[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Tasan

I'm so gonna get my ass handed to me. Sheesh.

All joking aside, the 25% cap reduction may be showing some early signs of being a bit of an equalizer. WOOF just saw a season, for example, where none of "The Usual Suspects" from above (nor Yoda nor Disturbed nor Sef0r) made the final four. In fact, of the guys I mentioned, only Quik won his division, and that was with a 10-6 record in what turned out to be a very weak (no other team better than 6-10) division. That's not to say that you should expect guys like that to be bottom feeders now; they'll still do well, but I do think it creates a situation where it's extremely difficult to be a contender every single year.

Originally Posted by PackerFanatic

I expect a few max/close-to-max offers on him - be interesting to see who he chooses if the offers are close.

Originally Posted by Sef0r

I hope there are no Max offers on him, that team will be handicapped the following season and the owner (depending on who it is) might just abandon the team.

The philosophies on this one will be interesting to see. I'll go a little farther than SefOr on that one: if someone invests ~$50M a year for three years (roughly half of the effective salary cap) in a QB that poorly developed, I think they may be hamstringing the franchise for a fairly long time. The reneg requests on a contract like that are going to be prohibitive. Realistically, the team won't be able to afford much else of quality until that first deal expires. So in year 4, they sign Nabors to an RFA contract that's big, but reasonable. What happens then? Hard to say with certainty, but I suspect that they have a very expensive 4th-year QB, little cohesion, and a ton of holes to fill. Maybe someone will prove me wrong and I'll eat crow, but I don't see the a max/nearmax offer being a smart thing in this environment.

Originally Posted by PhinsFan

I am very new to the MP world so I don't know anything about the web and league set up etc etc; but I wanted to say excellent job with the web site set up (very nice work on the logos etc), the league set up, and just the overall work that has been put into this already. I'm very anxiously awaiting the start of this league. I can tell it's a great group of people and a great commish (thanks for your effort on this Ben) even with my limited MP experience. As some have already said, can't wait for this FA free for all (although not exacty free )

couple odd points on the current sim.
1) Seattle wins the Crunch Fest Bowl but is very low on the power
rankings?
2) Seattle team stats ranking for D was average but the Offense stats
ranking is 1st so.......I guess offense can when championships unlike
the old saying suggests.

First off, thanks for your kind words. To answer your questions, the Power Ratings on my site are based on what players are under contract. SEA has only one WR under contract in the file that I ran that code against, and their leading receiver from last year is one of the guys not under contract. Second, it's really hard to base anything on that season given that all teams were AI run.

Originally Posted by Bako

I 2nd the Cereal Bowl.

We'll definitely vote on this once I get the forum up. (Hopefully that'll be in the next couple of hours.)

Originally Posted by Sef0r

Don't worry too much about power/stat rankings for now, teams have been stripped of talent...wait until start of Pre Season.

This is pretty much the correct answer. Until everyone has close to 50 guys under contract, power ratings are meaningless.


ALL:

1. I'd forgotten how long the void contract thing takes. It may be another day or two to get the initial file ready.
2. In the interim, I'm going to release the file as it stands now so that y'all can at least do more planning.
3. I just dropped $195 for a vbulletin license for the league. If anyone is willing to invest in a fledgling league to defray that cost, feel free to use the PayPal link on the bottom left of the site:

http://www.younglifenorthdekalb.com/.../ownerlist.php



4. I'm setting up vbulletin now. I'll PM passwords once you register at the new forum.