# Hoops Dynasty — Score 7.3/10 > Hoops Dynasty is a basketball manager game developed by WhatIfSports, available on browser. Mode: Online multiplayer. Price: Subscription. Our score: 7.3/10. Source: https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/hoops-dynasty/ Published: November 14, 2026 ## Fact sheet - Developer: WhatIfSports - Released: 2004 - Platforms: Browser - Modes: Online multiplayer - Price: Subscription - Status: Active - Where to play: [Official website](https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/) ## Features ### Game type - Genre: Online manager - You play as: Head coach, General manager - Players & teams: Real (unlicensed) - League structure: College ### Match engine - Simulation model: Possession by possession - Match view: Box score, Text play-by-play - In-game decisions (timeouts, subs): No - Fatigue: Yes - Fouls & foul trouble: Yes - Home-court advantage: Yes ### Coaching & tactics - Offensive systems: 4 - Defensive systems: 5 - Zone defense: Yes - Full-court press: Yes - Rotations & minutes: Yes - Individual player instructions: Yes - Opponent game plan: Yes - Team training: Yes - Individual training plans: Yes ### Players - Ratings per player: 12 - Hidden potential: Yes - Progression & aging: Yes - Injuries: Yes ### Roster building - Draft: No - Scouting (hidden ratings): Yes - Free agency: No - Contract negotiation: No - Transfer market: None - Trades: None ### Front office & economy - You can be fired: Yes - Job offers from other clubs: Yes ### League & world - Promotion & relegation: No - Season awards: Yes - League history & records: Yes - News feed & media: Yes - In-game editor: No ### Online & multiplayer - Multiplayer type: Persistent online world - Match schedule: One game per day - Market shared with other players: Yes - AI runs inactive teams: Yes - Friendlies vs other players: Yes - Chat & forums: Yes ### Platforms & tech - Playable offline: No - Cloud save: Yes - Cross-platform progress: Yes - Account required: Yes - Languages: 1 ### Monetization - How it makes money: Optional subscription ## The verdict The deepest college-hoops coaching layer on the web: four offenses, five defenses, per-defense shot distribution, practice minutes and a recruiting war against other humans. Dated pages, a thin D-III population and a price you only see after login hold it back. Worth one season. ### The good - A real game plan: 4 offenses, 5 defenses, tempo, defensive positioning, double teams and shot distribution set per opposing defense - Recruiting against real coaches with attention points, scouting levels, home and campus visits and promises that bite back - Every coach starts in Division III and must earn D-II and D-I jobs; D-I coaches can be fired - Ten persistent worlds with real school names and conferences, some past their 240th season - Practice plans that shape progression, plus academics, redshirts and early NBA entries - Actively maintained again since 2025, with quality-of-life updates as recent as October 2026 ### The bad - Division III, where everyone starts, is about 86% Sim AI teams across the ten worlds we counted - The current season price is hidden behind login; the last public figure is $12.95 - No NIL, no transfer portal: the college model predates modern college basketball - Old, dense ASP.NET pages and no native app - Settings must be in by noon ET; no in-game intervention once games sim overnight - Switching offensive or defensive sets cripples a team for a season or two ### Who it’s for - College basketball fans who enjoy recruiting as much as winning - Coaches who like to tinker with sets, tempo and minutes before every game - Patient players who check in once a day and think in four-year cycles ### Who should skip it - Anyone who wants an NBA front office with trades, contracts and a salary cap - Players who need modern interfaces, mobile apps or offline play - Anyone expecting NIL money, the transfer portal or licensed NCAA branding --- Every March, millions of people convince themselves they could coach a mid-major into the Sweet 16. Hoops Dynasty has been calling that bluff since 2004. You are hired as head coach of a Division III program in one of ten persistent online worlds. Then you recruit high-schoolers against real people, set practice minutes, choose your offense and defense, set your rotation and pray your road schedule builds enough RPI for an at-large bid. Win enough and a D-II athletic director might take your call. Win more and you might end up on the bench at Duke or North Carolina, with another human coaching against you every night. It is not pretty and it is not new. Its pages look like 2010, there is no app, and the current price sits behind a login. But we know of no other basketball manager that makes game planning this specific or recruiting this competitive. You are not beating an AI. You are beating the guy two states over who has been running a D-II dynasty for nine seasons. That is the game's whole appeal, and in parts of it that guy is getting harder to find. ![Hoops Dynasty landing page with the 2025 logo and the pitch to recruit, game plan and compete for the National Championship](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/01-landing.jpg) *The 2025 landing page sells the whole fantasy in one paragraph: limited budget, hundreds of rival coaches, your RPI and the auto bid. Image: our capture of whatifsports.com/hd.* ## The short version - **Play it** if you love college basketball's recruiting trail and want your opponents to be humans who remember what you did to them last March. - **Play it** if you are a tinkerer: few games let you set a different shot distribution for every defense you might face. - **Skip it** if you want an NBA front office. There are no trades, no contracts and no salary cap, because there are none in college. - **Think twice** if you only want D-III or D-II. That is where everyone starts, and it is mostly computer-run: in the worlds we counted, about 86% of D-III programs had no human coach. ## Which game is this, and how we researched it The reader who asked for this review wrote "Hoops Dinasty". We checked the alternatives. **Hoop Dynasty: Rise of a Legend** is a single-player basketball career game on Steam, but it is still unreleased: its store page lists December 9, 2026. Roblox also has a basketball experience called Hoop Dynasty. Neither is a management game with any track record. **Hoops Dynasty** by WhatIfSports is the long-running online college basketball coaching sim that basketball management players mean by that name, so this review covers it. **We did not play a season.** Hoops Dynasty needs an account and a paid season (or a reserved one), and our rules forbid creating accounts or buying anything. Instead we: - **Captured every public page** with headless Chrome on November 14, 2026: the landing page, the World Selection page, the World Overview pages, Hoops 101, the Player's Guide, the FAQ and the WhatIfSports knowledge base. - **Ran a census of all ten worlds.** The World Overview pages are public and list the coach of every school, conference by conference. We read all 82 conference pages in each world, 820 pages in total, and counted human coaches against Sim AI. - **Pulled team statistics** from those same pages (the five highest-scoring teams of each conference) to sanity-check the engine against real NCAA averages from Sports-Reference. - **Read the official update trail.