League Forums

Main - League News/General Discussion

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By Waitwut
3/18/2022 8:12 am
raidergreg69 wrote:
Pretty sure I nailed the 2 guys who got max contracts in the D&D league chat when talking with MoonPygg. One, the WR Barfield, Smirt overpaid greatly for him and nobody else bid close.

The LB Gatlin was a different story.

3 contract offers over $250 million for a guy with 67 speed.
________________________________________________________________________________

All of that being said, you HAVE to overpay if you want free agents usually. Most teams have a lot of cap room and quality free agents are rare, so when demand is way higher than supply, the price goes way up.

I paid 2 backup OL $10 million a season and a 65 speed CB nearly $15 million. That's insane, and more than I wanted to pay but had I missed out on them, I'd be back at it looking at much older players. Yes they can be signed for less money but you're still mostly overpaying.




To be fair 67 speed and max out in all other applicable LB skills. So it is not JUST 250mil for someone with 67 speed. When cupboards are bare teams will pay. You know, like 50 mil aav for Aaron Rodgers who only has 1 super bowl title.
Last edited at 3/18/2022 8:12 am

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By Waitwut
3/18/2022 8:19 am
I think it opens a can of worms to do this. Yet I'm not against it because anyone can do it.

Simply put, if you see someone you want just start adding to their salary field. You can bump their final year salary 600% and then cut them prior to final year, or resign after 1 season to a reasonable contract. The bonus you set on the slider will stick based on the salary of top slider.
Last edited at 3/18/2022 8:21 am

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By raidergreg69 - League Admin
3/18/2022 11:54 am
Waitwut wrote:


To be fair 67 speed and max out in all other applicable LB skills. So it is not JUST 250mil for someone with 67 speed. When cupboards are bare teams will pay. You know, like 50 mil aav for Aaron Rodgers who only has 1 super bowl title.


I agree he's more than just 67 speed but that's not the point. Free agency in USFL means you have to overpay to get what you want, it's always been this way even back when tribewriter was running things.

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By raidergreg69 - League Admin
3/18/2022 12:12 pm
I've had a chance to "sleep on it" and now my focus is on how would I even enforce this? Let's say I make a rule outlawing the loophole and someone violates it. BTW, it probably won't be Smirt next time because after FA1, he has less than $8 million in cap space.

That's another difference between a contract exploit and a game play exploit like the punt block. The punt block could be used over and over, on every punt in every game, and you don't have anything reduced when you do use it.

The contract loophole can only be used so many times. Each time it's used, that team's available cap room takes a big hit, reducing their ability to do it again. Smirt used it twice and now he can't use it again until he creates more cap room.

Back to my original point,how would I enforce it and what's the penalty? I'm not going to boot anyone out of the league for this, I don't think it's that serious and I can't void the contract. I can't take away draft picks, so what can I do?

I think I could enforce this if I was able to tweak team's picks/cap room but that would open up a Pandora's Box for cheating commishes. Unless I'm missing something, my options would be to kick the violator out of the league, or write a strongly worded post admonishing them. One is too extreme and the other does nothing.

Absent an appropriate punishment, I think I'd have to allow this regardless of the vote.

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By trslick
3/18/2022 1:31 pm
I voted no, simply because I don't use or like loopholes, except when it comes to taxes and I still
wonder if I should! I never do real well in FA because I just hate to give up a bunch for one player!

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By Cjfred68
3/19/2022 9:14 am
The only problem I have with this is the same problem I have with trading all draft picks for proven talent.

It's win now at all cost which is fine in and of itself but does the owner stick around long enough to "pay the piper"?

3 to 4 seasons from now, does the owner with no cap space or draft picks stay or does he drop the team?

With Smirt, I wouldn't worry but I've seen others blow up a team in an attempt to win now and when they fail....leave behind a mess for any future owner.

The problem is....how do you enforce it?....or even predict it?....as a league administrator I've watched plenty of owners abandon their team without a word.

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By Smirt211
3/19/2022 9:51 am
A coward dies a thousand deaths, a soldier only once.


