I asked a question during the last developer regarding the designation of starters in the current engine. The response that I got is one that I did not expect and do NOT want to happen.
As you can see below, they are considering REMOVING the promised starts from our recruiting options.
I think that is a BAD idea. I believe that it is a great tool to help land a recruit. Then, you have to honor that promise or lose the recruit's work ethic. That is the positive/negative of using that tool.
The only real value that I see using a "starter" tag is its value in recruiting and making that promise. How will your next update affect that "promise"? (harriswb3 - Hall of Famer - 7:09 PM)
Currently the starter tag is still used for recruiting, the starters are calculated from the plays played and the depth charts. In the 3.1 release we are investigating ways to better improve this. The most probable way to go about this is to get rid of that promise in recruiting. It's value is similar to playing time for the recruit so eliminating it would not impact any decisions of a recruit.