** That means the WhatIfSports "Critical News" forum from December 2024 to October 2026, the legacy site-updates log back to 2006, the 2016 HD 3.0 guide and the feedback board. - **Collected player opinion** from the official forums, the public "Coaches Corner" chat on world pages, a 2016 Fox Sports user interview, older press, GM Games and the official Discord's public invite data. The two official images of in-game screens, a recruit profile and the practice planner, come from the Hoops Dynasty landing page and are credited as such. Everything else is our own capture of public pages. We have no `testing` block on this review because we did not coach a game. ## A season, step by step Hoops Dynasty runs on a fixed calendar per world. Three worlds (Knight, Phelan and Tarkanian) play two games a day; the other seven play one. The official knowledge base breaks a season down like this: | Phase | 1 game/day worlds | 2 games/day worlds | What you do | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Prep | 1 day | 1 day | Set depth chart, practice plan, game plans | | Exhibition games (scouting opens) | 2 days | 2 days | Up to two exhibitions against any division; start scouting next year's recruits | | Regular season + Recruiting Period 1 | 28 days | 14 days | Play conference and non-conference games while you recruit | | Conference tournament | 4 days | 2 days | Fight for the automatic bid | | National Tournament + Postseason Invitational | 6 days | 4 days | 64-team NT, 32-team PIT | | Job period | about 3 days | about 3 days | Apply for jobs; schools hire or reject you | | Recruiting Period 2 (scouting closes) | 3 days | 3 days | Fill the scholarships that opened late | | **Total** | **about 47 days** | **about 29 days** | | ![WhatIfSports knowledge base article listing the phases and day counts of a Hoops Dynasty season](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/09-season-length.jpg) *The whole calendar in one table: in a one-game-a-day world, recruiting period 1 runs alongside all 28 regular-season days, so you recruit and coach at the same time. Image: our capture of the WhatIfSports knowledge base.* **Getting in.** You pick a world on the World Selection page. On November 14, 2026, nine of the ten worlds offered a "Reserve A Team" button and Crum was not accepting new coaches. New coaches always start in Division III. Since November 2025 you can join any world mid-season: the season you join is free, but you have to reserve (buy) the next one, and that reservation "can't be undone". A world in progress lets you reserve a team that becomes yours when the season rolls over. If nothing you qualify for is open, you join a first-come, first-served waiting list. ![Hoops Dynasty World Selection page listing ten worlds, their phase, season number, next signup date, open Division III jobs and games per day](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/04-world-selection.jpg) *Ten worlds on November 14, 2026, from season 161 (Crum) to 241 (Tarkanian). The "Qualified Jobs" column says it all: 321 to 337 of 384 Division III jobs open in every world. Image: our capture of whatifsports.com.* **Preseason.** You set a practice plan and a depth chart, choose offensive and defensive sets (or keep the school's), and schedule up to two exhibition games. Non-conference games are scheduled a season ahead through challenges to other teams. The knowledge base says games simulate between 2 and 4 am Eastern in one-game worlds, with exhibitions at 2-4 pm. Two-game worlds play an afternoon game and an overnight one. Settings must be in by noon Eastern to count for the next game. **Regular season and recruiting.** This is the long middle of the year and the heart of the game. You adjust tempo, distribution and minutes between games, read box scores and play-by-play, and track RPI and the Top 25. At the same time you spend attention points and money on recruits. After roughly games 7 to 18, players who were promised minutes or starts check whether you kept your word. Academic mid-term reports arrive, and players below a 2.0 GPA become ineligible. **Postseason.** Conference tournament winners get automatic bids to a 64-team National Tournament: 27 automatic and 37 at-large bids in D-I, 23 and 41 in D-II, 32 and 32 in D-III. The next 32 teams go to the Postseason Invitational. At-large teams need at least a .500 record, PIT teams at least .425. Selection and seeding score every game on result, opponent RPI, opponent ranking, margin and location. They also look at the last ten games and the conference tournament. **Offseason.** Seniors graduate. Underclassmen decide whether to declare for the NBA draft, and a team can lose at most six players to graduation plus early entries combined. The job period opens: you can apply anywhere, and your agent rates each opening from "Not Qualified" to "Over Qualified". Then a second, shorter recruiting period fills the scholarships that opened late. Before the rollover you must have a season reserved, by hand or through auto-renew from your pool of purchased seasons. Otherwise you lose your school. ## Recruiting: the real game Hoops Dynasty is a coaching game on paper and a recruiting game in practice. The official landing page asks the right questions: "How will you allocate your attention? Will you promise minutes? Which recruits will you bring to campus for a visit?" **Budgets scale with openings.** Each school has 12 scholarships and a limit of six players per eligibility class. Resources depend on division and on how many scholarships are open, counted up to six: | Resource | Division I | Division II | Division III | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Scouting budget | $35K + $4K per opening | $25K + $3K per opening | $15K + $2K per opening | | Recruiting budget | $5K + $3K per opening | $3K + $2K per opening | $1K + $1K per opening | | Attention Points | 20 + 20 per opening | 20 + 20 per opening | 20 + 20 per opening | A scholarship opened by a broken promise only gives half the resources, and unused money does not carry over. ![Official Hoops Dynasty recruit profile of a projected Division I small forward with twelve ratings, potential colors, preferences and previous-season stats](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/02-recruit-profile.jpg) *A recruit card at scouting level 4. The header shows the D-I formula at work: five open scholarships means $55,000 for scouting ($35K + 5 × $4K) and $20,000 for recruiting ($5K + 5 × $3K). Colors mark potential, and the 14 work ethic is the warning sign. Image: WhatIfSports / official Hoops Dynasty landing page.* **Scouting has levels.** The recruiting overhaul known as HD 3.0, released in 2016, replaced flat budgets with a fog of information. According to the beta coach's guide on the official forum, Level 1 shows letter grades for broad categories, Level 2 grades every rating, Level 3 adds plus and minus grades, and Level 4 shows the actual numbers. The top 100 recruits are visible to everyone at Level 1. The tools have different prices and reach: a state-wide Scouting Service, private camps, ten public camps a season, assistant searches and individual trips. Since August 2026 the scouting report also grades a recruit's IQ in every offensive and defensive set from Level 2, not just the set he knows best. **Interest is a race.