Zorzii, I could see giving half of the cash resources back in the event of a lost battle. However, I'm not sure how much good it'll ultimately do. Presumably by the time this battle has been decided, the backup recruits will be heavily recruited as well. Now, I guess if it's an early battle, and backup recruits are late designated, you'll have time to toss your hat back into the ring.
The frustration is real, and understandable. Under the old system, it seems to me that battles were rare because it was simply a matter of the big dogs in D1 controlling almost all of the top talent, with the rest being divied up as it went down the line. As always, there were exceptions to these rules. The new system, it appears, was designed to allow more teams to compete for the best talent. More battles were inevitable, as teams felt they had a realistic shot at better talent than they had access to before. There would have been many more battles in 2.0 had teams thought they had a chance to compete for them.
Ultimately I don't see a way to have more battles yet achieve the desired result you have in mind, zorzii. What I feel that yourself and perhaps others want, is for there to be more battles, but for your teams to still come out on top a majority of the time. I gather that when people start throwing the real life comparisons out there, saying why would you go to Fordham when Duke is knocking at your door. Not being specific, just throwing two teams at opposite ends of the spectrum out there. Also, it's been a hotly contested topic about whether or not a D3 should be able to recruit D1. I can understand the frustration, however I have contended this game is not, nor should ever be, modeled after real life at every turn. Speaking as a D3, I pay the same amount per season as you do. Why should my options be limited when the recruits that are typically signed by D3 would not be a starter at the D1 level? These were the same type of recruits under the 2.0 version that would have either gone JUCO route or simply were signed by D1 sims to fill rosters. As for it not being fair for newbs to D3 to compete with guys who have been around longer and know the system, I say that's a little bogus. I believe this is the 4th recruiting class in Iba, which I thought was one of the first worlds to cross over. I don't see how anyone could have that big of a leg up on knowledge of the system since admittedly most here, if not all, don't know enough about the tricks of the new recruiting to have an unfair advantage over newcomers. Besides, all a newb has to do is reach out to a mentor and they will be shown the ropes in relatively short order. Since recruiting takes place over a longer period, it actually lessens the advantage over newer players as they have ample time to be filled in before signings even start. While I think the new recruiting is more advanced than it's predecessor, I don't think it's rocket science and that new players couldn't pick it up relatively quick.
Until they can program human emotions in this game, I don't think you're going to like how recruits make their decisions. It's binary, and I fail to see how it will ever be anything like real life... Just my two cents...