When is the best time to promote prospects to get the biggest bumps?

There is no increase in ratings for promotion.  If you see a promotion 'bump' it is simply an increase that was coming anyway.  Just promote prospects as you see fit, and they will get their ratings increase as a matter of course, irrespective of the promotions.

Thanks for the input!!

End of the year I promote prospects, costs nothing, prevents retiring and sometimes I get an end of the year bump. I don't know when I would get that otherwise.

I think it probably carries over to the offseason bump.

The "promotion bump" phrase has always been misleading.  "Ratings increases" are produced by playing time, makeup and coaching.  Even though I know this I still find myself trying to manipulate that 6th promotion with my prospects.

Posted by dakar on 2/7/2016 5:14:00 PM (view original):
I think it probably carries over to the offseason bump.

Have you ever gotten a ratings bump in a learned skill in the off-season?

Yes, although it may only come on players who got more development in the playoffs, but did not get a seventh ratings increase. I will have to keep an eye on that.

Are you positive it wasn't an injured player?   Their development is different.

Maybe.  Now I wish there was some way to go back and check it rather than just seeing the improvement from one ST to the next.  I feel pretty certain I have seen it in the case of players who were in the playoffs but never got that 7th increase posted.  Aw hell, maybe I just never checked on them late enough before rollover to see that they got the last bump.

I haven't done it in awhile, certainly not since the most recent updates, but when I was tracking development to learn the patterns, learned skills never got a bump in the off-season for non-injured players(I excluded them because the patterns didn't conform).   That's why I'm surprised to hear that someone else did.