** Recruits move from Very Low to Very High interest as you spend attention points, make home visits (HV) and campus visits (CV) and offer scholarships, starts or minutes. Each action unlocks the next. The 2016 guide gives the costs: a home visit was $200 plus $0.30 a mile, capped at $1,000; a campus visit $400 plus $0.50 a mile, capped at $1,700. A team can make at most 20 home visits per player, and each recruit accepts campus visits from only five schools. Recruits also have preferences: playing time, distance, success, play style, offense and defense, conference strength, coach longevity and signing timing. A school that matches them gets a boost on every action. **Divisions are a ceiling.** A D-III coach cannot sign a recruit projected higher during the first period. In the 2016 rules, D-II can sign D-I recruits only in the second period, and D-III can sign D-I recruits only in the last 24 hours. The FAQ calls landing a D-I-caliber player at D-III "possible but not very likely". **Promises are contracts.** The knowledge base article on promises was updated in late October 2026, and it is specific. The check happens at a random point between roughly games 7 and 18. A player meaningfully short of his promised minutes complains and loses work ethic. If nothing changes within about six games, he takes another hit and is flagged as a possible transfer. Your coach's reputation takes damage too. Rescinding scholarships, broken promises, players quitting and academic ineligibility all lower reputation, and recovering near the top is slow. **Sim AI is the safety net.** Any program without a human coach is run by "Sim AI". The FAQ is candid: the AI recruits like a person but "aren't that smart and should be able to be out-recruited". Unfilled scholarships are filled with walk-ons. A long-time coach told Fox Sports in 2016: "don't be afraid to take a walk on or two rather than sign a mediocre player." The newest change came on October 12, 2026: the window to set attention points before the first recruiting cycle went from nine hours to a full 24. Coaches on the forum called it "a great feature! Much better". One added that a change to recruiting timing deserved its own line in the release notes. ## The match engine Hoops Dynasty's engine is a text simulation with full play-by-play and box scores. There is no 2D or 3D view and no live intervention. Games simulate overnight (and in the afternoon in two-game worlds) using whatever you saved before noon. The play-by-play shows each player's condition as a colored square about every four minutes of game time. The box score tracks the usual counting stats plus points in the paint, points off turnovers, second-chance points, fast-break points and bench points. What we know about how it works comes from developer statements and the changelog: - **Ratings matter, prestige doesn't.** In a 2007 developer chat, the developer wrote that "prestige has no impact on the actual game itself" and that there are "no skills that you can't see". He also said injuries are random, with an inverse relationship between durability and severity. - **Matchups were added in 2010.** A Bleacher Report piece from May 2010 describes the new engine's focus on individual matchups, a depth chart that is followed more closely and injuries driven by durability. The site's updates log records a new engine version on August 28, 2010 that "reduced single-game variance" and changed fatigue. - **Tuning continued for years.** The log shows 2011 changes to field-goal percentages, assists, steals and rebounding matchups, then fewer late-game timeouts. The legacy log stops in 2020. - **Home court is modeled.** It boosts shooting, rebounding and defense. Each school's crowd effect includes a fan-loyalty factor built from 30 years of real attendance data. - **System knowledge matters.** Players gain offensive and defensive IQ in your sets through practice and games. The knowledge base says a team of five four-year seniors in the same system is "very smart", while switching mid-season causes "poor shot selection, unforced turnovers, and missed assignments". **Does it produce believable basketball?** We pulled the Team Stats tables from every public conference page in all ten worlds on November 14, 2026. These show the five highest-scoring teams in each conference, so they lean toward strong offenses and mix teams at different points of the season. Read them as a rough check, not a league average. | Per game | HD Division I (top-5 scoring teams per conference, 1,215 lines) | NCAA Division I 2025-26 | NCAA Division I 2024-25 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Points | 75.0 (median) | 75.9 | 73.9 | | Field goal % | 46.7 | 45.2 | 44.7 | | 3-point attempts | 19.6 | 23.3 | 22.9 | | 3-point % | 36.8 | 34.1 | 34.1 | | Free throw % | 71.3 | 72.4 | 72.0 | | Turnovers | 14.2 | 11.5 | 11.8 | | Fouls | 18.4 | 17.4 | 16.8 | | Assists | 16.1 | 14.1 | 13.7 | Two things stand out. First, the overall level is right: even this offense-heavy sample scores like an average real D-I team, and free-throw shooting is spot on. Second, the shot profile is a little old-fashioned. The engine plays about four fewer threes a game, makes them more often, and turns the ball over two to three more times than today's college game. The extremes are wide, from 1.2 to 39.3 three-point attempts per game and up to 113.2 points. That reflects how much the sets and sliders change a team's style, which is the point. On variance, the coaches in Tarkanian's ACC say it themselves in their public chat. One wrote that he had "seen some 1-2 rated teams out in the 16s". Another said some of his best teams lost in the Sweet 16 while "good but not GREAT teams" sneaked into the Final Four. Single-elimination March is supposed to feel like that, and we saw no complaint on the feedback board about Hoops Dynasty results. The loudest engine complaint there in November 2026 was about Hardball Dynasty playoffs, not hoops. ## Coaching and tactics This is where Hoops Dynasty beats most of the genre, including games with ten times its budget. ![Hoops 101 page describing four offenses and five defenses with summaries, pros and cons](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/07-hoops-101.jpg) *Hoops 101 is the tactical rulebook: four offenses on the left, five defenses on the right, each with the trade-off the engine models. Note the press: "On average, pressing teams will be called for more fouls than any other defense." Image: our capture of whatifsports.com/hd/help/hoops101.aspx.* **Offenses (4).** Fastbreak, Triangle, Motion and Flex. Fastbreak gets easy baskets and wears opponents down but causes more turnovers and needs stamina and depth. It also cannot run a slowdown tempo, which matters if you like changing tempo game to game. The Triangle "doesn't require great athletes". Motion rewards passing and ball-handling but underuses stars. Flex spreads the floor without a big presence inside but needs passing, speed and shooting. **Defenses (5).** Man to Man, Zone (2-3 and 3-2 spacing), Fullcourt Press, Halfcourt Press into man, and Halfcourt Press into 2-3 zone. The zone hides a bad defender and saves stamina but concedes open threes and offensive rebounds. The press creates steals and late-game fatigue but needs "a deep bench of good athletes". **The sliders that matter:** - **Tempo** with optional auto-adjust. The engine slows an up-tempo team that leads late and speeds up a slow team that trails. - **Defensive positioning** from +5 (deny the perimeter) to -5 (pack the paint). An optional halftime adjustment lets the sim move it by up to two points based on where the opponent scored. - **Offensive distribution.