assigned a position in the offseason. You can
assign these players to any position you choose, but their stats will likely
dictate one or two positions where their ovr rating will be highest. This
means that when pursuing an ATH, you need to pay close attention to their
ratings, in order to correctly predict where they will be fit when it comes
time to assign them a position.

The Scout feature is crucial to pursuing ATH recruits. Once you've used it and
have an accurate assessment of their ratings in each statistical area, you can
compare them side-by-side to players at each position, to see if they are
likely to end up playing there. For example, if you're pursuing a 6'1", 190 lb
ATH, you will want to compare their speed, strength, and hands to those of
recruits at HB, WR, CB, SS, and FS. If the ATH's attributes are roughly equal
to those of other recruits at one of those positions, you can bet that they'll
end up with their highest possible ovr rating when assigned to that position.
Doing this with each ATH you pursue allows you to weed out players who will
likely end up at positions where you do not need help, while giving you the
capability to find players who may end up at a position where you are looking
for recruits.

One key thing to look out for when doing your comparisons is the information
included on the recruit's stat page. If the stats show a position-specific
attribute, then that player is much more likely to be have their highest ovr
rating be at that position. This occurs most often with ATHs who will end up
at QB or K.

On a side note, every ATH's star rating seems to have little correlation to
how good their ovr rating will be when you assign them a position. In fact, it
is entirely possible that a 1* ATH who you signed as an afterthought may end
up with a higher ovr than all of your other signees! Obviously, there is no
100% dependable method of predicting when this will happen, so it depends on
luck as much as your scouting abilities.

As a result of this quirk, my rule for is to always pursue any ATH (not just
4* or 5* ones) whenever I can spare a scholarship, so long as they appear to
be capable of playing a position that I'm recruiting at anyway. In the end,
even if you end up with a dud once in a while, there's very little downside to
pursuing these players.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

08) Week-by-Week Breakdown [aij]

This section goes through a full year of Dynasty mode, giving week-by-week
tips and advice. It assumes that you are already familiar with the strategies
in section 05, General Recruiting Strategies (search [afg]).

   08a) In-Season Recruiting [bqr]

PRESEASON:

-- First and foremost, go to Coach Options-->Coach Strategy, and switch
'Recruiting Assistance' to off. Once you turn it off, it will remain off
permanently - trust me when I say that this is a very good thing.

-- Now, your first order of business is targeting players for recruitment. You
can choose twelve players, and since you likely won't sign all of them, you
had better choose well. So, who do you choose? See section 06b, Choosing Your
Targets (search [bhi]) for more in-depth information.

-- If you're planning to schedule a weakling team for any open week you have
between Weeks 7-13, now is the time to do so. Should you choose to do this, it
will help you quite a bit when it comes time for Official Visits. See section
06e, Official Visits (search [bkl]) for more in-depth information.

WEEK 2:

-- You've made contact with your recruits, and have their initial list of
eight schools. Now's the time for you to divide up your 100 percentage points
between them for the first time, and then go out and play some good football
to impress them. See section 06c, Spending Points (search [bij]) for more in-
depth information.

WEEKS 3-7:

-- These weeks should be spent redistributing any points that are returned to
your pool from players that drop you off their lists. Be sure to increase
points on any player for whom you find a pitch that works. See section 06c,
Spending Points (search [bij]) for more in-depth information.

WEEKS 8-13:

-- Most official visits take place during this time, so keep an eye out for
any player who trims his list down to three teams. Make sure you schedule
visits as soon as possible, and try to make sure you get the pitch right when
they come to town. See section 06e, Official Visits (search [bkl]) for more
in-depth information.

WEEKS 14-15:

-- Any player who hasn't taken their Official Visits yet will do so during
these last two weeks, so be sure to put lots of points into whoever you are
still pursuing. See sections 06c, Spending Points (search [bij]) and 06e,
Official Visits (search [bkl]) for more in-depth information.

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK:

-- All players who haven't yet committed to a team will do so by the end of
this week. Hopefully, you've grabbed yourself a few talented players, so
you'll have a good head start on Offseason recruiting.

   08b) Offseason Recruiting [brs]

BUDGET WEEK:

-- When setting your budget, be sure to divide your points up in a manner that
adequately covers all of your team's need. This may mean putting more points
into your recruiting budget if you have a lot of holes to fill, or putting
more points into training if you return most of your key players. See section
07a, Your Team's Budget (search [blm]) for more in-depth information.

