Im sure this has been discussed before, but how about if we include a metric that decides how big your budget is? Im not saying a huge difference in budget, say the max is 190 the least is 180. And what determines your teams payroll this season takes numerous things into consideration, and each has a different weight. So last seasons win total would be #1, then:
#2 last seasons playoff results
#3 the previous seasons win total
#4 previous seasons playoffs results
#5 the previous 5 seasons win total
#6 the previous 5 playoffs results
#7 the payroll the franchise had last season
#8 the quality of the ML coaching
#9 the quality of the MiL coaching
Maybe a few more?
So, you put all those rankings together to come up with your rank compared to the rest of the world, the top ranked team gets 190 the next ranked team would get 189,690,000. (310,000 less, which is what 10,000,000 is divided 32 ways). This would be a great incentive for a team to not tank it up, because if he does he will be at a fairly significant disadvantage to a team that tries to win consistently.
Im not suggesting that my suggestion would work *equally well* in every world. But I think it would be a good addition to a world that has a 4 season MWR. Much like what MikeT likes to promote.
It could be an option. Like private world rules...
And it would work even better I think if the world had a max prospect rule in place. Say no more then 30m in prospect period. Then my suggestion would hold even more of a disadvantage to a tanker. (and more of an advantage to a team that consistently goes all out)