** Give each player points out of 100 to decide who the half-court offense runs through, and set it separately for each of the four defenses you can face. If the opponent switches defense mid-game, your distribution switches with it. Leave everything at zero and the engine decides, while "ignoring the opposing team and their defensive style completely". - **Three-point frequency**, for the team by game situation (+5 to -5) and per player against each defense (+2 "always look for the 3" to -2 "never... unless it's a desperation shot"). - **Double teams**: "always" or "if leading scorer", with the warning that every double team leaves someone open. - **Foul trouble**: normal, more aggressive or less aggressive substitution per player. - **Minutes**: target minute ranges, a "mopup" role and "rest" for injured players. There are separate options to play backups more when a game is decided either way, plus a "Losing Late" tab for late-game fouling. **Practice is development.** You split practice time between team offense and defense and individual areas: conditioning, footwork, passing, low post, perimeter, dribbling, free throws, rebounding and study hall. The official Player's Guide recommends no more than 20 minutes per individual skill and 25 each for offense and defense. It suggests 20/20 as a standard team split, 25/25 for young teams and 15/15 for veterans. The knowledge base adds that about seven minutes keeps most ratings from declining, about half that for perimeter and low post. ![Official Hoops Dynasty Individual Improvement Plans screen with per-player practice minutes across nine areas totaling 130](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/03-improvement-plans.jpg) *Individual Improvement Plans: every player gets 130 minutes across study hall, conditioning, rebounding, footwork, low post, perimeter, ball handling, passing and free throws, with an Optimize button. The point guard's 87 ball-handling and red 17 low post explain why only 9 minutes go to the post. Image: WhatIfSports / official Hoops Dynasty landing page.* **What is missing.** There is no live coaching and no timeout or substitution control during a game. There are no named plays or playbooks, only four systems. Players get no individual defensive assignments beyond double teams. There are no assistant coaches with ratings. Compared with College Basketball Manager on PC ([our review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/college-basketball-manager/)) or the 2D sideline of TopGM Online ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/topgm-online/)), you prepare more and react less. For a daily online game that is the right trade-off, but it means a bad game plan stays bad until tomorrow. ## Players and ratings Players have **twelve ratings from 1 to 100**: Athleticism, Speed, Rebounding, Defense, Shot Blocking, Low Post, Perimeter, Ball Handling, Passing, Work Ethic, Stamina and Durability. Free-throw shooting is a separate letter grade. The knowledge base explains each one. Athleticism "affects nearly every area of the game". Perimeter covers three-point and mid-range shooting. Work Ethic sets the rate of improvement. There is no artificial penalty for playing out of position: a poor ball-handler at point guard just plays like one. **Potential** is how much room a rating has left to grow, regardless of the current number. A 20 and a 60 with High potential can gain the same amount. It is shown as color-coded bands, a system refined in 2011 and 2014. Coaches on the forum in October 2026 put Red at about 0-3 points of growth, Yellow 4-7, Black about 8-21, Blue about 22-28 and Green 28 or more, and stressed that this is not official. You can also build your own overall rating formulas with **Player Roles**, weighting each rating, and use them in recruiting searches and comparisons. **Progression** depends on potential, practice time, playing time and work ethic. Most improvement happens during the season, and some players "loaf around all summer and actually get worse". Players can even grow taller between their freshman and senior years. Ratings can drop if you neglect an area or after an injury. Work ethic changes with playing time and starts, not practice. In 2007 the developer wrote that off-season improvement "is based almost solely on work ethic". **College life is modeled.** Players have GPAs, study hall minutes, mid-term and final grades and WCAA eligibility rules based on GPA and SAT. They can be redshirted once and get medical hardship waivers if they played less than 20% of the season. Transfers happen. Underclassmen decide whether to turn pro based on their projection and class. **Injuries** are driven by durability. A player below 50% health must sit and stops practicing. The knowledge base calls injury logic "very low" in Hoops Dynasty, and the forums we read had none of the injury anger that runs through the Hardball Dynasty board. There is no morale or chemistry system in the pro-game sense. Work ethic plays that role: it absorbs broken promises, redshirt reactions and injuries. ## Front office: recruiting money, prestige and the job ladder Our "front office" criterion is about contracts, caps and trades, and none of them exist here, because this is college. Hoops Dynasty's front office is three things: - **The recruiting economy** described above: scouting money, recruiting money and attention points, all sized by open scholarships. - **Prestige.** A letter grade that covers a hidden numeric range, so it can move without the letter changing. In D-II and D-III it updates every season from your current prestige, winning percentage, strength of schedule and postseason. In D-I it weighs the last four seasons, counting RPI rank, Top 25 rank, conference titles, PIT and National Tournament runs and championships. It also factors in each school's fixed "traditional power" and the strength of its conference compared with the rest of the world. - **Your career.** Schools hire on overall experience, recent success (up to ten seasons), reputation and loyalty. Loyalty starts at B-, rises every season you stay and drops when you move, more so if you move up quickly. D-III and D-II coaches cannot be fired. D-I coaches can, and the athletic director warns you first. You can skip a season without losing your résumé. There is no NIL, no revenue sharing, no booster economy and no transfer portal. That is the biggest gap against modern college basketball. A single-player sim like College Basketball Manager now models NIL budgets and portal motives. Hoops Dynasty's rules belong to the pre-2021 sport. The 2016 HD 3.0 guide mentions booster gifts that could lead to probation, but we found no current official documentation of them, so we leave them out. ## World and longevity **Ten worlds.** Allen, Crum, Iba, Knight, Naismith, Phelan, Rupp, Smith, Tarkanian and Wooden, each named after a coaching legend. Each world has 984 programs: 324 in Division I across 27 conferences, 276 in Division II across 23 and 384 in Division III across 32. Schools and conferences carry real names, Duke, Kentucky, Concordia Austin and the rest, but the governing body is the fictional WCAA and the players are fictional. Some conference lineups are frozen in time: the D-I list still includes a "PAC 10". **Deep history.