Do not sign the best players. Sign the best team you can field.
It ranks each target by what he does to your team, in one currency across every channel, with eligibility as a gate.
The board re-orders around the hole in your roster.
A recruiting service ranks by reputation, the same for everyone, as if every programme needed the same thing. Re-running your Team KR with each recruit added ranks by the delta instead, so the same prospect is a different rank at every programme and the best recruit is the one who fills the gap you actually have.
The two highest-rated recruits sit at the bottom: one duplicates the midfielder you already start, the other does not fit how you play. The three-star centre-back is the best recruit here because he closes the gap costing you goals. A service flips this list upside down, pricing the player, not the fit. Rank the team you become, not the talent you collect.
Illustrative engine read on the real need-weighted best-delta board (Team KR re-run with each recruit added, ranked by fit, program-specific). Composite recruits, demonstration figures.
High school, junior college, and the overseas pipeline.
College football is recruited from more places than any US revenue sport, and the biggest is overseas. Every channel reads in one KR currency, ranked together by team delta, so a domestic freshman, a junior-college transfer, and an international signing sit on one board, compared by what each does to your team, not which pipeline he came from.
This is where college football diverges most from the revenue sports. A programme that recruits well abroad, finding real quality and clearing the path, has an edge no star-ranking captures, because the services barely cover the international channel. The overseas signing sits on the same board as the domestic freshman and the junior-college transfer, and the team delta decides. The best recruit can come from anywhere, so the board reads everywhere.
Illustrative engine read on the real one-currency channel structure (high school, junior college, and the international pipeline ranked together on the KR scale by team delta). Composite channels, demonstration figures.
A recruit who cannot be cleared is a harder bet.
Especially for an international recruit, being good is not the same as being able to play. Eligibility runs on tracks read as feasibility, each with its own confidence, because certification is often unresolved when the decision must be made. None of it moves his rating. The level he played at informs his KR; whether it costs him college seasons is a separate question.
separate
This is the college-football-critical layer no star ranking carries. A brilliant overseas prospect with two years of academy football behind him can be a top recruit and a genuine eligibility risk at once, and the honest board shows both: his team delta at the top, his feasibility flagged beside it with a confidence, so you bet with your eyes open. Rank him for how good he is, and price how likely he is to actually take the pitch.
Illustrative engine read on the real eligibility layer (academic certification, prior-competition amateurism, the age-based clock, and the visa, read as feasibility with confidence, the level informing the KR and the eligibility informing whether he can play, kept separate). Composite recruit, demonstration figures.
Rank the recruit for how good he is, price how likely he is to take the pitch, and sign the best team you can field.
Recruit the roster you become, cleared to play.
Each target is ranked by what he does to your team, every channel priced in one currency, eligibility gated as feasibility, never a rating touched.