i actually start FR above 20 all the time. once in a blue moon im at 18. especially with those low sta bigs, its normal for me to start fr in the 24-28 range. but as mets said, there is no hard and fast rule, it depends what you have. i tend to focus a lot on ath and spd in recruiting, so my players usually have room to grow there, and when thats the case, conditioning is usually your best bang for your buck. sometimes i have like, d1 bigs, maxed in both, but even then the sta alone is usually enough to merit 20. sta is that special rating, it does nothing to make a bad player better (well, a little, but generally speaking), but it can make a great player truly elite. or a good player great. so to have roughly half the core ratings run off the same practice, its usually the clear winner in my book.