it also depends on location and human population of D1 in that world. I recently moved to D2 in Knight, but as a D3 coach in an empty conference in Minnesota with no DI human coaches in the area I was able to get ranked players easily as they fell through the cracks.
In Smith as a D3 coach, I dont get too excited when I see a ranked recruit because the New England area is dense with a lot of human D3, D2, AND D1 coaches. So I have to get more creative and look else where.
So my answer is: it varies by world population and your location, there is no definite answer to this. People tend to flock to the ranked players when they assume they are always better than unranked and that is definitely not the case. I say just test the waters during the first few cycles but keep more realistic backups on your list.