habsfan: It is called a dropdown (or pulldown) in the forums ... you can find various threads on the subject.
Basically, here is the process.
1. You search at the next highest level and you see who you are interested in. The BEST guys at that level will likely not talk to you (overall score and your prestige seem to control this).
2. Send a phone call to the recruits you are interested in. They will either reply to, reject, or totally ignore your call. For the guys who reject the call or ignore it, my understanding is that they will never change their minds .. so you are finished with them. For the ones who reply to your call, they will tell you if you can recruit them now or if you are a "backup option" for them.
3. If you are a backup option then if the guy is not recruited by schools in their division you may be able to recruit them later ... you can do two things:
a. Wait - The player will contact you if they get nervous about not getting picked ... this is called a dropdown.
b. Send Scouting Trips - You can not Home Visit or CV a recruit who is a backup (they refuse these efforts) ... but you can send Scouting Trips. Scouting Trips have some recruiting value (as well as giving you info about the recruit). Some coaches say that multiple scouting trips will make the guy available to you faster than waiting alone ... they call this method a pull down. I am not 100% sure the guy is coming down faster than just waiting alone ... but you will have some recruiting effort already into the guy when he drops, so it is not a bad thing to do some visits.
4. Once the guy drops to you, you can then recruit him. He will send you an e-mail saying he wants to talk to you (or your AC will tell you the recruit contacted him) ... then you can do the other efforts like HV, CV.