College Hockey FAQ's

[tomkmb]

Just playing through my first season after watching some of the details be explained on last nights stream, also had a read through the manual but thought maybe a thread dedicated to question about this mode could be helpful going forwards.

I had one to start:

If I've got 18 scholarships on my program and 7.5 available leaving as seniors, what happens if I continue to offer to players at National signing day? As the draft for NSD was about 1200 picks deep I was able to just keep offering and offering and I've got 11 guys committed to me for next year, eventually I figured something must be up and just selected the 'stop nominating' from the actions menu on the top right but yeah, any clarity on this would be useful to know going forwards!

[JeffR]

The game should stop you from making new scholarship offers when (scholarship limit - seniors - scholarship offers to signed players) = 0. Had you offered the 11 players full scholarships, or were some of them partial?

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by JeffR

The game should stop you from making new scholarship offers when (scholarship limit - seniors - scholarship offers to signed players) = 0. Had you offered the 11 players full scholarships, or were some of them partial?

Once I got suspicious I offered I think two partial scholarships? Which would still equate to more than 11.

One thing which I've noted which is making this more difficult to keep track of is that the number of available scholariships(7.5) doesnt increment downwards after each draft pick(this is displayed in the regular draft info panel at the bottom right of the draft screen), that would be a nice and helpful addition. Also, when you check the third tab on the draft page (I think it was the commitments? page) If there were any mention on there of what had been offered too it would just help keep track of all of this.

Also, I'm assuming that players who were on my verbal commits list at the start of the game were present at signing day, but some guys that I had added to my watch list as per your search/filter method in last nights stream were not showing up, is that because they were under 17?

[JeffR]

I'll check, it again; I do remember looking at that specific thing a couple of weeks ago and it cut me off from offering new scholarships when it was supposed to.

I'll see if we can show the math more explicitly on the draft screen, i.e. current scholarships, number opening up, and signed offers.

Yeah, the age is the most likely reason for the players not appearing, they have to be at least 17 (by June 30 of the end of trhe current season) for National Signing Day.

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by JeffR

I'll see if we can show the math more explicitly on the draft screen, i.e. current scholarships, number opening up, and signed offers.

National Signing Day.

Great, thanks for clarifying. I'll keep playing on and let you know if I get anything similar next year.

That would be great to have that info added on there, just more useful for roster tracking. I'm not sure how easy this would be but I noticed I also kept clicking back to my 'watch list' to cross reference, would this ever be able to be made available as a tab along the top where the 'draft' and 'commitment' and 'draft order' tabs are currently? I understand if that one is more of a stretch but just figured it's worth mentioning from a usability point.

Thanks as always Jeff, having a lot of fun with this years version already!

[glenmere14]

Hi Jeff - love the series.

Playing the college season and my eventual Mike Richter Award winning goaltender became a Free Agent just as the NCAA tournament began. Needless to say, we were one and done.

What did I miss?

[Adam B]

Originally Posted by glenmere14

Hi Jeff - love the series.

Playing the college season and my eventual Mike Richter Award winning goaltender became a Free Agent just as the NCAA tournament began. Needless to say, we were one and done.

What did I miss?

There is an issue with teams releasing guys before they should. A fix is coming. You can probably use your Roll-Back save though (labelled RS_One or RS_Two) in the save to go back after the update is out.

[glenmere14]

Originally Posted by Adam B

There is an issue with teams releasing guys before they should. A fix is coming. You can probably use your Roll-Back save though (labelled RS_One or RS_Two) in the save to go back after the update is out.

Thanks Adam.

[tomkmb]

Is there any benefit to having surplus 'points' for the finances in college mode come the end of the season?

or should you just crank everything to the max

[paul7878]

I'm playing with Brown Univ. and noticed we have a short 23-game schedule in year 1, compared to everyone else that seems to have 28+. In real life, the team has like 31 games this year. Just wondering if I can expect to play more games next season or not.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by paul7878

I'm playing with Brown Univ. and noticed we have a short 23-game schedule in year 1, compared to everyone else that seems to have 28+. In real life, the team has like 31 games this year. Just wondering if I can expect to play more games next season or not.

No, it'll remain the same length. Looks like their schedule must have been updated after I put the college schedule together, I see several games (e.g. a 3-game series in early December against LIU) on the real one that aren't in the game, I'll have to update that.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

Is there any benefit to having surplus 'points' for the finances in college mode come the end of the season?

or should you just crank everything to the max

Arena upgrades/rebuilds, although that'll take a while with the income level involved.

[reverist]

I will say something odd about my NCAA save: I had to redshirt a player because he was academically ineligible. All was well for a few months, but now in February 2023, he is unhappy. The reason? Icetime. Well, yes. You're not going to get icetime if I have to redshirt you because you're academically ineligible.

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by reverist

I will say something odd about my NCAA save: I had to redshirt a player because he was academically ineligible. All was well for a few months, but now in February 2023, he is unhappy. The reason? Icetime. Well, yes. You're not going to get icetime if I have to redshirt you because you're academically ineligible.

