"to me, figuring out who you want, evaluating players, constructing a team, that is different from recruiting mechanics, and is the best part - and will remain fun even as recruiting mechanics are swapped out. i enjoyed d2/d3 thoroughly with what i now consider boring-as-hell recruiting mechanics. i enjoyed d1 pretty much recently with what i consider clearly broken recruiting mechanics. so, will the new mechanics be perfect? hell no. but does that mean the game won't still be fun? i don't buy that, either."
My sentiment as well. I put up with the tedious scouting and ridiculously unrealistic eBay bidding masquerading as recruiting in the current/old format, but I've never enjoyed that part of the game. Now (in beta) I do. I understand some people, especially long time and successful coaches liked it, though I can't say I really understand why. New HD won't be perfect, but it already feels a lot more like a simulation of college basketball - rather than, say, a poker game with card-counters, or an algorithm solving contest. Seble has actually made a lot of good tweaks and improvements over the course of the beta, so if you played the first two seasons then quit, you don't really understand the product very well.