Put it this way. My first team was bad. That was fine. It was free. None of the players were mine. I was not hooked. There was really no reason for me to play a 2nd season. Except 11 of us in the conference came from a HBD world. Most wanted to try a season 2 or at least get the full HD experience of recruiting. 10 stayed. My "hook" was the other 9 users. We recruited and, like most, I didn't do as well as I hoped. Then, part way thru season 2, I realized I got one guy in my first recruiting effort. He could set the all-time school record for scoring. Now I'm in for 4 seasons. As a collective, we decided to stay in D3 and compete against one another.
So, knowing I'm sticking in D3 but having a lot of down time that is HD, I took a 2nd team in order to progress to D1.
Last October, HD had no appeal. But it got it's hooks in me. This game needs to incentivize people to play that first season and then another. Getting to use "your" players in your first season is one way to do that.
And, if you F up recruiting, you learned something. If that hurts your feelings, you drop that team and pick up another. If you only want to coach at WCSU in D3, there are 10 of them. Good chance one is open.
But HD needs to get you that first season. Right now, it doesn't.