** On November 14, 2026, the World Selection page listed seasons from 161 (Crum) to 241 (Tarkanian). Each world keeps national champions, coach and school records, player records, awards and an NBA draft history. Since August 2026, coach profiles also show national titles. ![Hoops Dynasty Knight world overview of a Division III conference with two human coaches among ten Sim AI teams](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/05-knight-diii.jpg) *Knight's American Southwest Conference in Division III: deanod's Concordia Austin is 32-0 and chewchad's Texas Dallas 27-5. The other ten programs are all "Sim AI", most with losing records. This is the D-III experience in most worlds. Image: our capture of the public World Overview page.* **Sim AI fills the gaps.** That keeps every world running regardless of population, but it also makes the lower divisions feel lopsided. In the conference above, the two human-coached programs have RPIs of 3 and 19. The best Sim AI team sits at 93. **Our census.** We read the coach column for every school in every world: | Division | Programs (10 worlds) | Human-coached | Share | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Division I | 3,240 | 1,135 | 35% | | Division II | 2,760 | 499 | 18% | | Division III | 3,840 | 537 | 14% | | **Total** | **9,840** | **2,171** | **22%** | Knight had the most human D-I coaches (138 of 324) and Naismith and Smith the fewest (102). D-III ranged from 47 humans (Tarkanian) to 63 (Iba) out of 384, fewer than two per conference on average. These are teams, not people: one account can coach one school in each world, so the number of unique coaches is lower. ![Hoops Dynasty Tarkanian world overview of the ACC in Division I with eleven human coaches, standings, Top 5, player and team stats](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/06-tarkanian-acc.jpg) *The other side: Tarkanian's ACC has eleven human coaches out of twelve, and the Coaches Corner chat is full of game-by-game trash talk ("the almighty, impenetrable 3-2 zone (-1) claims another victim!"). The top scorer shoots 48.8% on 12.7 threes a game. Image: our capture of the public World Overview page.* **Longevity** is the game's best argument. No other basketball manager we review has worlds past their 240th season. The legacy updates log stopped in 2020, but since December 2024 the new team has shipped regular updates. Hoops Dynasty is officially "on the roadmap" for bigger work. There is no editor or modding, though, and you cannot create a private world for friends. ## Interface, platforms and performance Hoops Dynasty runs in any browser and lives on WhatIfSports' servers, so your program is the same on a laptop and a phone. There is no native app. WhatIfSports launched an iOS app for SimLeague Baseball in March 2026 and an Android one in July. The team says the dynasty games are part of the long-term mobile plan but "much larger projects that will take more time". The site is in English only. The pages are classic ASP.NET: orange headers, dense tables and a quick-jump dropdown with more than 50 destinations. Mobile support is functional. HD 3.0 in 2016 made recruiting "more mobile-friendly", and February 2025 fixed the hamburger menu on mobile HD pages. Load times were fast during our captures. Simulation speed is not an issue because the server sims everything on a schedule. The help system is uneven. The Zendesk knowledge base is current, and some articles were updated in 2026. The Player's Guide still discusses "dropdowns", a recruiting mechanic HD 3.0 removed in 2016, and still describes 2.0-era budgets. A new coach reading it in good faith will be confused. The forum mentor list and the Discord fill the gap. ![Hoops Dynasty Player's Guide introduction and Choosing a World section](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/08-players-guide.jpg) *The Player's Guide is still the best primer on world choice and sets ("switching sets you virtually assure yourself at least one, and quite possibly two, very rough seasons"). But parts of it predate the 2016 recruiting overhaul. Image: our capture of whatifsports.com/hd/help/guide.aspx.* Since February 2025, login runs on a new authentication system after the move away from SportsHub. Sign-in with Apple was not supported at first, and Facebook login was temporarily broken by an API issue. Saves are not your problem here: everything is server-side. ## Monetization, line by line Hoops Dynasty is pay-per-season. That is why we file it under subscription: you keep your school only by renewing from a pool of purchased seasons. The checkout page requires login, so we could not see today's price. Here is everything we could verify publicly. | Item | Price / value | What it gets you | Source and date | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Single season | $12.95 (last public figure) | One season for one team in one world | Knowledge base PayPal example; forum, Feb 2016 | | 5-season pack | $59.95 ($11.99/season) | Five seasons in your pool | Forum calculation, Feb 2016 | | 10-season pack | about $10/season | Ten seasons in your pool | Forum, Feb 2016 (approximate) | | Join mid-season | Free current season | Requires reserving next season (cannot be undone) | Official, Nov 2025 | | Postseason credits | $3 / $5 / $10 / $15 / $20 | Losing in the first round, second round, Sweet 16, Elite 8 or Final Four | Knowledge base | | Reward points | 4,000 runner-up, 6,000 champion | Rewards Center | Knowledge base | | Missed-postseason discount | about $1 off your next season | Consolation | Player's Guide | | Credits cap | Up to 50% of any purchase | Since March 24, 2026 | Official forum | | Promo codes | 15% (MARCHMADNESS25/26), 20% (HD2025), 50% for returning coaches | Limited windows | Official forum, 2025-26 | | Direct PayPal payment | $1 handling fee | Fallback payment method | Knowledge base | **What does a season cost in time?** At $12.95, a 47-day season in a one-game-a-day world works out to about $8.27 per 30 days. A 29-day season in a two-game world is about $13.40 per 30 days. Packs bring that down, and a deep postseason run can pay for a good part of the next season. **Fairness.