WEEK 1:

-- This week, you should focus on two things: offering minimal-point
scholarships to any players on the Interested Prospects list whom you wish to
sign, and spending the rest of your recruiting points for the week on
scouting. Make sure to scout any player in the Top 100 overall prospects list
whose interest bar is partially filled (but doesn't have you on their top five
list), and any talented players in your home state in the same situation. See
sections 07b, Choosing Your Targets (search [bmn]), 07c, Determining Interest
(search [bno]), and 07d, Spending Points (search [bop]) for more in-depth
information.

WEEK 2:

-- Your attention now should be concentrated on using more expensive methods
of pitching for any players who liked your pitch from last week, as well as
searching for players who are interested in your school to fill out the rest
of your scholarships. Remember to look for players whose interest has
increased or decreased from the past week, and not to waste points on any
player who doesn't have you on their list and hasn't gained or lost attraction
to your school. Also, if you run out of scholarships, remember to use the
Scout trick to gain a few extra players' attention. See sections 07b, Choosing
Your Targets (search [bmn]), 07c, Determining Interest (search [bno]), and
07d, Spending Points (search [bop]) for more in-depth information.

WEEK 3:

-- Keep upping the ante on the scholarship offers to anyone who has liked a
pitch of yours. If you lose a player, immediately offer his scholarship to
another player, unless you're comfortable with the remaining players on your
recruiting list. See sections 07b, Choosing Your Targets (search [bmn]), 07c,
Determining Interest (search [bno]), and 07d, Spending Points (search [bop])
for more in-depth information.

WEEK 4:

-- You're getting towards the end of recruiting, so this week you should be
sure to offer a scholarship to any player whom you wish to sign. If some of
your targeted players seem like they won't sign with you at this point, it may
be best to cut your losses, and try to grab another player with that
scholarship instead. Make sure you've got at least every position of need
filled, and that any especially talented players that you're recruiting who
are still unsigned are being enticed with the most expensive recruiting push
you can afford. See sections 07b, Choosing Your Targets (search [bmn]), 07c,
Determining Interest (search [bno]), and 07d, Spending Points (search [bop])
for more in-depth information.

WEEK 5:

-- This is your last week of recruiting for this season, so don't hold back
back with the points anymore. For any players that you want badly, go ahead
and spend as many points as you can on them, although do so reasonably if
you're still pursuing other players as well. If you're going to offer any
players a scholarship for the first time during this week, the only real shot
you have at signing them is if they already have you at #1 on their list, so
offer accordingly. Try to ensure that any positions of need are filled in this
week if they haven't been already, since a walk-on will definitely be a worse
player than any recruit you can get here. See sections 07b, Choosing Your
Targets (search [bmn]), 07c, Determining Interest (search [bno]), and 07d,
Spending Points (search [bop]) for more in-depth information.

POSITION CHANGES:

-- Assign any ATH players you signed to a position, making sure to try them at
each spot to see which one best suits them; don't be afraid to put them at a
spot other than their best, though, if they'll help you more somewhere else.
Be sure to also check if any players who are buried on your depth chart can
help out at a different position. See section 07e, Position Changes (search
[bpq]) for more in-depth information.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

09) Differences Between the PlayStation 2/XBox & XBox 360 Versions [ajk]

Since the first release of this any guide, many XBox 360 users have contacted
me to let me know that Dynasty mode in their version of the game is different
from that of the PlayStation 2 and XBox versions. To avoid any further
confusion regarding these differences, I'm adding this section to detail the
divergent areas of the two titles, as they pertain to recruiting.

Dynasty Mode on the XBox 360 does not include three features that are part of
the game on the other systems: team budgets, the Spring Game, and player
discipline. The Spring Game was a translation of a new Scrimmage mode from the
other versions, so it's not surprising that it isn't included on 360; however,
the other two features have been part of the Dynasty Mode for years, so their
omission is a curious one. Regardless, XBox 360 users can ignore the section
Your Team's Budget, as you will not need to deal with that particular facet in
your Dynasties.

