To give just one example, Waynesburg (DIII, Heartland Conference) in Naismith has only 2 returnees and yet only signed 2 players!  Another team, Westminster (PA), has 4 returnees and only signed one player.  These teams are completely doomed because they will be carrying 7 or 8 walkons.  Can this be fixed?  What is causing this?  I know these teams didn't lose recruiting battles to humans because I checked their Considering Lists at the beginning of the recruting period and they haven't changed since.  Seems like this is something that should be addressed in order to keep the game more realistic and balanced. 

I brought this issue up two seasons ago in Naismith after compiling data to show that something on the order of 1/4 of the teams at DIII were carrying four or more walkons. I was told at the time that it was a function of a free promotion that brought a lot of absentee owners into the game and that things should re-regulate to the norm in a year or two. This is year two...I'll be interested in compiling the data, because either I was blind to the problem my first three years or there are a significantly greater number of walkon-heavy Sim teams at the D3 level than there ever used to be. 

Edit: After responding, I went and looked at my conference. I'm not sure if the final cycle signings have updated to the team pages or not yet, given that freshmen have not been added to the rosters yet. If they have been posted under the recruiting section of hte team pages though as signings, then the nine SIM teams in Naismith's North Atlantic will feature 1 team with 8 walk ons, 2 with 7, 3 with 5, 1 with four and 2 with three. If that's a representative sample, then something needs addressed. Allowing teams to decay into such abyssmal status does nothing for the competitive nature of the game, nor does it make it easy for a new player to come in and have a lot of fun if they're forced to start from scratch because the AI recruiting system sees no need to sign more than one player to fill nine roster vacancies. 

Interestingly, coach_billyg compiled the data on human population in another thread, and it shows that the number of users in DIII Naismith dropped from 254 to 165 from season 45 to last season.  My sense is that this season hasn't gained any significant number of users, maybe even there has been another net loss.  So, to your point, if there weren't an extraordinary number of human coaches competing for recruits last season, and neither were there this season, why are there so many teams with so many walkons?  I am going to send a ticket. 

and . . . Yes, I think that is a representative sample.  It agrees with what I have seen in my own conference and others I have perused.

Okay, the rosters all added the new signings, and at least in my conference the Sims made a huge push of last-minute add-ons. Most of the Sims in my conf. are now at the "normal" 1-2 Walk ons...we have one with 3...that's waaaaaaaaaaaay better. 

Yes, the problem has been solved.  All the teams in the Heartland are carrying at least 10 scholarship players.  I think I can cancel that ticket.

. . . although . . . there's a new problem now.  I noticed that there are many teams that now have more than 6 freshmen on scholarship.  In a few seasons, we are going to have teams with 8 seniors.  That's going to be annoying.  Plus, once those players graduate, the cycle will repeat and those teams will be under-assigned again.  It seems that the problem was fixed but it was a patchwork solution.  Things are still out of whack.