** Money buys a seat, not ratings. No purchase improves players, recruiting odds or budgets, and every coach in a division gets the same resources formula. There are no loot boxes, energy systems or cosmetics. Two caveats. Since March 2026 credits can cover only half of a purchase, a change some veterans with large balances felt. And the rewards structure itself is debated: one coach argued on the feedback board in January 2025 that tournament payouts are too generous and should shift toward conference titles and low-prestige rebuilds. The team said in April 2025 it was working on a "revamped credit system" with "no rug pulls". By August 2026 the fix was that expiring credits are now used first. ## Update history and roadmap | Date | Version / event | What changed | | --- | --- | --- | | 2004 | Launch | Online college basketball coaching sim on WhatIfSports (release year per GM Games) | | Jan 2006 | Recruiting rules | Recruiting effort fades without a scholarship offer within five cycles; WCAA eligibility added | | Nov 2007 | Developer chat | Ratings, injuries, engine and recruiting explained by the developer | | Aug 2010 | New engine | Less single-game variance, new fatigue effects; matchups and durability-driven injuries | | Feb-Mar 2011 | Engine tuning | Lower FG%, more assists and steals, rebounding matchups, fewer late timeouts | | Jun 2012 | Coaching menu | Player Roles, early-entry and redshirt logic reworked | | Apr-Jun 2014 | Data and mobile | Color-coded potential, ratings history, Draft Big Board, mobile menus | | Feb 2015 | Renewals | Pool of seasons, manual and auto-renew | | Aug-Sep 2016 | HD 3.0 | Recruiting overhaul: attention points, scouting levels, visits, signing preferences; dropdowns removed | | Apr 2020 | Last legacy log entry | Renewal loophole closed | | Jun 2022 | Knight outage | Failed rollover; world restored, two days of settings lost | | Dec 2024 | New owners | Infrastructure moved off SportsHub | | Jan-Feb 2025 | Payments and login | Stripe payments; new login system | | Mar 2025 | New landing page | Redesigned HD landing page; March Madness ad campaign | | Aug 2025 | Quality of life | Clear All AP, Clear Depth Chart, recruiting notes, play-by-play fix | | Nov 2025 | Join Any Time | Join any world mid-season; current season free | | Mar 2026 | Credits policy | Credits capped at 50% of a purchase | | Apr 2026 | Renewal fix | Clearing renewals works again | | Aug 2026 | Scouting and history | Set IQ grades in scouting reports, draft date on world schedule, rewards race, national titles on coach profiles, credit bug fix | | Oct 2026 | Recruiting window | 24-hour attention-point window before the first recruiting cycle; coach avatars; automated job spam removed from conference chat | ![WhatIfSports Critical News forum post of October 12, 2026 listing Hoops Dynasty and SimLeague Baseball updates](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/10-update-oct-2026.jpg) *The latest Hoops Dynasty patch notes: a 24-hour attention-point window for recruiting cycle 1, coach avatars, and job-opening spam removed from conference chats. Small, but aimed at the coaches who are actually playing. Image: our capture of the official forum.* **Roadmap.** In July 2026 the team brought members of the original WIS developers back part-time, with Hardball Dynasty first. It said Hoops Dynasty, Gridiron Dynasty and the SimLeague games "are all on the roadmap". There is no public HD-specific roadmap beyond that. ![WhatIfSports Critical News forum with pinned update threads from December 2024 to October 2026](../../../assets/reviews/hoops-dynasty/11-critical-news.jpg) *The Critical News forum is the real changelog: roughly one update every month or two since December 2024, after a legacy log that went quiet in 2020. Image: our capture of the official forum.* ## What players say There is no app store listing and no Steam page, so there are no store ratings. GM Games shows an **8.3 user average from 10 votes**. The rest of the sentiment lives in the official forum, the feedback board and the public chat on world pages. **What coaches love:** - The game-to-game strategy. "I really like the game to game strategy," a five-time national champion told Fox Sports (June 2016). He called D-II his favorite because "teams have strengths and flaws, which makes the game planning interesting". - The long arc. Bleacher Report put it simply in 2010: "A Hoops Dynasty is not created in season one or two." - The human rivalries. In November 2026 the ACC chat in Tarkanian included "GG Smorse! Not looking forward to the return game on your court" and "No rest for the weary in ACC this season." - The recent updates. Of the August 2026 set-IQ grades: "Scouting IQ is a welcome addition, thank you." Of the October 2026 recruiting window: "That's a great feature! Much better." - The mentoring culture. The forum still pins a mentor list of coaches by specialty ("D2 specialist", "D1 rebuilds", "loves the zone"). **What coaches criticize:** - Too many elite recruits and a closed top. The same 2016 interviewee's biggest complaint was "at least half a dozen or more near perfect DI recruits" every year, and he said getting hired at a big-time program was "near impossible". - Communication. In October 2026 a coach wrote that a change to recruiting timing deserved "it's own line in the notes about updates". - Tedium. A veteran called the longer first recruiting cycle "tedious" in October 2026, except when traveling. - Rewards balance. A January 2025 feature request argued tournament credit payouts are too generous and should reward conference titles and rebuilding low-prestige programs. - The sharp learning curve. Answering a new coach with zero open scholarships in October 2026, a forum regular advised him not to even try to out-recruit another D-I school that season. ## Known issues and bugs - **World rollovers can fail.** In June 2022 the Knight world broke during its season rollover. Staff restored it from a backup, and two days of lineup and setting changes were lost. - **Out-of-date help.** The Player's Guide still describes pre-2016 recruiting ("dropdowns") and old budgets. The legacy site-updates log stops in April 2020. - **Login migration bumps (2025).** Sign in with Apple was not supported at the February 2025 switch, Facebook login broke temporarily, and some coaches no longer had access to their account email. - **Mobile sitemail false alarms**, fixed in May 2025. - **Renewals could not be cleared** for teams not taken over mid-season, fixed in April 2026. - **Credits used in the wrong order**, now spending expiring credits first, fixed in August 2026. - **Calendar inconsistency.** In October 2026 coaches noticed the early attention-point window applies to recruiting period 1 but not period 2. It is unclear whether that is a bug or intended. - **Confusing eligibility display.** A coach in Tarkanian's ACC chat reported in November 2026 that a redshirted player's class on his profile made no sense to him. ## Tips for your first season 1. **Choose a world by its openings.** The Player's Guide says more D-III openings mean fewer humans, and a quieter world is a gentler start. On our census day, Iba had the most human D-III coaches (63) and Tarkanian the fewest (47). 2. **Check the school's sets before you sign.** The listed sets only reflect the school's first season in that world, so look at the team page. Switching offense or defense means one or two rough seasons while players learn the new system. 3. **Fastbreak locks your tempo.** If you like changing pace by opponent, the guide warns that Fastbreak can't run slowdown. 4. **Set offensive distribution for every defense.** Never leave it all at zero, or the engine ignores the opponent's defense. 5. **Save before noon Eastern.** Changes after 12:00 ET may not apply to the next game. 6. **Promise only what you will deliver.** Promise checks happen at a random point between games 7 and 18, and a broken promise costs work ethic, possibly the player, and reputation. 7. **Practice with limits.** Keep individual areas around 20 minutes or less and team offense/defense around 25 or less. Give each area about seven minutes (half for perimeter and low post) so ratings don't decay. Use study hall for low-GPA players. 8. **Schedule smart for RPI.** Road wins count 1.4 and home wins 0.6. The guide also suggests scheduling human-coached opponents with a similar number of seniors. 