I have signed 3 ineligibles in the same class before. Kind of made for a sucky year, but they were all really good, so the next year it was nice. I have not had any ineligibles not show up, but maybe I am just super lucky. Probably had 20-30 show up.
Distance does not matter any more as far as I can tell, except if the player wants to play Near Home as a preference, and also because it is less expensive, and that's important because of the amount of money you have to recruit with. But Attention Points can be used at any distance for the same cost, so distance is not a huge deal, but it is a factor.