[deadlyCane]

While I agree with the OP, I don't think you need to make the salary cap smaller in order to make franchise more challenging. You could just make the players negotiations more difficult and their salary demands tougher. Free agents may be tougher to come by. The cpu doesn't accept dumb trades and the cpu do a better job of drafting and signing free agents. The idea of having a separation between beginner and hardcore is a good one. You just need to change the salary cap to accomplish that.