I have a The Best Academy and i promoted only LA7 and LA6 players this season. In the last three seasons i spent a lot of money on extra players and the best that i got were two LA8 players. From the academy base youngsters i got only LA7 players with PR4 as maximum. This season Count 4 extra players for 300.000g so... i don't have a clue on how this system is working at the moment.
On the tips section you'll find some unofficial relevant but totally outdated information like: 4. What affect does Academy quality have on players available for promotion from the Academy?
The better your academy, the greater chance to get great players.
The starting attributes of the players from a higher level academy might have no significant difference
compare to ones from a lower level academy but their potential and progress rate are usually much better.
Please note that when a player reaches his potential, their will be no or little improvement.
Additionally, Academy level affects CA, LA and PR of promoted players
source: http://forum.gokickoff.com/index.php?topic=404.0
An estimation of the probability of promoting a LA9+ player was calculated based on statistics posted by admin on 31 October 2011.
Based on data given by admin here (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:u95_ahOujlQJ:forum.gokickoff.com/index.php%3Ftopic%3D3319.0+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us), I calculated estimated probabilities of getting an LA9 player. The available data yielded a regression curve that estimated this probability per player given academy level P(a) with the equation:
P(a) = 4 x 10-6a6.2841
where a is the academy level (1=very bad,...,6=the best)
This function fit the data well; R2=0.98467
Using this, the following probabilities were calculated; per player, out of 7 players (old system) and out of 8 players (new system):
Academy Level | ProbLA9/player | Prob 1+ LA9/7 players | Prob 1+ LA9/8 players |
very bad | 0.001% | 0.004% | 0.005% |
bad | 0.026% | 0.181% | 0.206% |
okay | 0.398% | 2.756% | 3.143% |
good | 1.465% | 9.816% | 11.138% |
very good | 21.429% | 81.514% | 85.475% |
the best | 31.048% | 92.590% | 94.891% |
To preface: I'm not sure how the acquisition of additional players figures into this, since additional players from academy with the old system appeared to be all lower quality (never LA7+) players...plus there is the possibility that these odds were changed somewhat with the new system, but without any data provided by admin, it is impossible to know...so, these are rough estimates, but they are probably pretty close to the actual ones used in the game engine.
[This still means there is a] 14.525% chance that a "very good" academy will produce zero LA9+ players out of 8....
There was also a post that stated that the #1 of the National Ranking if winning the league would get for sure an LA7 player but i can't find it on the forums. In any case all of this information is totally outdated if not obsolete.