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NCAA Football 2010 recruiting tips
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NCAA Football 2010's dynasty mode is all about recruiting the best players to fit your system. This starts at the very beginning of a new season when picking out new recruits to during the season as you place phone calls and schedule visits to the offseason when everything heats up while you make promises and hope to lure a top recruit to your school.
These NCAA Football 2010 recruiting tips will help guide you in the right direction for building your school into a real powerhouse.
This strategy guide was written with the Xbox 360 in mind, but recruiting is the same for the PS3.
NCAA Football 2010 Recruiting - Preseason
Picking the right players is the first step in having a strong recruiting season. The quickest way to get started is to use the database search tool to narrow down the caliber of player without any other restrictions. You can easily filter the results by position and by state, so don't bother putting those into the search.
If you are recruiting for a small caliber school, put an emphasis on players from your home state. You won't have as many different pitches that you excel at, so having home field advantage is important. A one or two star team will want to shoot for 10-15 four star recruits and then focus on three star recruits. Don't worry about 2 star recruits or below in preseason recruiting.
As a three star team, you should go for around 5 five star recruits and fill up the next 25 with four stars leaving the last few slots for some choice three star recruits.
Once you hit four stars, you should go for at least a dozen five star recruits and fill up the rest of the board with four star recruits. No use messing around with three star recruits at that point unless you see someone that really stands out, like a speedster receiver that fits a need.
NCAA Football 2010 Recruiting - During the Season
Recruiting in NCAA Football 2010 can be broken into three phases:
Phase 1. Unlocking pitches.
The first weeks are spent going through the recruits and unlocks the pitches your school excels at. This allows you to know how a recruit will feel about your school, if you should drop them or move them up in your list, if you need to offer them a scholarship to get a quick boost, etc.
Because you'll want to unlock most of the players on your draft board, avoid spending too much time with any one recruit by limiting yourself to unlocking only 2-3 pitches per phone call. You can also use some of this time hard-selling or swaying recruits, but only 1 pitch during these first weeks, and not every recruit.
For a low-caliber school, you want to keep an eye on recruits that just don't like pitches where your school rates least a B. Drop these recruits and backfill with more three star recruits. As the season goes on, start adding two star recruits as you may need to fill roster spots with bodies, but only do this after week six when you are in the second half of the season.
You'll also want to offer scholarships to any recruit that looks promising and doesn't already have you as one of the top schools. Wait until you see they like some of your school's best pitches to offer the scholarship so you don't waste valuable phone time on a recruit you eventually drop.
Once your school is at least three stars, you'll have more options as you'll excel at more pitches. This phase then becomes more about unlocking the pitches the recruit is most interested in and less about whether or not to drop the recruit from the roster.
Be diligent with your scholarships as a bigger school. If you fall behind in recruiting, don't be afraid to use them, but so long as you are a top school, wait until after the visit when the green bar is maxed out, then offer it. They'll sometimes sign right then.
Treat five star recruits different. Offer them a scholarship in week one. You want to come into the season swinging with the best recruits, and sometimes they'll even sign in week one or two.
Move players around on your board. As you see a player who has high interest in areas your school excels, move them up on your draft board. Also move up players that have you ranked as one of the top schools. The higher on your board, the more the player will respond. So get the ones most interested up to the top as quickly as possible.
Leave them smiling. It is always a good idea to leave the recruit happy even if you don't fill up the green bar for your call. If you've unlocked a few pitches but the recruit is a little miffed, try hard-selling what you are good at (and they are interested in) and leave them on a good note. If the hard-sell goes on too long, hit B to save some time.
Phase 2. Swaying the recruit.
Once you have the pitches unlocked, the real battle begins. You will sway a recruit by doing two things: (1) hard-selling them on the pitches where they have the most interest and your school has at least a B and (2) swaying them on areas where your school excels but their interest is only average or below.
Be careful trying to sway a recruit with above average interest. A failed attempt to sway can result in it going back to average and locking. This is okay to gamble with when you are in a heated battle over a recruit, but don't risk it if you are one of the top schools.
NCAA Football 2010 gives more feedback in recruiting than 09, so pay attention to it. The little 2 and -2 and 10 and -8 symbols that fly up on the left side of the screen tell you how a call is doing. There is also a face that becomes red when you are making him angry and green when he is happy. Use this info. If you are really pissing him off, hit B to exit out of the pitch.
There is also a bar that shows the potential of the call. You don't have to max it out each call, but try to get it at least 20% filled for recruits you are really interested in signing. Maxing it out too often will result in only being able to call a few recruits.
Spend more time when you see the X2 at the top. When you see that X2, spend the time to max out the green for that call. This indicator gives you a bonus in recruiting, so you might as well use it.
Always pay attention to how the recruit feels about you and other schools. If you fall too far behind and the recruit isn't a make-or-break player for your recruiting season, don't be afraid to drop them and add on a new player. As the season goes on, you can add on three star or two star recruits to fill positions.
Phase 3. Scheduling visits and competing against rival schools.
It is always best to schedule visits late in the year and against the better schools. A recruit is going to like you whipping Texas in week eleven far more than beating Florida Atlantic in week two. It's find to schedule a few recruits in early weeks, but save your choice recruits to latter in the season.
The last part of the season will also entail competing against rival schools by downplaying pitches. This is relatively straightforward. Just remember not to downplay a pitch that your school excels in as much or more than the rival school else you'll be doing more harm than good.
Also, don't get into too many competing matches if you are still spending time swaying many of your recruits. It can be time consuming trying to downplay a lot of pitches, so use it where it will do the most good: the recruits you want the most who like another school as much or slightly more than your school.
NCAA Football 2010 Recruiting - The offseason
Your first step in offseason recruiting is to check for new recruits. This is a new addition to NCAA Football 2010 -- recruits will pop up in offseason that weren't there during the season, so even if you haven't had a great season of recruiting, you can still fill a big need.
Recruiting during the offseason is much the same as recruiting during the season. Your first weeks will be spent scheduling a lot of visits. As recruits sign, you'll add on new recruits and focus on unlocking pitches first, then swaying the recruit by hard-selling and swaying their interest in where your school excels.
The big difference is the ability to make promises. These can be a great way to win a stiff competition or to make a new recruit immediately interested in your team. Not all promises are available when you just begin your dynasty -- you will have to fulfill promises to other players before those will open up.
You should always favor promises that are easy to keep like not redshirting the player. Failure to keep a promise could lead to the player transferring to another school. But don't be afraid to be bold with a top recruit. After all, if that 5-star running back transfers to USC after you promised him a national championship and didn't deliver, at least you had him for one year. But only reach when you need it -- if he's close to signing, promise him something simple. If he's probably going to sign with Arkansas, promise him the moon.
NCAA Football 2010 Recruiting - Quick Tips
Know when to break the rules. Remember, everything here is just a guideline. While two star recruits are mostly useless for a better team, a really fast wide receiver could still make a great punt or kick returner even if he's just a two star.
Don't throw good time after bad. Even if you are in week 9, if you are too far back in the race to sign a recruit, dump him.
Find good recruits late in the season. Use the search tool to look for recruits who have 10 schools remaining. This will give you a list of recruits who haven't really built up interest in any school. They are great to recruit later in the season.
Feel free to leave your tips or let everyone know what has worked best for you.
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