NCAA hockey recruiting - two suggestions(/questions?0

gravellj · 01-29-2025, 09:00 AM

Hello,

Appreciate all the work on NCAA as I know it's wonky and difficult to get into the game with all its quirks. 2 (maybe 2.5) major things I'd like to flag regarding recruiting:

1) At National Signing Day, I get why mechanically you are limited to the number of available scholarships + graduating seniors, but some sort of tweak would be helpful and realistic. I'm playing through as Boston College, and assuming the end of this season goes realistically, I am likely to have at least Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perrault and James Hagens go pro - maybe 1-2 more - in addition to my 2 graduating scholarship seniors, but I'm only able to commit based on graduating seniors, not anticipated departures. So I'm highly likely to end up short on next year's roster, which I know can be addressed through the transfer portal.

But I think a realistic (and maybe doable) mechanic to address this that would also frankly be realistic to real life would be to allow you to over-recruit (though you're less likely to get commitments if kids know there's so much competition for a roster spot). Then you can have some sort of third draft on July 1 where players who refuse to defer their commitments for a year or who get cut due to scholarship limits can commit to new schools.

It's pretty common for both of these things to happen in real NCAA hockey, particularly with the ability to 'encourage' kids to hit the portal to free up scholarship space.

1.5) Additionally, I was able to hedge against this by offering a few good players non- and partial- scholarships and much to my surprise some of them committed. That said, it's a complete guessing game as to whether this is going to blow your chances of getting a player, or work -- some sort of attribute for how important a full or partial scholarship would be great, or maybe a 'contract negotiation' where you can offer someone a partial and they say they'll only come for a full, or you offer non-scholarship and they say they need a partial... something like that.

A fix of this kind would help be able to build rosters that can hedge against a lot of early departures - key if you're playing for a program that gets a lot of high-end talent.

2) A QOL improvement that would help the NSD and Verbal Commitments draft is the ability to only be asked about other team's nominations if they are on your shortlist or watchlist (or if it's possible to create a recruiting board). I don't want to miss out on someone trying to poach one of my verbals or high targets, but it's a long long process to click through every single commitment even when the vast majority are nowhere near my board.
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Hope these are realistic and helpful suggestions. I haven't played through a full year on 11 yet so I can't comment on changes to the portal etc yet but I'm looking forward to it.

One thing I will flag, but not a huge deal - some random programs got some really big name commitments in my first singing day go-around - Robert Morris and Bentley specifically.

Another possible suggestion would be to stack the draft order so bigger programs get more of the high draft picks, rather than everyone getting one turn each round, which would be 'unfair' but more true to real life.

Thoughts?

Colorado · 02-06-2025, 09:40 AM

I really like playing in the NCAA and it's a really good feature in FHM.

I think you make some really good well thought-out points, especially the second point about only getting notified about players you've shortlisted, as currently there's way too many.

Hopefully Jeff will reply here and let us know his thoughts.

01-29-2025, 09:00 AM	#1
gravellj Bat Boy Join Date: Jan 2025 Posts: 1	NCAA hockey recruiting - two suggestions(/questions?0 Hello, Appreciate all the work on NCAA as I know it's wonky and difficult to get into the game with all its quirks. 2 (maybe 2.5) major things I'd like to flag regarding recruiting: 1) At National Signing Day, I get why mechanically you are limited to the number of available scholarships + graduating seniors, but some sort of tweak would be helpful and realistic. I'm playing through as Boston College, and assuming the end of this season goes realistically, I am likely to have at least Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perrault and James Hagens go pro - maybe 1-2 more - in addition to my 2 graduating scholarship seniors, but I'm only able to commit based on graduating seniors, not anticipated departures. So I'm highly likely to end up short on next year's roster, which I know can be addressed through the transfer portal. But I think a realistic (and maybe doable) mechanic to address this that would also frankly be realistic to real life would be to allow you to over-recruit (though you're less likely to get commitments if kids know there's so much competition for a roster spot). Then you can have some sort of third draft on July 1 where players who refuse to defer their commitments for a year or who get cut due to scholarship limits can commit to new schools. It's pretty common for both of these things to happen in real NCAA hockey, particularly with the ability to 'encourage' kids to hit the portal to free up scholarship space. 1.5) Additionally, I was able to hedge against this by offering a few good players non- and partial- scholarships and much to my surprise some of them committed. That said, it's a complete guessing game as to whether this is going to blow your chances of getting a player, or work -- some sort of attribute for how important a full or partial scholarship would be great, or maybe a 'contract negotiation' where you can offer someone a partial and they say they'll only come for a full, or you offer non-scholarship and they say they need a partial... something like that. A fix of this kind would help be able to build rosters that can hedge against a lot of early departures - key if you're playing for a program that gets a lot of high-end talent. 2) A QOL improvement that would help the NSD and Verbal Commitments draft is the ability to only be asked about other team's nominations if they are on your shortlist or watchlist (or if it's possible to create a recruiting board). I don't want to miss out on someone trying to poach one of my verbals or high targets, but it's a long long process to click through every single commitment even when the vast majority are nowhere near my board. - Hope these are realistic and helpful suggestions. I haven't played through a full year on 11 yet so I can't comment on changes to the portal etc yet but I'm looking forward to it. One thing I will flag, but not a huge deal - some random programs got some really big name commitments in my first singing day go-around - Robert Morris and Bentley specifically. Another possible suggestion would be to stack the draft order so bigger programs get more of the high draft picks, rather than everyone getting one turn each round, which would be 'unfair' but more true to real life. Thoughts?

02-06-2025, 09:40 AM	#2
Colorado Major Leagues Join Date: Apr 2018 Posts: 440	I really like playing in the NCAA and it's a really good feature in FHM. I think you make some really good well thought-out points, especially the second point about only getting notified about players you've shortlisted, as currently there's way too many. Hopefully Jeff will reply here and let us know his thoughts.