9. **Walk-ons beat bad scholarships.** Empty scholarships come back next season, and a mediocre four-year player blocks one. 10. **Ask for help.** The forum's mentor list and the official Hoops Dynasty Discord, about 1,300 members on November 14, 2026, are where the game's real manual lives. ## Against the alternatives | | Hoops Dynasty | Hardwood Online College Basketball | College Basketball Manager | BuzzerBeater | Basketball GM | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Setting | College, D-I/II/III | College | College | European-style club | NBA-style | | Opponents | Humans + Sim AI | Humans + bots | AI | Humans + bots | AI | | Platform | Browser | Browser | Windows | Browser | Browser, Android | | Price model | Paid per season | Free | Paid | Free + subscription | Free + ads | | Schools/data | Real names, fictional players | Real names | Fictional | Fictional | Fictional or real players | | Pace | 1-2 games/day | Daily | Instant | Fixed weekly days | Instant | | Tactics | 4 offenses, 5 defenses, sliders | 3 defenses + game plan | 2 offenses, 2 defenses + press | Tactics + effort | Minutes only | | NIL / portal | No | No | Yes | n/a | n/a | - **Hardwood Online College Basketball** is the closest rival: free, browser-based, with real school names and promotion and relegation ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/hardwood-online/)). - **College Basketball Manager** is the modern single-player answer, with NIL and the transfer portal, but no human rivals ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/college-basketball-manager/)). - **BuzzerBeater** is the long-running online manager for club basketball, free to play with an optional supporter subscription ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/buzzerbeater/)). - **Basketball GM** remains the best free front-office sim, but it has no college game and almost no coaching ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/basketball-gm/)). - **Hoop Land** has a college league you can actually play, in retro 2D, offline ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/hoop-land/)). - **Swish & Dunk** is a free online club manager with daily matches (disclosure: developed by our founder) ([review](https://basketballmanagers.com/reviews/swish-and-dunk/)). ## Our take Hoops Dynasty is a game about patience. You don't win it in a session, or a season, or with a clever trick. You win it the way real programs are built: four-year classes, a system your players have practiced since they were freshmen, a reputation that makes a five-star kid two states away pick up the phone. When it works, it feels better than anything else in this genre, because the coach you knocked out of the tournament is a real person who will remember. That is also its weakness in 2026. The game's biggest asset, other humans, is concentrated where new players can't go. A D-I power conference full of rivals talking trash is a great place to coach. A D-III conference with one other human and ten Sim AI programs, where every newcomer starts, is a lonelier and less convincing proving ground. The paywall makes it worse: you must pay for a season you can't fully price without logging in. The college model is frozen before NIL and the portal, and the help pages contradict each other. The new owners' steady updates since 2024 are a real reason for optimism, and their focus on recruiting quality-of-life is the right one. **Our wish list:** show the season price on the public landing page. Offer a free first D-III season with no strings, so the 86% Sim AI tier becomes a tutorial rather than a toll. Rewrite the Player's Guide for HD 3.0. Add an optional transfer portal and NIL layer for worlds that vote for it. Let commissioners run private worlds. And build the long-promised mobile app. **Who should skip it:** anyone who wants trades and cap sheets, anyone who can't commit to checking in once a day, and anyone who needs a modern interface to enjoy a game. Everyone else who has ever argued about an at-large bid should coach at least one season. ## Sources **Official (WhatIfSports)** - [Hoops Dynasty landing page](https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/) - [World Selection (public)](https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/Signup/Default.aspx) - [World Overview: Knight, Division III](https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/WorldOverview.aspx?w=9) and [Tarkanian, ACC](https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/WorldOverview.aspx?w=8&d=1&c=2) - [Hoops 101: offenses and defenses](https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/help/hoops101.aspx) - [Hoops Dynasty Player's Guide](https://www.whatifsports.com/hd/help/guide.aspx) - [Hoops Dynasty FAQ](https://whatifsports.com/hd/help/faq.aspx) - Knowledge base: [How long is a season?](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805521777307-How-long-is-a-season), [What time are the games played?](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805521743387-What-time-are-the-games-played), [Are there prizes?](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805521724571-Are-there-prizes-What-are-they), [Purchased seasons and renewals](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805542179867-How-do-I-use-my-purchased-seasons-to-renew-my-teams), [Payment without a credit card](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805686485787-I-don-t-have-a-credit-card-can-I-still-play-in-full-season-leagues), [Does everyone start at Division III?](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805687314843-Does-everyone-start-at-Division-III-Can-you-pay-more-to-start-at-Division-II-or-Division-I), [Maximum number of coaches](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805584614811-Is-there-a-maximum-number-of-coaches-who-can-compete-at-one-time), [Recruiting resources](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805557834395-What-resources-do-I-get-for-recruiting), [Understanding Player Promises](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/57584673608987-Understanding-Player-Promises), [What the ratings mean](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805537192987-What-do-the-ratings-mean), [How player ratings change](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805556687515-How-do-player-ratings-change-What-about-work-ethic), [School prestige](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805584554139-What-determines-a-school-s-prestige), [Can coaches get fired?](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805685250203-Can-coaches-get-fired), [Offensive distribution](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805675993243-How-do-the-offensive-distribution-settings-work), [Defensive positioning](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805693243547-What-does-the-defensive-positioning-setting-do), [National Tournament bids and seeding](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805565082779-How-are-the-at-large-bids-for-the-National-Tournament-determined-What-about-the-seeding), [RPI](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805565389083-What-is-the-RPI), [Home court advantage](https://support.whatifsports.com/hc/en-us/articles/32805554964379-Can-you-explain-how-Home-Court-Advantage-is-calculated) - Critical News forum: [Oct 12, 2026 update](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=551077), [Aug 