Hard Cap Rule Change 2005-2006

[Concepts of a Plan]

We are making the following change, as it pertains to the Hard Cap, starting this off-season:

Hard Cap Penalties only become enforceable during the start of each season. What this means: If you are over the Hard Cap during the off-season, you have until 24-hours after Training Camp is posted to officially get under. Because of this additional leeway, transactions that are intended to cause a team to duck under the Hard Cap must be FULLY EXECUTED by this deadline, with no exceptions (for example: a team trading an MLE on day-30 to get under the HC doesn’t suffice.... a transaction waiting on other trades that haven’t been executed would not suffice). Additionally, contract buyouts for the new league year may not start until after regular season sim 1, which prevents a team from circumventing the rules and buying out 4 players - two before tc, two right after - to duck the cap. During season, the Hard Cap rules remain the same: a team has the same 48-hours to duck the cap before the penalties are enforced.



Rationale: In real life, hard capped teams are allowed to be over the cap during the off-season and just need to be under the cap by the start of a new league year. We think this will reduce controversy and stress during the off season, since there will be less focus on continually monitoring the cap situations of teams. Also, selfishly, it will stop GMs from claiming preferential treatment when hard cap posts aren't made immediately after a team goes over

[Concepts of a Plan]

Please be aware of your own cap. I get that sometimes it's easier to wait on an upload, but sometimes there will be days in the offseason that it might not happen right away. If there are a ton of transactions (like today) it may be good to go over your own numbers in a calculator and get ahead of the issue. While I may not be able to process everything and upload for you right away, you can always PM me to check where you are/will be, I am on every day and I can help when prompted.

The spirit of this rule amendment was actually to provide MORE time during the offseason rather than being pressured to figure things out in 48 hours while FA is still running. You essentially get from the start of the draft to 24 hrs after TC to ensure you will not be over the HC.

And while I do not like to HC people, I will do it. Please don't put yourselves in that position!