Cap Loophole

[demons19]

Just for the heck of it, I wanted to see if the game would allow me to play over the cap since I have seen computer run teams lose a 3rd pick for being over. Well, it does appear you can be over the cap by hundreds of millions with only a yearly 3rd rd pick loss. Of course you cannot sign any free agents, make a trade acquiring salary, or renegotiate a current player for more money in that season.......but you can acquire scores of draft picks and let the scout auto sign them year after year. Just for laughs, I am playing a career where I am currently 150 million over the cap and increasing each season.

[flere-imsaho]

Good work, although I think a few people had already determined this. In fact, I think it's been a cause for concern in a MP league or two. I'm sure it's on Jim's list as something to sort out in a future edition of FOF. For now, most MP leagues have rules (even "common sense" ones) against it.

[General Mike]

Just for the heck of it, I wanted to see if the game would allow me to play over the cap since I have seen computer run teams lose a 3rd pick for being over. Well, it does appear you can be over the cap by hundreds of millions with only a yearly 3rd rd pick loss. Of course you cannot sign any free agents, make a trade acquiring salary, or renegotiate a current player for more money in that season.......but you can acquire scores of draft picks and let the scout auto sign them year after year. Just for laughs, I am playing a career where I am currently 150 million over the cap and increasing each season.

Don't you end up losing more than one 3rd round pick being constantly over the cap? You should lose the 3rd rounder for being over at the beginning of the draft, your 3rd rounder for the next season for being over at the beginning of the regular season, and then a 2nd rounder for being over at the beginning of the next draft. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. I am pretty sure of this because I've seen computer teams missing their 2nd and 3rd rounders in solo leagues.

[stevew]

I know our league put a rule in place that you can't go more than (2,500,000) over before you get commish cut down to the limit. At one point a super bowl team(i think computer controlled) was like (7,500,000) or more.

[sovereignstar]

I'm sure it's on Jim's list as something to sort out in a future edition of FOF.

Considering some stuff I've seen in the help file and at the IHOF board, I doubt it.

[Joe]

Considering some stuff I've seen in the help file and at the IHOF board, I doubt it.

Yeah. He has said it is designed this way on purpose.

[demons19]

I'm not sure you lose more than a 3rd rder but it hardly matters. If you strictly follow a strategy of trading all your players with 1 yr remaining for draft picks, you will have more picks than you can use......I am now 250m over the cap and in one season had about 20 1st picks and maybe 30 for the entire draft. So, losing a 3rd, 2nd or even a 1st would be no penalty at all. By religiously trading those 1 yr players and letting the scout autosign, you end building a monster team of excellent players which in turn becomes 2 or 3 first rders, 4 or 5 yrs later. Any additional first rd picks you don't draft can be dealt off for future 1st rd picks + lower rds......obviously this is a major loophole in the system which I'm sure you all figured out already.......not only is the cap a loophole but the idea you can trade a star player for 3 first rd picks when he only has 1 yr left on his deal. I could understand this type of trade if the other team was willing to sign the player long term. But, 90% of the time, I see my ex players in the free agent pool the next season so they were nothing but rentals and paid a ransom for them. I think the trade value should match the teams desire long term. I just traded an 85-QB for 3 firsts, 2 seconds which was basically the max I could get and the other team let him go after 1 season. Strange!

[Vinatieri for Prez]

I'm pretty sure in MP you cannot sign draft picks if you are over the cap. When you go to the offer screen it shows an asterisk by each offer and then won't allow the offer. I'm pretty positive. But it sounds like in SP if you have the scout do the signng you're ok, at least that's what it sounds like.

[yabanci]

Not sure how this could be a problem in MP unless you have computer controlled teams. Human players will always have their offers withdrawn for lack of cap space.

Of course, it has to be progammed this way for single player. Otherwise AI teams would not always be able to field a full roster and your career would self destruct. The AI is not sophisticated enough to stay under the cap all the time. It's a design decision.

Sure, a human can take advantage of it in single player, but why anyone would want to is beyond me. There's also a secret code that will max out the ratings of all your players. If you're going to do this, you might as well do that too and have a jolly good time. It seems rather pointless though.

[demons19]

Well, I did not do this to have a jolly time. It was merely an experiment to see if the loophole exisited. Plus, it has shown me that the coaching is suspect too. If your team, as mine is, is constructed of 53 first rders and most of them excellent, you would think your very good/excellent coach would dominate. This is not the case. I see inferior teams winning championships half the time. And even in the seasons my team won, the margin of victory is not large. I'm wondering what difference the coach really makes. I would have thought a team of excellence would crush these poor and fair teams......my next experiement might be poor/fair/good teams with high cohesion and strong affinities.