I've seen quite a few reactions posted in response to the developer chat from last Friday. Let me try to clarify a few things.
There seems to be some overreaction to my comments about the leading team not always winning. If a team is way ahead in points, they'll likely be the only team with a high enough interest level to be considered. However, if multiple teams are in a reasonably close battle, there may be a handful with a chance at the signing. I haven't even finalized the details of that process, so I can't give out too many definite answers, but it's not going to be a random free-for-all.
The leading team will still have the highest odds, and in some cases it will be 100% (if no other teams have a high enough interest level). Interest level will be relative to the other teams recruiting a player. So if my school is the only one pursuing a guy, I'll be Very High. If I stop pursuing him, I'll stay at Very High unless another school starts to recruit him. In the example of one school having a 1000 to 200 advantage, that will most likely result in the lower team having a low interest level, meaning the team with 1000 would have 100% chance of signing. I just can't say definitively on a particular example because I'm still tweaking things, which will probably continue during testing.
Remember that in the new system, budget isn't quite the same. Visits will only be unlocked after you've generated enough interest via attention points, so you wouldn't be able to just throw around visits hoping for a slim shot. Even generating a 5-10% chance on a top player will require a good bit of resources unless he's being ignored for some reason.
Schools that lose a high number of early entries will be at a disadvantage to some degree, yes. But that's realistic. I believe that it will become less of a problem going forward because the idea is that talent will be distributed more, meaning less cases of major EE losses for one team.
There are 4 levels of scouting for each player. Level 1 uncovers three rating letter grades (Physical, Offense, and Defense). Level 2 uncovers a letter grade for each rating on a scale of A, B, C, D, F. Level 3 uncovers a grade on the scale of A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, F+, F, F-. Level 4 uncovers the numeric value for each current rating. So, eventually you can get to the same information as you have now. Scouting level increases for a player each time he is scouted. So if you discover a player at a camp, then he's included in an assistant coach trip, he would show Level 2 information. Once you've discovered a player, you can also do direct scouting trips for just that player to uncover the next level of scouting info. Recruit preferences will not be hidden, they will be exposed during the scouting process.
Hopefully this helps make things clearer, but I know it's not going to totally click until you guys start playing it. Just please don't make conclusions based on a quick dev chat or something I've posted in the forums. I'm trying to explain things as best I can, but there's a lot to it, so I may forget to say something important or to fully explain. Once you guys see it in action, I hope you'll see what I'm trying to do here.