nice that the original poster deleted the posting in which he said that this game isnt his life and therefore he had not noticed the early presence of SIMs
nice that the original poster appears to take offense when someone looks at whether he has experience, given that he is asking about a pattern of the game that most would notice in their first season. I would tend to assume that this question would arise from a brand new player who was puzzled by the presence of SIMs already being considered.
But, to answer the question, yes that is the way SIMs recruit. That has always been the pattern. If it worked differently, people would often be ****** that a SIM suddenly appeared on a player they were chasing or hoping to chase - and it would be very infuriating because SIMs often take really foolish and hard to predict recruiting directions. People would be saying - why the heck would this SIM from xxx location come chasing my recruit........So, this is how it has always worked and I dont see a better way to make it work.
I promise, I have not looked at the original posters teams and am basing my views only on general knowledge of the game - dont want to pry or offend the faint of heart.