A Story from my Rice Dynasty

[Air Raid]

Last night I might have had my most satisifying experience of NCAA 06'

Alright I started a dynasty with Rice a couple of weeks ago...they are a C- defensive ball club and D on offense. They are a 1 star program and a 5 star academic school

Year one...I play about 1/2 of the games and simulate the rest...I went 6-0 in the games I played and 3-3 in the games I simulated (which is actually a BIG surprise)...so I get into the GMAC bowl and roll over North Texas 28-0

so I go to recruiting and decide to up the points for training and discipline (because it's a high academic school and my underclassmen suck)....and as I recruit I only recruit those athletes with a A- or higher in feild awareness and an "average" or better discipline..and I recruit to fit my power spread/option run offesnse (mobile QBs and quality RBs and TEs) and my 4-2-5 defensive scheme (ie: lots of CBs, SSs and fast DEs)

...let's just say it doesn't go swimmingly...I get about 16 players and no one above a 3 star....so on to year 2...now I'm a 2 star program, a 4 star academic school ( ) and I'm still a D team on O but now a C team on defense...

This time I play all of my games and finish undefeated (it's CONFUSA so it helps that the quality of teams is in my league)...but no love from the pollsters (finished ranked 23rd) and I head to the Liberty Bowl where I beat Bowling Green 28-7....so off to recruiting again

this time I lower the points on discipline because the NCAA interest in my team is zero and up the recruiting.....now I had a big plus here in that I was able to nab the #1 TE recruit (5 Star) and a good hands WR (3 star) during the season (the only two that signed btw)...but staying with my recruiting perameters I still don't get much during the off-season...this time I pull 19 recruits with 2 4 stars, but nothing that special, mostly 2 star recruits with A or A+ field awareness...I head into season 3 as a 3 star program and a 4 star academic school...I'm now a D+ on offense (wahoo!!) and a C on defense (but with good speed)...

So in year three I play most of the games and simulate the easy opponents near the end (SMU, Temple, UAB) and again go undeafeted and with no love again from the polls (finish 13th DAMN BCS!!)) I end up in the Liberty Bowl again and crush NIU 48-7...However this is where things turn around last night...I get the #1 5 star QB who is big, smart and mobile during the season (beating out the likes of Texas, Oregon and Tenn)...I pay the price because he is all that I get during in season recruiting, but it's worth it....I keep the points allocated as is and head to the off-season....this time around I can't seem to keep recruits from signing...they are coming in left and right...I had 24 scholarships available and filled EVERYONE of them...not to mention I also landed the #1 ATH recruit and a half dozen 4 star recruits...In total I pull down 24 recruits (2 5-star, 6 4-star and the rest are 3 star) and have the 18th best signing calss all the while having a very limited recruiting budget...all of this and every single recruit I have gotten during my tenor at Rice is A- or better in field awareness and all have at least an "average" discipline level...you wouldn't beileve the number of recruits (who have oustanding talents) that I have to pass over because they don't have a A- or better AWR or have bad discipline

heading into my 4th season with Rice we are now a 4 star program, a 4 star academic program (I'm really trying to get this up) and I'm a C+ on offense and a B on defense and start the season nationaly ranked (25th)...plus I now have 3 5-star recruits on offense and a defense that has crazy speed and awareness...I don't know what it is, but being able to turn Rice around and pull the recruits that I did is somewhat satisfying to me....my O-line still needs serious work, but this next year I should only lose 12 seniors so I can concentrate on the O-line and training my underclassmen....

[bcrisraider]

wow, have you seen that FAT check from the rich Rice alumns for the turnaround?

[Air Raid]

wow, have you seen that FAT check from the rich Rice alumns for the turnaround?

...let's just say that I'm not the highest paid coach in the country...

[VTHokie32]

Keep us posted on your academic status. I'm Notre Dame, and I started out as a 6 star academic, when after a year I noticed one day I was only 4 stars. I've concentrated on recruiting only A or A+ awareness guys since, (it's the only way I know of to effect this), but I'm still 4 stars. (I think it's been 2 recruiting seasons since I started focusing on this.) Is there any other way to effect your academic rating?

[bcrisraider]

what is the acedemic prestige for anyway?

[ondaperimeter]

Rice:

The fastest rising football school in the state of TX? Whoda thunkitt?!
I'm getting Bert Emmanual flashbacks!

What is the highest ranked team you've scheduled?

[Air Raid]

Keep us posted on your academic status. I'm Notre Dame, and I started out as a 6 star academic, when after a year I noticed one day I was only 4 stars. I've concentrated on recruiting only A or A+ awareness guys since, (it's the only way I know of to effect this), but I'm still 4 stars. (I think it's been 2 recruiting seasons since I started focusing on this.) Is there any other way to effect your academic rating?

..yeah i started as a 5-star academic, but now I'm stuck at 4-stars...I can't seem to get it back up....I've recruited nothing but A- or better AWR recruits...I've even kept my discipline levels up (even though I haven't had a violation in 2 seasons now)...but nothin is workin' I'm hoping that once those freshmen become juniors and seniors it will go back up...