The simple point here is that "gaming" the system itself -- not even the gameplay in this case -- should not push you up the leaderboard.
Beyond that, I think you're making a broader point where we don't know what the future holds. As sports games try to get more and more into the "eSports" scene, there's going to continue to be this clash of what the heck it wants to be. Games like DOTA 2 don't have to worry about their game being exploited in the same way as there's no basis in reality and the way the game mechanics function are wholly different. With Counter-Strike you worry about making sure things like aimbot etc. stay out of the game as that's just straight cheating.
But with sports games, where is the line drawn with gameplay? And what would the audience even want to see? Who is the audience for a sports game eSport? Is it the person who wants to watch something that's like the real sports itself, or is it people who just want to see someone who is the "best" at the game no matter how it looks.
Having watched some competitive sports gaming, it generally hasn't been fun to watch like something such as Starcraft or CS:Go can be because the variety of what I see happening boils down to just trying to abuse the game to win rather than playing the game. It's just something on a broader scale that will be interesting to witness. I mean did people enjoy watching competitive Madden stuff when it was originally at its peak "eSports" popularity years ago?