Weekly recruiting hours in College Football 26 are tied directly to your school’s program prestige rating. This ranges from 0.5-5 stars with elite programs like Ohio State or Georgia getting a 5 star rating all the way down to Akron and Kent State receiving a 0.5 star rating.
If you don’t know the prestige rating for your school, you can look it up here. This rating goes up or down each offseason depending on your success in the previous season.
It is important to mention that just because you start with a team that has a low prestige rating, doesn’t mean you are forever stuck with a low rating.
If you have a good season you will usually get an increase of .5 stars that offseason. Likewise, if you have a bad season you will usually get a decrease of .5 stars in the offseason.
As you progress your team’s program prestige, one of the most important perks you receive is an increase in weekly recruiting hours.
There isn’t a set formula to follow but we’ve put together a quick reference so you know how many hours you’ll get.
| Prestige | Preseason Hours | Weekly Hours |
| 5 Star | 1250 | 1000 |
| 4.5 Star | 1125 | 900 |
| 4 Star | 1000 | 800 |
| 3.5 Star | 875 | 700 |
| 3 Star | 750 | 600 |
| 2.5 Star | 625 | 500 |
| 2 Star | 575 | 450 |
| 1.5 Star | 500 | 400 |
| 1 Star | 450 | 350 |
| 0.5 Star | 375 | 300 |
In the first week when you start a new season, it’s technically called the preseason, you get bonus hours in order to allow you to scout players and offer scholarships.
You usually end up with around a 25% boost in this one week only. After you get your normal weekly recruiting hours each week.
When you dive into it you can see how big of a recruiting advantage being a 4 or 5 star program is over a 1 or 2 star program.
Top tier teams have 2-3 times the recruiting hours that lower tier teams have, not to mention the better motivation grades, better coaching skills, and better pipelines.
