I did not overlook your comment at all about championships. IMHO, your sample size is far too small when so many variables affecting who wins the actual championship. I think a more interesting analysis would be to look at who in the MLB is consistently making the playoffs over a longer period of time. 15-20 years? Without Googling, I would bet that the Yankees are overwhelming the most consistent Playoff attendee as well as having the highest payroll for that same time period. Who wins after making the playoffs is a bit of a crap shoot and in my opinion not necessarily the best team of that season, but rather who was peaking at the right time.

Ultimately it is the customer who decides the winner, not who more closely follows economic principles. The customer, the sports fans, overwhelming have chosen the NFL over MLB as the national pastime due to their economic system that acts as its foundation. That makes the current NFL format the right choice.

Whether the NFL is a single business entity or not is very much up for debate; that question will likely have to be decided by the courts. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/01/13/oral-argument-in-american-needle-hints-at-nfls-broader-position/

And, in fact, if the league does insist that it is a single entity for labor purposes, it could make itself vulnerable to an antitrust lawsuit.

Did you overlook the comment in which I pointed out how Major League Baseball’s unlimited spending has largely failed to translate into championships? And how small market franchises can and do field competitive (even championship-winning!!) teams? Here’s a quick update of the most successful franchises thus far in the 2010 season:

Tampa Bay – 18-7 (21st highest payroll)
St. Louis – 18-8 (13th highest payroll)
NY Yankees – 17-8 (1st highest payroll)
Minnesota – 17-9 (11th highest payroll)
San Diego – 16-10 (29th highest payroll)
Detroit – 16-11 (6th highest payroll)

Is this just an early-season anomaly? Nope. Check out the playoff teams from the past few years:

2009 – Yankees def. Phillies in World Series

NY Yankees – $201.4 million; 1st highest payroll
LA Angels – $113.7 million; 6th highest payroll
Boston – $121.7 million; 4th highest payroll
Philadelphia – $113 million; 7th highest payroll
St. Louis – $88.5 million; 13th highest payroll
Colorado – $75.2 million; 18th highest payroll
Minnesota – $65.3 million; 24th highest payroll

2008 – Phillies def. Rays in World Series

LA Angels – $119.2 million; 6th highest payroll
Chicago Cubs – $118.3 million; 8th highest payroll
Tampa Bay – $43.8 million; 29th highest payroll
Boston – $133.3 million; 4th highest payroll
Philadelphia – $98.2 million; 12th highest payroll
Milwaukee – $80.9 million; 15th highest payroll
Chicago White Sox – $121.1 million; 5th highest payroll
LA Dodgers – $118.6 million; 7th highest payroll

2007 – Red Sox def. Rockies in World Series

Boston – $143 million; 2nd highest payroll
Cleveland – $61.6 million; 23rd highest payroll
LA Angels – $109.2 million; 4th highest payroll
NY Yankees – $189.6 million; 1st highest payroll
Arizona – $52 million; 26th highest payroll
Colorado – $54.4 million; 25th highest payroll
Philadelphia – $89.4 million; 13th highest payroll
Chicago Cubs – $99.6 million; 8th highest payroll

2006 – Cardinals def. Tigers in World Series

NY Yankees – $194.6 million; 1st highest payroll
NY Mets – $101.1 million; 5th highest payroll
Minnesota – $63.4 million; 19th highest payroll
Detroit – $82.6 million; 14th highest payroll
Oakland – $62.2 million; 21st highest payroll
San Diego – $69.9 million; 17th highest payroll
LA Dodgers – $98.4 million; 6th highest payroll
St. Louis – $88.9 million; 11th highest payroll

Only eight baseball teams out of thirty make the playoffs any given year. By the logic you use, it should be absolutely stunning to see a team make the playoffs – much less compete for a championship – unless it is among the highest-spending teams. Yet year after year after year, teams compete and win because they make smart decisions rather than because they break the bank. The Cardinals won the World Series in a year where they spent 45% of what the Yankees spent that season. Colorado played in a World Series in a year where they spent less than 29% of what the Yankees spent that season. When the Phillies and Rays played each other for the championship, they only spent 47% and 21%, respectively, of what the Yankees spent in NOT making the playoffs.

So… care to explain again how free market principles would bring about the end of the sporting world as we know it?

The NFL has a salary cap that Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder must abide by. Otherwise the Green Bays, the New Orleans, and the Indianapolis’ would all end up like the Expos, the Pirates, and the Brewers.

The NFL salary cap causes parity and a major reason why the NFL has succeeded the MLB as America’s Past Time. I would bet that changing the draft to a free market and getting rid of the salary cap would be overwhelmingly voted down by these owners making millions upon millions with their current system. They love the parity all this provides…

I’m not aware of any cap on what you can pay an undrafted free agent, but as demand for their services is demonstrably very, very low, they are not usually paid much in comparison to their drafted teammates.

I can prove that you’re entirely incorrect when you suggest that free market principles will necessarily result in one set of wealthy, dominant franchises dominating their realm of competition. Why? Because money can’t cure stupid. In fact, the sports world is full of examples of teams spending out the wazoo, yet failing to achieve ANY form of success, much less winning championships.

In 2009 the Yankees finally managed to win a World Series title – but it was the first time they’d even been IN the series since 2003, despite the fact that in every single one of those years the team spent roughly 150% of what the next-highest-spending competitor spent. And for the past couple of years the next-highest-spending competitor was the New York Mets. How did that work out for them? They didn’t really get close to the playoffs in 2008, and in 2009 the Mets finished 11 games below .500. Also consider that in 2008 the World Series was contested between the Phillies, with the 12th highest payroll, and the Tampa Bay Rays, whose payroll was only higher than the lowly Florida Marlins.

And look at the NFL! How has spending like a drunken sailor on “talent” worked out for Dan Snyder’s Redskins or Jerry Jones’s Cowboys teams? In the meantime, small-market teams like the Indianapolis Colts, the Green Bay Packers, and the reigning Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints seem to be managing okay against the larger-market franchises.

The fact of the matter is that – *especially* where rookies are concerned – what a team perceives a player’s value to be is frequently completely divorced from the player’s eventual impact on the field. But that is the teams’ problem, not the players. If demand for the players’ services is so high, the players themselves should be able to maximize the amount they receive for providing their services. And, as I pointed out, I think this would also allow needy teams the greatest opportunity to improve themselves. Even if their efforts eventually prove to be misguided.

P.S. – Stokes, you will be receiving a strongly-worded letter from an attorney regarding your libelous statements suggesting that I have any affinity for the two teams you mentioned. Watch your friggin’ back the next time you’re in Knoxville. I know people.

There are many many aspects of team and individual salaries in the NFL that are designed to protect aging vets. Interestingly enough, the NFLPA doesn’t have credible representatives at the bargaining table for incoming players. Once players are drafted, then they have direct representation, not before. I have heard that some elected young NFL players often represent a ‘young’ voice but since these players are already in the NFL for probably 2-3 years, their interests do not coincide with the incoming players.

Also, many times the salaries of the top few pick carry weight when calculating top paid players at a position. For instance either of the two top defensive tackles will likely after this draft be in the top 10 of highest paid defensive tackles in the league. This factors into arbitration numbers and franchise tag salaries for other veteran Defensive Tackles, or at least used to before this season’s end of the salary cap.