The NCAA Football 14 Dynasty Recruiting Guide

Recruiting is the lifeblood of your dynasty, so you can't afford to waste any opportunity to strengthen your team and set yourself up for success. We breakdown NCAA Football 14's new recruiting system and how you can use it to your program's advantage.

NCAA 14 ditches the old phone call system to recruits from previous iterations in favor of giving you a set amount of points you can spend each week on wooing potential players. The amount of points allocated to each player automatically carries over from week to week, but the more hands-on you are the better chance you have of success.

SETTING UP YOUR BOARD

Everybody sets up their boards a little differently, and my experience is based on playing mid- to lower-prestige schools. I first like to fill my board with pipeline and in-state players based on their interest in my school (top three) and minimum caliber rating (three stars). The search tool is immensely valuable for this. Unless I need a player at a position and none are interested, I like to bark up the trees that will most likely lead to a bona fide signing. However, I then like to add high-caliber players from my home state regardless of their interest – just in case I get bonus points from that recruit for my school's proximity to home pitch. Here are my other pointers:

• Identify your teams' needs based on your depth chart and who you've redshirted. Make sure you redshirt your players before you set up your board.
• If you need one player for a position, add a few players from that spot on your board, but there's no need to overfill it with too much competition. Also, make sure you know what "kind" of player each one is (i.e. a possession WR vs. a balanced one) and pick from them accordingly.
• Know what an athlete is good at. No use chasing an athlete if you aren't going to put them at their natural position. What is that? Just take a look at their attribute ratings and you'll get a clear idea of what position they are suited for.
• When you are initially setting up your recruiting board in the pre-season you can only spend points on scouting players. Take this opportunity to scout players at the same position and drop those whom you don't like from your board.

MANAGING YOUR BOARD

• Be ruthless in culling your board – no sense spending points on a lost cause. If I'm 500+ points behind after a few weeks in the season I pull out.
• Conversely, don't spend too many points on players if you are in the lead. If I am in the lead by 500+ points, I don't spend as many points on them simply because I don't have to. Be careful, however, as teams can sneak up on you as the season goes on.
• Know how many bonus points are being applied to players from week to week. Since these are consistant, reoccurring points, use this as a baseline to determine how many points to apply from your overall pool.
• I like to add in lower-caliber players who have my school ranked as their number-one choice in the later third of the season. These are usually easy signings that don't require you to spend a lot of points, so you might as well go for them.
• I prefer to use scouting sparingly, and only when I can't make up my mind about two players at the same position.
• During the offseason, you get a one-time allocation of 10,000 points to assign to uncommitted, unlocked players. Try using this pool of points on one player you've not previously tried to recruit. Sometimes it works.

VISITS

• Group offensive/defensive players on the same week – except if you have two players vying for the same position.
• Try and schedule players to visit when you know you can beat the opposing team that week. The better you do against them, the more impressed your recruits will be.
• If possible, it's better to be scheduled later relative to the teams you are going up against for that player's services.

COACH SKILLS

• Using an existing coach instead of creating your own can give you an advantage. For instance, the existing coach for Arizona St. has his scouting skill fully leveled up right off the bat.
• Some recruiting related skills kick in at certain points of the season, like the Closer skill (more recruiting points from weeks 8 through 15) or the Royal Treatment skill (which gives you bonus points when a player visits campus). Plan to spend your upgrade points at the right time so any recruiting skills you purchase can be used effectively.

For more on the game, check out my review. Got a recruiting tip yourself? Please leave it in the comments section below.