A Complete College System
HLM27 adds six college leagues to the default roster:
- Big Ten
- CCHA
- Atlantic Hockey
- ECAC
- Hockey East
- NCHC
You can also create your own college leagues using the new Academic league type, giving you the flexibility to build additional college programs and competitions.
Academic Contracts
Players who commit to a college team receive an academic contract with no salary. The contract lasts according to the league’s maximum contract length and uses college terminology to track a player’s progression:
Freshman · Sophomore · Junior · Senior
Academic leagues also have a maximum academic eligibility age that determines how old a player can be before losing their eligibility after playing in another type of league.
Players can leave college before their commitment is complete if a better opportunity becomes available elsewhere. However, once an academic contract expires, the player becomes academically ineligible. Releasing a player also ends their academic eligibility, preventing them from playing in another academic league during their career.
Recruiting and Team Prestige
Recruiting is a major part of managing an academic team. Every college team now has a prestige rating from 0 to 99, which influences its ability to attract players.
Prestige can be viewed on team profiles and team rankings, and can also be edited through the team editor. It isn’t static either, a team’s prestige can change from year to year based on its results.
A new Recruitment Day event also gives college teams a dedicated opportunity to recruit players, similar to the Free Agency Day event.
College teams also need to compete with professional organizations for talent. When you draft a player who is already committed to a college team, you can offer them a contract. If they accept, they will leave their college program.
Country College Overview
Countries now have a dedicated College tab that provides an overview of the entire academic hockey system in that country.
The page includes:
- All academic leagues in the country
- A prestige ranking of every team across those leagues
- A ranking of players from all academic leagues
- A weekly Poll Ranking featuring the top 20 teams in the national academic program
The Poll Ranking updates every week and shows how each team’s position has changed.
More Depth for Player Development
With recruiting, academic eligibility, team prestige, contracts, rankings, and the ability to create your own academic leagues, college hockey becomes a fully integrated part of HLM27 rather than simply another league type.
You can now build programs, develop players through their college careers, compete for post-season championships, and manage the transition between college and professional hockey.
Follow us
HLM27 will be available on September 5th. A beta will start on August 20th for Patreon subscribers.
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