Only time I escape hatched out of a league was when I surveyed the despot wasteland known as Legends Free Agency Week #1. One singular LB appeared before my eyes as a non-age out and the rest of the scene was Experience 9+ age outs. 1 PLAYER!!! ONE!!!

Why? Admiral fears competition and laughs at competing vs. it with the autolol account that goes carefully crafted team by team while he shuts down free agency starting for a real life week.

I don't play a rigged game otherwise I'm cool.


Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By Waitwut
3/19/2022 1:28 pm
Cjfred68 wrote:
The only problem I have with this is the same problem I have with trading all draft picks for proven talent.

It's win now at all cost which is fine in and of itself but does the owner stick around long enough to "pay the piper"?

3 to 4 seasons from now, does the owner with no cap space or draft picks stay or does he drop the team?

With Smirt, I wouldn't worry but I've seen others blow up a team in an attempt to win now and when they fail....leave behind a mess for any future owner.

The problem is....how do you enforce it?....or even predict it?....as a league administrator I've watched plenty of owners abandon their team without a word.


Maybe when you buy the game and put it on an app you can have pay to play leagues to avoid such issues. Otherwise sounds like variance that normally happens in real life football - other than teams exchanging hands to new owners. Saints have been over the cap for like the last two or three seasons and have not been stellar. Los Angeles has traded almost all their picks for the win now.

Taking the first paragraph alone I deduce that you don't like either one. Finally boiling down to because it is Smirt it is okay. I agree though, who is going to check every contract signing to ensure it was not manipulated. Considering it may only apply to two or three players max (in theory) wouldn't that seem to be less effort to only scope the max contracts?

The inverse of not going for the win is that you take a shifty team, most likely, and try really hard over 2 or 3 seasons to build something with seven less than 50/50 picks a year and maybe winning some free agents (as long as the max contract is not manipulated) to hopefully field a playoff team - this grind also causes owners to up and leave. I just saw it happen in another league.
Last edited at 3/19/2022 3:11 pm

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By Cjfred68
3/19/2022 5:22 pm
None of it really bothers me in the least. The answer for most owners is to join a league during the allocation draft and keep em for 20+ seasons.

What does bother me is owners that join new leagues, go through an allocation draft, essentially building the entire roster from scratch, playing 1 season, then quitting before season 2.

My whole love of this game comes from my long tenured teams....Dakota Blizzard in XFL which I've owned for 22 seasons since allocation....Great Falls Quicksilver in Quick and the Dead which I've owned 23 seasons since allocation and the Houston Gamblers in USFL which I've owned for 16 seasons and took then over in season 12 or 13 of that league.

The good and bad of those teams can all be praised or blamed on me completely.

But I've taken over crop teams in other leagues and turned them around from doormats to contenders in a season or 2. Any team can be made a winner within a season or 2 if you have a vision for your roster. Free agency, drafting and trades are all key elements into building a winning team if you have a plan or what direction to take.

The key (to me at least) is to constantly keep upgrading your talent when you take over a new roster....ignore the dead cap that can mount from doing this because in the end it's the depth and quality of the roster that needs to improve to play out your personal vision and game plan.

The last team I did that for was in a private league called TPM...I took over a 3rd season team that won 6 games in their 1st 2 seasons and completely overhauled the roster through trades and free agency plus my draft picks and made the Conference championship in my 1st season. It can be done but it takes a ton of work constantly trying to upgrade the roster through the off-season and into the first few weeks of the season to get players that fit your style of play.

Take Smirt for example, he knows what he needs to win and will over pay via trade to get the right players plus he will make subtle moves on the fringes that seem meaningless but the player is a piece to the puzzle that is his style.

The hardest part is developing your own style of play and honing your personal player weights to match them so you can find the right players to fit. Once that is done, the rest kinda falls in place with a little work.

Re: Max Contract Loophole Discussion

By WarEagle
4/06/2022 10:01 pm
It's not a loophole, or cheating.

Where is it ever said that moving the sliders all the way to the right is the "max" contract?

Deciding to do something manually instead of letting the AI handle it for you isn't cheating.

Making rules about this is NO different than saying you can't offer more than X per year.