Friday, April 25, 2014

Not That Surprising That the Saskatchewan Roughriders Go Over 2013 CFL Salary Cap

So only the Riders went over the salary cap in 2013. However the team only went over the cap (4.4 million) by 18K. That's below the barrier of 100K where a team loses draft picks and the penalty is just a 1 for 1 extra dollar hit. 

I've argued before that there is an incentive for richer teams (which is pretty much the Riders and maybe the Edmonton Eskimos) to go over the salary cap by $99,999 as the monetary penalty is relatively small and no draft picks would be lost. The Riders are widely profitable compared to the other teams in the league, so the extra money is meaningless to them. 100K is potentially 20K per starting offensive lineman, which isn't chump change in the CFL.

I suppose it should be pointed out that only Saskatchewan went over and they won the Grey Cup. However what I find interesting, is that the Ticats set a record for players used in a season (88) due to injuries (and maybe trying out a lot of stiffs in game) and didn't go over themselves. I know a player going on the nine game injured list means their salary doesn't contribute for those games on the salary cap, but what happens for players that are injured for one game at a time?

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