First off, let me say that I absolutely LOVE this game. Wish I had purchased on Steam to see my hours played, but sure it's nearing the thousands at this point! Much appreciated what the developers do for what I imagine is a smaller market of gamers.
After many seasons of sims, I've noticed that there is a gap year-to-year in the scholarship situation for a program (typically an elite program, where players leaving early for the draft has an impact).
When I lose two players to the draft, I will be forced to be out of two scholarship players in the next year. This is no longer realistic in NCAA as teams will recruit enough, knowing they'll lose those players OR address the scholarship situation with the transfer portal. If a few players decide to transfer, the same thing occurs and I am out of that scholarship for the upcoming season. Even when filling the spot with the transfer portal, those players are not eligible next season (which we all know is no longer the case in real life).
My suggestion would be to allow us to recruit beyond our scholarship number and/or make player transfers eligible the next season (maybe there's a random 5% chance they end up in-eligible for some reason). Over-recruiting resulting in cutting a scholarship player should receive a pretty substantial hit to team prestige/maybe a detriment to coach reputation too. Maybe too, the senior who is a RS Senior is an option to if you want to allow his scholarship for the 5th year.
All of this, I imagine, requires some sort of roster check & cut point during the offseason.