Seeing how the budget feature determined (among other things) how many points
were available during Offseason recruiting, the XBox 360 version of the game
now issues each team a static number of recruiting points to use during each
week. That number (208 according to my 360-owning sources) is a much higher
amount of points than I am accustomed to working with in Week 1, so some of my
strategies can be applied in a more relaxed manner. You can feel free to spend
more points than the minimum during week one on any players you're strongly
interested in signing, although I still wouldn't do this very often. Any extra
points you have would be best spent on Scouting.

One final, personal note about the XBox 360 version of the game from me: when
I found out that it included fewer features overall than the current-gen
editions, I (an XBox 360 owner) decided to stick with the PS2 version for
2006. The increased focus on graphics for the 360 edition seemingly left
Tiburon with little time to translate many of the features of the current-gen
title for 360 users, and I think that for $10 less, those current-gen copies
are a better buy. I do, however, like the graphics on the 360 title quite a
bit - especially the panoramic game intros. Hopefully, NCAA Football 08 will
see a lot more of the existing features finally added.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10) Frequently Asked Questions [akl]

1. Who the heck are you, and why did you write this FAQ?

-- I am a lifelong gamer, a fan of the Madden and NCAA Football series, and an
exceedingly talented writer. My first FAQ submission to GameFAQs was a guide
for recruiting in NCAA Football 06, and since its release I have received a
significant number of emails thanking me for my work on it. So, based on the
reception I got last year, I decided to write a follow-up for this year's
version. I must admit, it was rather easy, since almost nothing has changed
between the two.

You may see me posting in the PlayStation 2 NCAA Football 07 forums,
discussing whatever topics pique my interest, or around the forums of whatever
other game I may be playing at the time. In the meantime, you can view my
other GameFAQs contributions here:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/39116.html

As always, I appreciate any constructive criticism that you readers can offer
me. My contact information is in section 2, so feel free to drop me a line -
I'm fairly good at responding in a timely fashion, especially if you extend
the courtesy of using proper grammar and spelling in your emails.

2. Where can I get the names for the players for my rosters?

-- This has nothing to do with the content of this guide, but it's still the
most frequently asked question about this game, so I'll include it here
anyway. There are several ways you can get the actual player names for your
roster file:

  a) PSXSports.com, fkrosters.com, maddenmania.com, and likely several other
     sites offer complete I-A and I-AA roster files for either download,
     receipt by mail, or purchase on a new memory card. I use DT's rosters
     from PSXSports.com, and I feel that they are the best available.
  b) A search for 'NCAA Football Roster' on eBay will net you many different
     sellers who will perform much the same service that you can get from
     DT's website, although you must bid to receive them.
  c) You can, if you have the time and the patience, manually input the names
     by checking every team's official roster on their athletics website. A
     Google search should bring you to each team's page.

Asking this question on the NCAA Football boards will likely introduce you to
the drama that surrounds the roster files each year, so you're much better off
looking elsewhere for information on how to get them. Now, don't say I haven't
warned you.

3. Player XYZ has his interest bar 90% full, but no matter how hard I recruit
him, he won't sign! Please help me!

-- Don't pursue him. He's not going to sign with you, because the game created
him without any interest in signing with your team - despite what that stupid
bar shows.

4. How do you know? What makes you so darn sure?

-- Hours and hours and hours of my life spent recruiting in this game.
Seriously.

If you don't believe me, I am always open to submissions - but you had better
offer some form of proof, or at least an explanation why you don't agree. I
really hate getting emails that consist of little more than someone calling me
wrong.

5. What changes have been made to recruiting between NCAA Football 06 and NCAA
Football 07?

-- I was actually planning on adding a whole section dedicated to this very
question, but upon playing the game I saw that there was really no need to.
Quite honestly, I simply cannot say that I have found any changes at all in
this year's version of the game from last year's, save for the fact that
Tiburon patched up a couple of minor glitches (7" LBs, anyone?). In 15+
seasons of Dynasty with this year's edition, every single aspect of recruiting
has played out exactly as it did in last year's game, or it at least has
seemed to in my eyes. Yes, I know they added the Spring Game to Dynasty mode,
but it has no effect or recruiting, unless you count being able to
occasionally see one or two of your new recruits in game action before they're
actually on your roster as an effect.

Honestly, if anyone can find any differences in recruiting in the 07 version,
I would be happy to hear about them.