21, 2026 update](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=550599), [Jul 1, 2026 update](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=550155), [Apr 15, 2026 notes](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=549437), [Big Week, Mar 2026](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=549218), [SLB mobile launch and credits policy, Mar 2026](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=549064), [Join Any Time promo, Nov 2025](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=547837), [Quality of life, Aug 2025](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=547036), [Apr 22, 2025 update](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=545962), [Mar 17, 2025 update](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=545624), [Feb 26, 2025 update](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=545402), [Feb 10, 2025 login changes](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=545218), [Jan 8, 2025 payments](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=544835), [Dec 24, 2024 infrastructure](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=544666), [Knight World outage, 2022](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=533293) - [Legacy Hoops Dynasty site-updates log](https://www.whatifsports.com/locker/site_updates.asp?sport=HD&numdays=7616) - [Developer chat, Nov 2007](https://www.whatifsports.com/devchat/devchat.asp?chatid=61) **Community** - Hoops Dynasty forum: [Guide to the HD 3.0 release (2016)](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=495608&page=1), [Season pack pricing (2016)](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=491847), [Mentor list for HD 3.0](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=526413), [AP question (Oct 2026)](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=551252), [Potentials (Oct 2026)](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=551229), [8/21 Hoops Dynasty discussion](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=550600), [Fair Play Guidelines](https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?topicID=522530) - Feedback board: [Retooling of rewards and credits (Jan 2025)](https://feedback.whatifsports.com/p/retooling-of-rewards-and-credits), [Hoops Dynasty RS2 ideas (Oct 2026)](https://feedback.whatifsports.com/p/hoops-dynasty-rs2-ideas), [Unrealistic playoff results (Hardball Dynasty, Nov 2026)](https://feedback.whatifsports.com/p/unrealistic-playoff-results) - [Official Hoops Dynasty Discord invite](https://discord.gg/BPaHjrHsTM) (member count from the public invite, Nov 14, 2026) **Press and specialist sites** - [Fox Sports: WhatIfSports user interview, bjb2378 (June 2016)](https://amp.foxsports.com/stories/other/whatifsports-user-interview-bjb2378) - [Bleacher Report: Build your own college basketball program (May 2010)](https://bleacherreport.com/articles/391259-build-your-own-college-basketball-program-recruit-coach-win) - [GM Games: Hoops Dynasty listing and user score](https://gmgames.org/hoops-dynasty/) **Stores and name check** - [Steam: Hoop Dynasty: Rise of a Legend (unreleased, Dec 9, 2026)](https://store.steampowered.com/app/5048990/) **Data** - [Sports-Reference: NCAA Division I game averages by season](https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/seasons/game-averages.html) - Our census and team-stat extraction from all ten public World Overview pages, November 14, 2026 ## Analysis by category | Score breakdown | Weight | Score | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Match engine | 20% | 7.0 | A play-by-play sim tuned for two decades. The five highest-scoring teams of every D-I conference across all ten worlds produced a median 75.0 points, 46.7% shooting and 19.6 three-point attempts, against 75.9 points, 45.2% and 23.3 attempts in real 2025-26 D-I. Turnovers ran high (14.2 vs 11.5). | | Coaching & tactics | 11% | 8.5 | The strongest part of the game: four offenses, five defenses, tempo with auto-adjust, defensive positioning from +5 to -5 with halftime adjustment, double teams, team and player three-point frequency, foul-trouble rules, target minutes and per-defense shot distribution. | | Players & development | 16% | 8.0 | Twelve 1-100 ratings plus a free-throw grade, potential shown as color bands, four scouting levels, set-specific offensive and defensive IQ, promises, academics, redshirts, medical hardship waivers and early NBA entries. No morale or chemistry model beyond work ethic. | | Front office & salary cap | 13% | 6.0 | There is no cap, no contracts and no trades: this is college. The economy is recruiting money, scouting money and attention points sized by open scholarships, plus a job market where schools weigh success, experience, reputation and loyalty. No NIL or transfer portal. | | League & world | 9% | 8.0 | Ten worlds, each with D-I, D-II and D-III using real school names and conferences under a fictional WCAA. RPI, Top 25, 64-team National Tournament, a 32-team Postseason Invitational, awards, records and an NBA draft. Sim AI teams fill every empty job and are weak by design. | | Interface & UX | 9% | 5.5 | Classic ASP.NET pages, dense tables and a mobile-friendly menu, but no native app and some help pages still describe pre-2016 rules. Recent quality-of-life work (Clear AP, Clear Depth Chart, recruiting notes) helps. English only. | | Longevity | 6% | 9.0 | Worlds are on seasons 161 to 241. A coaching career can span decades, prestige updates over four seasons, and the new owners have shipped regular updates since December 2024. | | Business model | 6% | 6.5 | Paid per season. The last public single-season price is $12.95, roughly $8 per 30 days in a one-game-a-day world; packs and promo codes cut it, and the season you join mid-way is free. Credits earned in the postseason can cover up to 50% of a purchase. Nothing buys ratings. | | Multiplayer ecosystem | 9% | 7.5 | We counted 2,171 human-coached teams out of 9,840 (22%): 35% of D-I, 18% of D-II and 14% of D-III. The D-I power conferences are almost all human; D-III averages under two humans per conference. The official Discord has about 1,300 members and the forum is still active. | Weighted average of the criteria: 7.3 ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Hoops Dynasty free? No, Hoops Dynasty requires a subscription to play. ### On which platforms can you play Hoops Dynasty? Hoops Dynasty is available on browser. ### Is Hoops Dynasty multiplayer? Yes, Hoops Dynasty is an online multiplayer game: you compete against other human managers. ### Does Hoops Dynasty have real players and teams? Hoops Dynasty includes real players, without an official license. ### Can you play Hoops Dynasty offline? No, Hoops Dynasty requires an internet connection. ### Who develops Hoops Dynasty? Hoops Dynasty is developed by WhatIfSports. ### Is Hoops Dynasty worth playing? The deepest college-hoops coaching layer on the web: four offenses, five defenses, per-defense shot distribution, practice minutes and a recruiting war against other humans. Dated pages, a thin D-III population and a price you only see after login hold it back. Worth one season. (7.3/10) ### What are the best alternatives to Hoops Dynasty? The best alternatives to Hoops Dynasty are BuzzerBeater (7.9/10), Hardwood Online College Basketball (7.6/10), and TopGM Online (7.6/10).