Over the past few weeks we’ve covered a bunch of the variables that impact recruiting gains on visits.
First, we launched our Visit Optimizer which takes into account how dealbreakers can make a big impact on influence gain. Then, we launched our Complementary Visits tool which helps you plan out the perfect combination of recruits to bring in for a visit.
Today, we are going over how margin of victory impacts recruits on visits in CFB 26 (the thresholds haven’t changed from last year).
There are 4 outcomes that you can get grouped into depending on the score of the game: Loss, Close Game, Clear Winner, and Blowout.
These are the thresholds for each:
- Loss (Any game you lose)
- Close Game: 0-7 point margin of victory
- Clear Winner: 8-14 point margin of victory
- Blowout: 15+ point margin of victory
Only margin of victory matters for this. For example, a QB coming in for a visit is going to be much happier with a 10-0 victory versus a 63-60 victory.
Additionally, a blowout win by 60 points is going to get you the same outcome as a blowout win by 15 points.
Here’s how the visit impact looks between the 4 outcomes holding everything else constant.
If you lose the game when you have recruits visiting, generally you get no recruiting gain whatsoever.
Note: There are some rare exceptions to this like if you have 3 complementary visits, are playing a powerhouse, and have the perfect dealbreaker pitch you might see a small bump instead. However, even in that perfect scenario the gain you get will be tiny and not worth it.
So the takeaway here is to schedule recruits for visits on games you know you can win.
Here is the recruit we are testing right before he comes on his visit. We have removed all other recruiting actions outside of the visit and the scholarship to keep things consistent.
You can see the recruiting gain after a loss is barely noticeable.
Now let’s take a look at the influence gains after wins.
A close game (0-7 point differential) will result in a decent sized recruiting influence gain.
Getting a clear win (8-14 point differential) will result in a decent chunk more influence gain. You can see here how this recruit is now almost to the top 3 stage after a clear win.
If you were to blowout your opponent (15+ point differential) you get an even bigger boost. For this recruit you can see you have now entered the top 3 stage.
Note On Blowouts: For whatever reason, members of the CFB 26 community are very confidently wrong about the margin of victory required for blowouts.
We have done rigorous testing on this. Blowouts start at a 15 point difference.
Actionable Takeaways
- Always schedule visits on weeks you think you can win.
- If you find yourself up 0-7 or 8-14 points near the end of a game, it may make sense to go for 1 extra score to get into that next threshold.
- If you find yourself up 15+ at the end of the game, you don’t need to rub it in and score more points. It won’t help you.
Also please remember, this is just 1 part of the visit that goes into influence gain score.
You also want to hard sell (and max out the total number of recruiting hours), pitch the correct visit activity, and schedule as many complementary visits as you can.
When you do all of these things correctly, you have maximized your chances of having the most successful visit possible.
Next Up: Check out our CFB 26 Recruiting Insight Engine which helps you hard sell with the correct pitch while having limited information.