6. Why should I restrict my In-Season recruiting? I like getting lots of 5*
players.

-- I believe that following my restrictions offers a take on recruiting that
is closer to reality than not doing so. If you don't care about achieving
recruiting results that are lifelike, or just don't want to follow my
restrictions, feel free not to. My strategies should still help you,
regardless.

7. How do you raise your school's Academic Prestige rating?

-- There is no guaranteed method to raising or maintaining your school's
Academic Prestige rating; there are, however, certain things you can do to
ensure that your school is always in a good position to do so.

The most established way to help out your academic rating is to recruit only
players with above-average discipline and high GPAs. This should ensure that
you rarely have to mete out any academic suspensions when you play through the
season, in addition to filling your team with academic-minded players who are
more likely to achieve higher grades. It has also been suggested that kicking
academic troublemakers off of your team (by cutting them during the offseason)
will have the same results; again, this makes sense, since it will definitely
prevent some discipline problems during the season, but this theory is
unproven, and in some cases unrealistic.

These methods aren't by any means guaranteed to work. Personally, I've never
seen or heard of anyone who has had their Academic Prestige increase by more
than one star during a dynasty, and even a one star gain is notably rare. My
best advice is to always choose players with higher discipline and awareness
during recruiting.

8. How about Program/Coach Prestige? How do I raise that?

Have a good season. Seriously, there aren't any specific things to do, other
than having a winning season and winning a bowl game. Meeting all of the goals
set out for you under Report Card (Coach Options-->Report Card) is also very
likely to net you another star. Just keep winning, and your two Prestige
ratings will shoot up in no time.

9. Do you have any stat conversions? Will you make some for us?

-- Yes, I finally do. GameFAQs user t-dogg74 was kind enough to submit a full
chart of stat conversions, which I am including here. I still don't feel that
such a tool in necessary during recruiting, since you're likely to figure out
the basic correlations fairly quickly as you grow accustomed to the game;
regardless, this should satisfy all of you stat junkies who have been
pestering me for a conversion chart.

One note about this information: I haven't fact-checked any of these numbers,
and I don't plan to. What you see here is entirely t-dogg74's work, with my
contribution limited only to formatting the data to fit neatly here. Just by
eyeballing the numbers, they seem to be roughly correct, but don't email me to
complain if they're not all exactly right.

Here it is, organized in a somewhat logical fashion:

 40 Time - Spd / Vertical - Jmp / Bench - Str / Squat - Tkl/Rn Blk/Brk Tkl
    4.16 - 99  /    43.7" - 99  /   545 - 99  /   ??? - 99
    4.18 - 98  /    43.4" - 98  /   535 - 98  /   ??? - 98
    4.20 - 97  /    43.1" - 97  /   530 - 97  /   ??? - 97
    4.22 - 96  /    42.9" - 96  /   525 - 96  /   ??? - 96
    4.24 - 95  /    42.5" - 95  /   520 - 95  /   ??? - 95
    4.26 - 94  /    42.1" - 94  /   515 - 94  /   ??? - 94
    4.29 - 93  /    41.9" - 93  /   505 - 93  /   730 - 93
    4.31 - 92  /    41.6" - 92  /   500 - 92  /   720 - 92
    4.33 - 91  /    41.3" - 91  /   495 - 91  /   715 - 91
    4.35 - 90  /    41.0" - 90  /   490 - 90  /   705 - 90
    4.37 - 89  /    40.7" - 89  /   485 - 89  /   695 - 89
    4.39 - 88  /    40.4" - 88  /   480 - 88  /   690 - 88
    4.41 - 87  /    40.1" - 87  /   470 - 87  /   680 - 87
    4.43 - 86  /    39.8" - 86  /   465 - 86  /   670 - 86
    4.46 - 85  /    39.5" - 85  /   460 - 85  /   665 - 85
    4.48 - 84  /    39.2" - 84  /   455 - 84  /   655 - 84
    4.52 - 82  /    38.6" - 82  /   440 - 82  /   640 - 82
    4.56 - 80  /    38.1" - 80  /   430 - 80  /   620 - 80
    4.60 - 78  /    37.5" - 78  /   420 - 78  /   605 - 78
    4.65 - 76  /    36.9" - 76  /   405 - 76  /   585 - 76
    4.69 - 74  /    36.3" - 74  /   395 - 74  /   570 - 74
    4.73 - 72  /    35.7" - 72  /   380 - 72  /   555 - 72
    4.78 - 70  /    35.1" - 70  /   370 - 70  /   535 - 70
    4.82 - 68  /    34.5" - 68  /   360 - 68  /   520 - 68
    4.88 - 65  /    33.6" - 65  /   340 - 65  /   495 - 65
    4.95 - 62  /    32.7" - 62  /   325 - 62  /   470 - 62
    5.01 - 59  /    31.8" - 59  /   305 - 59  /   445 - 59
    5.07 - 56  /    30.9" - 56  /   285 - 56  /   415 - 56
    5.16 - 52  /    29.7" - 52  /   265 - 52  /   385 - 52
    5.24 - 48  /    28.6" - 48  /   240 - 48  /   350 - 48
    5.33 - 44  /    27.4" - 44  /   215 - 44  /   315 - 44
    5.41 - 40  /    26.2" - 40  /   190 - 40  /   280 - 40

