There is no incentive in the KRFL to try to win if you don't have a championship level team. In my opinion, that is bad for the league.
We have teams that are .500 seller off players. We have teams one game out of first trading away great players.
Why?
Because there is no reason to be a 8-8 team. It is bad to be 8-8. If you are 8-8, you may make the playoffs and get crushed in the first round of the playoffs, all the while having a mediocre draft pick.
And that is what happened with this trade deadline. Average or just below average teams became super crappy teams because there is no reason to be average. Teams with no chance of winning did everything they could to secure extra rookie picks.
Appreciate your input Jeff. The question is what can be done to effect a change? The other league I am in has long discussions every season about teams "tanking". And we clearly see it in the professtional leagues whether it be baseball or football (sorry,I don't follow NBA or NHL nearly as close as MLB and NFL). But there is no simple solutions when it comes to leagues like this. For a 24 team league, we have far fewer trades than would be expected. So I don't feel more restrictions on trades is the answer.
We already have a draft lottery. Do we expand it? Modify it? A minimum salary requirement? Some kind of change in the salary structure?
Personally, I am one of those 8-8 teams and tried to trade some good players. But, I hate losing, and at the end of the day, I decided I'd rather be 8-8 with them, than be miserable playing games and end up 3-13 without them. And, I've always felt you just have to get into the playoffs. Once you are there, anything can happen.
the easiest, most obvious solution is to mirror the NFL trading deadline and make it after week 8.... that way the current .500 teams(2-2) would have a better idea of how they stand.... that team could win their next 3 or 4 and be 5-3 or 6-2 at the trading deadline and decide to compete, or conversely they could drop to 3-5 or 2-6 and not be subject to scrutiny if they decide to sell....
in analyzing a .500 team, have you really looked deeply at their team? did you notice that they may have been playing decent because they have been playing their best players regularly to start the season; but are going to run out of decent attempts and become weak later? have you looked at the durability of their players and realize they have been playing good cause all their regulars have stayed healthy so far; but will get decimated by injuries as the season progresses?
'tanking' is a vague word here.... tanking should be applied to someone who is intentionally trying to lose games and not playing to the best of their availability.... someone who has traded players; but still puts out the effort and utilizes the remaining roster as well as possible is not tanking....
check teams at the end of the year and if they have underutilized their better skill players, accuse them of tanking and assess penalties....
I think we should pay attention to the results at the end of the season. I'me not in favor of moving the trade deadline back. I like the uncertainty of the risk reward as is. I dont think trading is tanking as well as long as you play the weekly game as hard as you can. But, I understand both points.
I'm not sure this is a problem, especially since we cut the in-season salary cap boost from $10m to $5m. Still, as a perennial .500 team, this issue gets my attention and is worth discussing thoroughly. I'm all in favor of parity - a system where the have nots can become the haves with skillful management and vice versa. The real question, for me, is whether it is possible for the 8-8 team that makes it into the playoffs to make a run and not be "crushed in the first round." In my tenure in this league that has happened just once in Southwest Florida's memorable and miraculous march to the championship. Is that lone exception enough to give credence to the idea that "anything can happen in the playoffs" idea? I'm not sure. If not, it might be the situation that the game itself could make it darn near impossible for SWF's run to be repeated any time soon and no matter what corrections we might try to make they will be almost always foiled by the hard number calculations of the gaming engine. No answers from me at this time but I would encourage any conversation about the idea that just squeaking into the playoffs with an 8-8 record does a team no favor when giving up on a season early and trading and losing might be better long-term management strategy. If the answer to that is yes, tanking is the way to go, then Salem is right that we have a problem here.
