creil, thanks for the sitemail. That's a big help.
doomey, thanks - I had been wondering if the amount of effort to get to that point changes with your prestige. To answer your questions, assuming I'm not in a battle (where I get the "who's ahead" message), I've always been getting the "School has shown interest in him but he's open to other offers" type of message.
To get there, I almost always put in more than a minimal amount of effort, but I've never been sure where to stop before I'm effectively bidding against myself. I'm at a mid-major with decent prestige (for a mid-major), but I rarely have a war chest to fight a prolonged battle against a power conference school even if I'm ahead on prestige. I'm not going for 5 star players so I don't think I'm overreaching but I guess it's possible.