I ask this because I was coming to the end of the season. I had not graduating seniors so decided that i would recind the scholarships of three players that were well below my expectations to bring in three new recruits and build the team. I looked and I only have a recruiting budget of $166. Do that actually set them that low?   Did I not get any money because I was not supposed to get any players?   I am totally confused by this

Your last assumption is correct. You didn't receive any recruiting money because the recruiting budget is based on the number of scholarships that become available (through graduation or early departure) at the end of each season, and these budgets are allocated before coaches have the option to rescend scholarships.  

You get "X" amount of dollars for each open slot (through graduation or early departure) plus "Y" dollars for each game your conference has in the NT and the PIT plus "Z" dollars for 1/4 of last seasons left over budget. Recruiting budget = X + Y + Z.

Sorry that happened to you, gator.  When I first started, apparently I didn't have enough seasons purchased yet and didn't even think about it until I realized I couldn't cut a couple of the cruddy sim players I'd inherited.  Took me another season to cut them, and one after that to actually get the budget money.

You'll get 3 walk-ons next season, but you'll get the budget for those 3 slots in the following recruiting cycle.

For what it's worth, it suck that it went down like that. It never hurts to double check with the forums before making a big move, hell, I still do it sometimes even if I'm almost positive I know what will happen.

gatorwrath its a setback, but don't be too discouraged. If they were bad enough to cut you are no worse off with walk-ons than you would have been with them around, and you will get that money next time. Although I must add that if you kept the guy with 8 ath and 4 def I'd hate to see what the guys you cut were like .  You could sign a player for $110 with a scholarship offer and a promised start. I would consider doing so, since you have 4 graduating seniors next season and that plus those 3 cuts makes for 7 openings, and you only get cash for a max of 6 openings...good luck.