Some thoughts, just for variety's sake and to add to the discussion...
1. How about WIS applies the effects of potential BEFORE assigning a projected division level to recruits? As it stands now, we have recruits labeled D1 who REALLY ARE D3 level players...and in at least a couple cases I've encountered people I wouldn't even sign to a D3 program I coached...but they're sitting there at D1 and being recruited by D1 teams, generally Sim. WIS needs to recognize and apply the potential that's there (given how old potential is, it floors me that they don't already...), then apply their default Player Roles formula (which I'm thinking is a good chunk of how divisions are assigned now to generated recruits) and assign player division projections based off the scores using what the player could develop into with potential accounted for.
While this might sound insignificant, I think it would have an important subtle effect on the game -- Sim D1 teams would now attempting to draw players from the correct pool of recruits -- ones who will actually DEVELOP INTO D1 players. Human coaches still blow Simmy out of the water in most instances to win the top prizes, but now the D1 Sims are pulling more of the upper-echelon talent-to-be into their rosters, reducing their flow down to D2. Elite D2 human coaches with lots of openings and good location/preference advantages will still be able to out-battle Sim D1's for players, but I don't take that as an altogether bad thing from time to time. But they would likely encounter greater interference as the pool of Sim teams will now be funneled onto worthy players rather than getting sidetracked onto people that no human coach would ever consider for D1. The same would occur in D2 with D3 human coaches...humans will reach up but Simmy would pull from players that will actually develop into D2 caliber players within the engine. Sim teams get stronger overall within divisions and humans reaching up encounter greater resistance due to the distribution of Sims being on divisionally-appropriate recruits, where it should be.
2. I'd like to see a situation whereby the second session is staggered somehow so that D1 starts/ends 1 day before D2, which starts/ends 1 day before D3...D1 Sim teams that were unable to fill their scholarship allotments will pull the "best available" D1 identified players from the unsigned D1 player pool to fill their rosters...these players would still receive walk-on status. Human coaches could either receive the same or be victims of their own inability to fill the roster (or their strategy of not wishing to fill a roster up to 12) and receive the same randomly generated walk-ons that we get now. At the end of this D1 session, all remaining D1 players are automatically reassigned into the D2 pool as D2 recruits, allowing them to automatically be offered scholarships by D2 teams with no unlock necessary, and the process repeats itself in 24 hours as eligible D2 players are divvied among schools needing to fill out their rosters and all remaining players are then assigned D3 status for the final 24 hour window of recruiting. The start of D2 Session 2 and D3 Session 2 would similarly be delayed by 24 and 48 hours respectively from the start of D1 session 2, which allows for human D1 teams with new coaches and coaches dealing with EE's or a rough go things in Cycle 1 a chance to "catch up" to lower division coaches stopped at the red light between Sessions 1 and 2.
3. Sim AI needs to be more aggressive at attacking lower division coaches. As it stands now, I don't think a D1 Sim distinguishes between a D2 or a D3 when coming onto a recruit. It absolutely should.