I just failed to recruit a 3 star player that was 10 miles from my campus. I have a C- prestige at D1 in a BCS conference. 

I started recruiting 3 cycles after it opened.  The player was already considering another in-state BCS program with a C+ prestige.

My first actions were 4 evals, an offer and a number of HVs. The player refused the HVs and from the evals I received backup status notification. This was the scholarship offer return email: Coach, I just can't say yes right now...which is a very polite way of saying you're a very long shot at this point.

I followed up with 30 evals. There was no new scholarship message. 

This issue (pulling down a recruit who is considering a higher prestige school) was actually discussed at some length in a recent thread, which I studied and decided that perhaps some folks posting were correct, and that in this particular circumstance it may be possible to pull the player down so that he will accept HVs/CVs but still not show considering for you. 

Hoping that this was the case, I offered a start and some more HVs, as well as a coach and player call (just to see if either/both messages were already on my list). He refused the start and the HVs. The calls both indicated he was still a backup. 

Over the next few cycles I sent 80 more evals. I never got an indication he was pulled. With nothing else to lose, the cycle before signings I tried sending a bunch of HVs in the hope that all the evals had managed to pull him down. They didn't.

To summarize - player that was a D1 to D1 back up option could not be pulled after 114 evals while already considering another school.