Tanking in the Cloud.
Let’s say for a minute that someone realizes it is time to start rebuilding their team at a lower level. They have a full stadium, and a good amount of cash on hand. They gut the team, accumulating more cash in the process. They request a demotion to a 21-capped league to begin the rebuilding process.
They sign an entire offense and defense, of level 21′s. After looking over a couple rosters in their conference, they realize they have no chance to win the title that season,and they decide to tank. They go 0-16, while their players continue leveling up and get boosted to level 28.
Under the cloud system, their team drops into a level 16 cap. The next season. They choose to boost again, and are now a team full of level 30 players, in a level 16 capped league. They have been rewarded for their failure. Other teams in their league cannot do anything to counteract this, as they are limited to signing players below the cap. It ruins the competition in that league, and encourages more teams to go that route.
This is just one scenario, but there are many others where this can happen. The obvious solution is hard caps on the player level. A team should be required to get its entire roster below the cap to start the season, just like real world sports teams must do with salary caps.
If a team desires to stay together, despite having players at a variety of levels, they need to either go to the cap that fits them, or go into an uncapped league. Perhaps the uncapped leagues need to be broken down abit further to matchup teams based on their median level, to ensure competition in those leagues.
This is an issue that needs to be addressed sooner, rather than later. Many teams do not aspire to ever make Pro, and are more than happy to use a strategy of Tank, Win, Tank, Win, in order to accumulate some titles in the lower leagues. It is not inconceivable that this becomes the only strategy to win at the lower levels. If Bort waits until the offseason to address this, no one is gonna be happy about it. Teams need to be given the time to recruit and set up their rosters for next season. Everyone sees this issue coming, and it is understandable that it was not anticipated, but it is not too late to close the loopholes.
Seriously, a hard cap? No. The roster median works. If their median fails the leagues cap, then force the team to remove players until the meet the median.
The simple, if you gut and ask for relegation you get a fresh start just like anyone else. Simple and effective. No advantage no need for median level or hard cap rules.
That being said being in a capped league is no advantage, it says you are new or suck as an owner.