Yeah, I think we need to add an exemption to the icetime unhappiness for redshirted guys; there's a check to see if they agree to the redshirt in the first place, so they're doing voluntarily.

[leahhextall]

Very random, but anyone else noticing an abnormal amount of Mongolian players in NCAA?

[JeffR]

Originally Posted by leahhextall

Very random, but anyone else noticing an abnormal amount of Mongolian players in NCAA?

Not seeing it my test games, the handful of Mongolians playing abroad are mostly in Russia or Kazakhstan. Have a look at the Bio screen of ones you're seeing, where are they playing before they join the NCAA teams? And how many are you seeing?

[Colorado]

Couple of questions as I'm not familiar about college hockey other than from what I've learned from FHM9. Any help, much appreciated!

What difference does offering a partial or full scholarship make?

Does a partial scholarship turn into a full scholarship?

On the draft intake day, does the 'INT' rating represent intelligence or interest?

Is it possible to change a player already on your roster (i.e offer a partial roster player a full scholarship)?

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by Colorado

Couple of questions as I'm not familiar about college hockey other than from what I've learned from FHM9. Any help, much appreciated!

What difference does offering a partial or full scholarship make?

Does a partial scholarship turn into a full scholarship?

On the draft intake day, does the 'INT' rating represent intelligence or interest?

Is it possible to change a player already on your roster (i.e offer a partial roster player a full scholarship)?

So this is just from my 30 hours or so with the game and what I've gleaned from the NCAA streams/Jeff's response to stuff on here when asked.

Once a player is on your roster, it doesn't technically matter how they are on your roster, they are bound to your program for 4 years until they graduate. The only time they will be with you for more time is if they have to be redshirted one year (either by your choice or due to them failing their academic eligibility) and the only time they will be on your roster for less time is if they get signed up by their pro club once they've been drafted(or if they fail to qualify twice for academic eligibility but I believe that instance is incredibly rare). You can also cut a player by 'buying out their rights' from the action menu or right clicking, though I'm not sure if that's left in as an oversight or if it's intended to be possible, it's just something I've done to clear some of the 0.5 star 'chaff' from cluttering up my roster (especially on the tactical feedback screen).

So in essence, once a player is on your roster it's my understanding that there is no benefit to 'upgrading' anyone from a non scholarship to a partial or from a partial to a full.

The time when scholarship type IS most relevant is on National Signing Day, so as briefly mentioned on last nights stream during NSD, You are presented with a draft like screen where the pool of players is made up of guys who are verbally committed to your program, other programs or not committed at all. When the nominations happen you get a chance to compete with the program that has nominated the player for their signature and essentially the rights to have them join your program at the beginning of the following season. Say one school offers a player a partial scholarship and you choose to compete with them and make an offer to the player of a FULL scholarship, then this is weighted differently in the players decision making (along with several other factors as confirmed by Jeff which I will post at the end of this response for clarity).

It's not some sort of cheat code though where if you offer a full and they offer a partial you'll always get the guy, it's just ONE of a number of ways you can make yourself more appealing to a prospect than the school he had previously verbally committed to (or whoever is nominating him at that time.)

Also, if you've only got a limited number of scholarships then obviously you'll get more players in by offering them half scholarships as opposed to full ones, so it's important to check your available scholarships and also how many seniors you have on your team (as this will drive the number of guys you want to bring in too).

The 'Int' rating is Intelligence, it was mentioned last night that it's important for them to be >10 otherwise they'll potentially fail eligibility and it also factors in for Ivy League schools because they don't have scholarships but guys with higher intelligence want to go there, so it's a way for them to compete. Your academic level can be seen from the team data screen.

Here is a response Jeff gave previously highlighting some of the info recruits consider when making their decisions (and which screens you can see that info on for your program).

Sorry for the long response but just wanted to try to be clear, If I've misunderstood any of this stuff then I'm happy to be corrected!

Originally from Jeff:

There are a few "school reputation" factors in the signing decisions (in addition to non-reputation things like roster spot competition from the team's current players and recruits):

-geographical location relative to the player (same state, or a bigger bonus if player is from the same city)
-academic reputation (team data) page (only applies to the smarter players, i.e. high INT on the draft screen)
-tuition cost (higher ones provide a bonus to recruiting chances if a full scholarship is offered, or a smaller one for partial)
-check the "Market" tab on the League-League Finances screen and sort by Market Size (used as a proxy for overall program reputation in some player decisions),
-current season record
-past season record
-recent championships

[redranger]

Excellent info. Thank you tomkmb


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[Colorado]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

So this is just from my 30 hours or so with the game and what I've gleaned from the NCAA streams/Jeff's response to stuff on here when asked.

Thanks for such a detailed and informative reply, I'm from UK and I'm sure many other people from outside North America will benefit from it.

One final question, I've heard of the term Ivy Leagues, I'm guessing this means academic elite colleges. In EHM, which colleges would fall under this category?

Future suggestion: some sort of indication regarding their academic status/reputation would be helpful in the team profile.