How does this happen with Freshmen?

There are a few teams that have 3 to 5 top 50 recruits already considering them before recruiting has even begun?

Is it random?
Why does it never happen to me?

Those are SIM teams.

simAI teams recruit before recruiting opens to us humans, so sometimes you'll see a recruit considering them when the first cycle begins

why?

Why Anyone?????  Why do sim teams get an early start on recruiting?  I am getting buried in recruiting every year & a sim team close to me has 3 guys considering before the 1st cycle even starts how is this fair?

It makes it fair because it lets you know that the sim is going after a certain recruit so you can make the informed decision whether to battle.the sim. It would be pretty crappy if you didn't know, dumped a bunch of money into a recruit and then sim shows up and knocks you out...

My understanding is that SIMs do the lion's share of recruiting prior to the first cycle.  After that, no additional recruiting dollars get spent by SIMs until a few cycles after the signing period starts.  Knowing that, if a recruit is considering a SIM, you should be able to beat them.  I often see a recruit considering a SIM as a recruiting target. The key is to start spending before the recruit gets "definitely leaning", "tight" or becomes a "high priority" for that SIM.  Other coaches may avoid that recruit because they don't want to pay extra to beat the SIM, only to end up in a battle with a human-coached team (much more expensive to win).

I don't coach in D1, yet, but I would assume that, unless the SIM has a significant prestige advantage, you should be able to win the battle.  On the other hand, most SIM recruits are not that great (or at least are far less likely to have big upside).  

sims start at 5 pm. Their recruits don't show considering on your recruiting summary until 6 when recruiting begins for humans, but if you click on a kids profile pop-up, if he is considering a sim it will show there between 5 and 6. As jtt said, this way you know at 6 before you put in effort if a sim is on a kid.

Makes sense now that its explained thanks guys!