10. How do I convince transfers/underclassmen to stay with my team?

-- Unfortunately, only luck will help you convince your underclassmen and
transfers to stay in school once you're at the 'Players Leaving' event during
the offseason. Once an player is determined by the game to be listed on the
Players Leaving list, they are assigned a final decision, as well as a set of
parameters for determining when their final decision will be shown. There is
no way to change these, and there really aren't any ways to effectively
predict what any given player's answer will be, despite the presence of that
useless staying/leaving bar. To put it simply, once you get to the Players
Leaving stage of the offseason, it's just a matter of going through the
motions to see which players will stay.

There's been some confusion over this, so I'll include an example for
illustrative purposes. Let's say player X wants to turn pro with one year of
eligibility remaining. Once the game determines that he will be included on
the Players Leaving list, it assigns him some parameters (for this example,
let's say that he will need to be convinced three times), and it assigns him a
final decision (again, let's say that he will turn pro). You decide that you
want X back, so you use the Talk Player Into Staying command to try and
convince him to stay in school. His parameters state that after three tries of
being convinced, his final decision - in this case, to turn pro - will be
revealed, and so you can no longer try to convince him. Each player will have
his own set of parameters, and there is no way of knowing what they will be.

Now, I have a problem with the way the game determines players who leave
early for the NFL. The game simply has anyone who produced good stats during
the previous season try to turn pro; in spite of this, any pro personnel man
worth his paycheck will tell you that college productivity is in no way a
reliable indicator of pro potential. The end result of this difference is that
a large percentage of the players who leave early in NCAA Football have no
chance of making it into the Draft Class file that can be exported into
Madden, effectively ending their careers early for no good reason. Therefore,
I usually take my own measures to counteract this ridiculous logic.

I save my Dynasty right after the National Championship game, but before
advancing to the offseason. I'll progress until the Players Leaving event, and
if there are a high number of underclassmen leaving school early (from all
schools, not just mine) who will not make the cut into the Draft Class, I 
reset my PS2, and go through the process again. This tactic may seem
unrealistic to some, but I feel that it is the only way to effectively
negate the lazy programming on Tiburon's part, and thus the best way to ensure
more realistic Draft Classes in Madden. So, in essence, I'm using an
unrealistic tactic to counteract unrealistic results.

For the record, the top 12-15 players by overall rating at each position are
the only ones who will make it into each Draft Class; anyone below there fits
my description of a player who should have stayed in school.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11) Thanks/Legal Info [alm]

Thanks go out to the following, in no particular order:

Tiburon/EA Sports, GameFAQs, DT at PSXSports.com, Sony, all the regulars on
the NCAA Football 07 message boards, everyone who has written in with
suggestions or information, and the UConn Huskies, for getting good at just
the right time to make me into a college football fan.

Thanks also go out to the following people, for submitting information that
led to revisions in this guide:

bdog_4860 at hotmail dot com - For reminding me to note that points do not
                               carry over between weeks.
Greg Lynch - For reminding me to include a FAQ on how to improve Program
             Prestige.
Aaron Shaw - For submitting some info on the XBox 360 version.
'Chris' - For reminding me to include a section on negative responses to
          pitches during In-Season recruiting.

This FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
private use. It may not be placed on any web site other than GameFAQs, or
otherwise distributed publicly, without advance written permission from the
author. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public
display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their
respective trademark and copyright holders.

Copyright 2006 David Bernardo

~