I know for a fact that the Yankees have one station affiliate in Arkansas.

That is some serious market penetration.

"dfosterf" wrote:

"dfosterf" wrote:

I knew you were wanting to talk about the tv contract. Was surprised you have not done so yet. Glad I could "set you up".

"wpr" wrote:

Clarification on the potential Peppers contract
Posted by Mike Florio on February 2, 2010 9:08 AM ET
We posted on Monday an item regarding the limitations that will apply to the teams inclined to sign Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers to a big-money, 12:01 a.m.-style contract.

And thanks to an astute reader, we need to clarify our point. (That's a fancy word for "we f--ked something up.")

The so-called Final Eight Plan restricts the ability of the teams that made it to the divisional round or higher to sign unrestricted free agents. For the final four teams (Colts, Saints, Jets, Vikings), our explanation regarding Peppers' situation remains accurate. (In other words, we didn't f--k it up.) For the next four teams (Cowboys, Cardinals, Ravens, Chargers), there's one exception that applies as it relates to big-money contracts.

The Final Eight Plan permits the division-round losers to sign one player to a contract having an adjusted salary in the first year of $5.5 million or more. (For some reason, we thought it was "or less." Thus, the f--kup.) The division-round losers also may sign an unlimited number of unrestricted free agents to contracts with first-year adjusted salaries of $3.7 million or less, with limitations on future growth.

In English, this means that the Cowboys, Cardinals, Ravens, and Chargers can sign one guy to a Haynesworth-style contract at 12:01 a.m. ET on the first day of free agency. Thus, the presumably big-spending Cowboys can still pursue Peppers (or some other big-name unrestricted free agent), if they so choose.

The conference finalists, however, can't. And then there's the reality that most teams are expected not to spend huge money on player contracts, as part of the 2011 lockout fund.

So whether it's four or eight teams that can't pursue Peppers, it will be a surprise if he lands a $100-million deal.

And, again, Julius shouldn't be uttering "et tu?" when the Ides of March approach, given that he made more than $18 million in 2009.

Final Eight Plan limitations apply to trades, too
Posted by Mike Florio on February 15, 2010 9:29 AM ET
As the first year without a salary cap since the arrival of the salary cap approaches, we're spending plenty of time picking through the details of the current labor agreement.

And here's something we found that we hadn't previously seen anywhere.

Article XXI spells out the terms of the Final Eight Plan, a provision aimed at preserving competitive balance in the uncapped year by preventing the teams that made it to the division round or better from buying up a bunch of unrestricted free agents.

For the final four teams (Saints, Colts, Vikings, Jets), no unrestricted free agents may be signed from other teams until one of their current unrestricted free agents is lost to another team. Complicating matters is that the value of the first year of the replacement free agent's contract must be no more than the first-year salary paid to the player who was lost, with annual growth of no more than 30 percent.

For the next four teams (Cardinals, Cowboys, Ravens, Chargers), one unrestricted free agent may be signed at a base salary of $5.5 million or more, and an unlimited amount of others at a first-year salary of $3.7 million with a 30-percent limit on growth.

It had been assumed by many that these teams nevertheless could trade for an unlimited amount of players.

Under Section 7 of Article XXI of the CBA, they can't.

Here's the key language: "No Club subject to the provisions of this Article may, for one League Year, trade for a player it otherwise would not be permitted to sign as an Unrestricted Free Agent as a result of the provisions of this Article."

That said, Article XXI, Section 8 expressly permits teams to negotiate with and sign unrestricted free agents limited by the transition or franchise tag. But Section 7 apparently restricts the ability of the final eight teams to work out a trade for a franchise player for something less than two first-round draft picks -- a common approach that multiple teams have used when shipping franchise players to new teams.

Keep in mind that none of this affects the ability of the final eight teams to sign or trade for restricted free agents, since the Final Eight Plan applies only to unrestricted free agents, and unrestricted free agency applies only to players who have six or more years of service.