It's my understanding that SIMs do all their recruiting in their first cycle. So does that mean that if your battling a SIM and your in the lead, you don't have to put any more effort in?

EDIT (new question):
This particular SIM has 11 schollies, and I"m worried that it put a lot of effort into this recruit (because he's already taken a good amount of money). Do I have a reason to worry or do they spend their money evenly on each prospect?

well, pretty much. if its really close, the sim can sometimes take the lead because of the bonus given to teams going after a player longer. but in general, you should be good. the other caveat is, if the player is good enough, if you don't kick the sim off and sign him when signings roll around, sometimes the situation will attract another school. its usually worth the risk to use the money elsewhere, but i often will spend the money to kick the sim off if its just going to roll over.

Thanks for the info, coach_billyg.

Sims definitely target players with a lot of money or effort, and then have other players they put less money/effort into.  "Word on the Street" is very helpful with sims to determine how serious they are about the player.   If they're listed as "very tight" or something along those lines, my experience has always been that that player is a sim priority.  But often you'll see the sim "has shown some interest" but the player is "keeping his options open."  Those guys are very easy to take from the sim schools. 

I'd be curious to hear how much people think sims sink into their priorities -- I would think it would have to be more than half their overall budget.  And remember that sims recruit as if they're 200-250 miles away.