A few months ago, I wrote a post on new dynasty ideas in hopes of giving readers some inspiration on what to do next for their dynasty.
One aspect I did not cover in great detail was “difficulty”.
One would think that simply picking a bad team to start with is tough enough, but one needs to look deeper and more long term than that.
In-game house rules has always been a staple of making things difficult, but I have another, perhaps simpler idea than can help you choose your next team in Dynasty Mode.
Recruiting Points and Location
One facet of Dynasty Mode that will never change is how many points you have to spend to recruit depending on location.
It’s real simple: the farther a recruit is from your school’s location, the more points you have to spend to recruit him.
For example, if your team is from Florida but you want to recruit a kid from Oregon, it will simply cost you Many more points to recruit him than it is to recruit a kid in your own backyard.
Just like in real life, it costs Nick Saban and Alabama more money to recruit a prospect in Wyoming than in Alabama, Georgia, or in any other closer state.
This is great though as it keeps recruiting realistic in NCAA 06 for you so you have to think about how badly you want a recruit, even if he is 3,000 miles away.
We can also use this feature to help make our dynasties harder and more fun.
Below is a map I created showing which states are easier to recruit in NCAA 06.
Basically, any state in green produces more than enough talent to where you do not have to recruit nation-wide all the time but can recruit closer to home.
States in yellow simply do not produce as much talent on year-to-year basis.
States in red are the same as the yellow states in terms of not producing much talent, BUT these states are surrounded by only low-recruit-producing yellow states.
What’s Your Point, Al?
If you want a solid, consistent challenge in your next dynasty, choose a team from one of the yellow states.
If you want an even harder challenge, pick a team from one of the red states.
Picking any team from a state that doesn’t produce much talent forces you to spend more points on recruiting as you have to go outside your state to get them.
For example, I can pick the worst team in the state of Texas (a green state), but I know over time that my recruiting will never be hard as I will always be close to many recruits, thus not having to spend many points to get them to commit.
If I pick a team from Indiana (a yellow state, Go Hoosiers!), I know that my state will not produce much talent over the course of my dynasty, BUT at least I am close to greens states that will, thus I will have to spend more points than usual, just not a ton.
Lastly, If I pick a team from Wyoming (a red state), I know I live in a state that produces no talent AND I am not really close to any state that produces a lot of talent at all.
This forces me to constantly spend more points over time, regardless of how good I am as a player, coach, and recruiter.
Conclusion
I did not run any hard numbers on these states as what I deem a green, yellow, or a red state is from my personal experience.
You may think one state consistently produces more than I think, but that is not the point.
The point is to give you a rough idea of how you can truly make your next dynasty harder if you pick a team from a state that will not produce talent over the long haul.
Picking a team from a yellow or red state forces you to spend way more points on recruiting than any team that that will never have to work hard to get players.
Creating pipeline states will not help you that much either as the game will still “punish you” for recruiting kids from miles and miles away.
Hopefully this post and the map above helps you figure what you might want to do in your next dynasty, if you want a challenge.
Pick a team from Idaho, or Maine, Utah, or any other team from a yellow or red state and I guarantee you that you will have a consistent challenge throughout your entire dynasty.
The harder the challenge, the more rewarding it will be in the end!
I know you are not a fan of created teams but i think I am going to create Alaska A&M and start off as a cupcake or whatever is the lowest rated team I can be. I have never done it before and I hope that I can go more than five seasons before I get bored with it. I have a hard time adhering to my house rules so maybe I will write them down for this dynasty and put them on the wall above my ps2. My biggest crime is over recruiting. Its so hard for me to turn down that extra talent but I will try to be disciplined this time around. I have also never ran a dynasty with a cold weather team so it should be exciting to see some snow.
Hopefully playing a team from Alaska will give your dynasty longevity. Add in an offense that you’ll enjoy (super important) and you should have a nice long dynasty.
Al I disagree with you on the Boot States, Such As Missouri Arkansas Etc. I have played tons of dynasties not as much as you have and seen good talent, I personally think each year its RNG, You could have a kid from Canada be the best prospect in the nation hence why I go national. I always like the feel of getting a kid from 2000 miles away to join my powerhouse program.
Lastly Always Check Canada I have seen beasts come out of there.
Like I stressed in the post, I’m talking the number of kids, not the talent itself. Sure Missouri and Akransas can produce 5 star kids like any other state, they just can’t produce a lot of talent over time so teams from those states have no choice but to recruit other states as well. The same with Canada but worse. It’s about the total numbers, not the talent.
Ok I gotcha Sorry I thought you were saying in your post just talent.
Al-I once did a dynasty with a created team in North Dakota, and recruiting was brutal until my program got better. Some of those states only have 1-2 in-season prospects and maybe 6-10 off-season prospects max.
Another element to the challenge is when you are in a state with slim recruiting pickings and you have competition for those few recruits. That’s where Utah State and Idaho might stand out as especially challenging dynasties. Idaho has to fight for prospects with Boise, which has more prestige. Utah State has to compete with Utah and BYU.
I suppose this explains why my 09 dynasty with a created team in Arkansas has been going so well from the start (went 8-5 that first season haven’t lost more than 3 in a single season since). Honestly I think I have more players from Texas than the home state of the school right now. Next time I start a new dynasty I’ll keep this map and your words in mind.
You’ll do well regardless of which team you pick but choosing a team from a state that produces little talent will always force you to spend more points every year than normal. Glad to see this post helped.
Anytime I think about doing a new cupcake dynasty, Alaska always comes to mind….I can’t think of a bigger underdog story than a small school out of the frozen tundra defying the odds and winning a title. Just wish the game’s weather was harsher….I want snow bowls by mid-Nov. I want nasty, gritty field conditions to give us a homefield advantage.
I am currently on a K State dynasty in 06 a& 10 (still can’t decide what I like better). But I have a hard rule where I can only recruit 80% 3 stars, 20% 4 stars, and absolutely NO 5 stars. I think this accurately depicts K State’s recruiting struggles. I may have to change my 5 star rule to allow JC’s and transfers tho.
If I was running another KSU dynasty I would try to recruit a ton of JUCO kids, for the realism. 5 star ones too.
A house rule I use in all my dynasties to make them harder is you can only recruit above your program level in-state or a pipeline.
For example, if I am a 3-star school in Louisiana and my pipeline is Arkansas I can recruit whoever I want from those states and only 3-star kids from the rest of the country. This makes taking a bad team from a bad recruiting state a very real challenge and assures you a long dynasty for a rebuild.
In season recruiting I use the same rule to make the challenge even greater.
If that is not enough challenge I also sometimes just let my players play. This probably isn’t very popular since it is a video game after all but I just pick the plays and let the cpu run them. This puts you truly as coach. You can audible, shift and motion but once you snap you let players play.
These may be extreme but after I get too good with a team I either implement the “coach” rule or move on to a new team.
Yeah, I roughly do the same thing but this a realistic way of recruiting anyways. It’s crazy for coaches to recruit 4 and 5 star kids from everywhere if you are at a 2 star school. The game isn’t going to hand you those recruits, at least for me it hasn’t. Besides, recruiting has never been a cakewalk in my eyes. It seems balanced and fair as is.
Getting pipelines helps you in states. You spend less points on pipeline states. I remember I would always keep 3 players from Texas even if they weren’t good just so I could have the pipeline and not have to spent 9 points scouting and 3 minimum on a recruit.