FULL GAME IQ

Understand the game. Think like a GM.
NBA / NFL / NHL / MLB / CRICKET / TENNIS
FULL GAME IQ / SPORTS INTELLIGENCE, EXPLAINED

Understand the game.
Think one move ahead.

Explore the stats, rankings, rules and decisions behind the sports you love. From NBA trades and NFL contracts to cricket rankings and the tennis tour, build your game IQ in one place.

6 SPORTS REAL PLAYER DATA INTERACTIVE SIMULATIONS
YOUR DESK / QUICK START

What would you like to explore?

01 / START WITH A LEAGUE

Different sports. Sharper perspective.

Explore each league’s strategy and financial rules, or switch to cricket and tennis for international rankings and interactive challenges.

Trades are more than talent for talent.

Cap room, contract structure, and league restrictions change what teams can do. Full Game IQ helps fans examine those constraints without pretending that a simulation is official approval.

NBA · NFL · NHL · MLB / Player Explorer

Real players. Your front-office decisions.

Select real roster players from two teams, enter the financial amounts manually, and build a hypothetical trade. Send it to the appropriate league workbench to explore the cap or tax effect.

Player names come from ESPN. Contract salaries are not verified by that feed; enter the financial values yourself.

01 · Pick two clubsSelect teams from the league's current franchise list.
02 · Build a packageSearch live rosters and choose who moves.
03 · Understand the tradeEnter financial values and compare the changes.

Team A · sends players

Loading clubs…

Team B · sends players

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Hypothetical transaction calculator

NBA · simplified payroll impact

Enter each player's annual salary ($ millions). The values are not auto-filled because this feed does not verify contracts.

Add players to the trade and enter relevant financial amounts to see the results.

Roster source: ESPN team roster feed. Data is subject to updates. No NBA salary matching, apron restrictions, NFL dead money, NHL LTIR, or MLB CBT accounting is certified here.

Player intelligence / NBA · NFL · NHL · MLB

Advanced player stats, explained.

Look up actual player season statistics, study efficiency metrics, and see how performance relates to front-office decisions. Data comes from ESPN's public athlete feeds. Derived stats appear only when the required inputs are provided.

Career statistics and the latest ESPN regular-season snapshot are separate data views; availability varies by player.
Choose a league and player to explore stats.

What counts as advanced?

NBA: true shooting %, effective field-goal % and assist-to-turnover ratio. NFL: completion rate, yards per attempt and passer rating. NHL: shooting % and points per game. MLB: OPS, strikeout-to-walk ratio and pitchers' strikeouts per nine innings when the relevant season data is available.

Calculated measures are marked “Derived,” and only reported inputs are used. Proprietary tracking stats such as NBA EPM, NFL EPA/play, hockey xG and MLB Statcast expected metrics are not included in this release.

How to interpret the data

Efficiency stats help explain why some players can contribute more than traditional points, goals or batting totals suggest. Pair stats with contract AAV, team cap position, player age and roster fit before assessing a potential trade.

Source: ESPN. Data availability depends on league, position and season; this is not a licensed official advanced-stats feed.

02 / INTERACTIVE TRANSACTION DESK

Build the deal. Find the restriction.

Run a hypothetical transaction through a league-specific financial model. Enter both teams' figures in USD millions; no verified contracts are assumed.

2026–27

Salary matching & aprons

Measure the payroll effect and explore transaction restrictions.

KEY RULEAbove the first apron, a club cannot receive more salary than it sends.
01

Team A

⇄
02

Team B

Live franchise list
Edit the numbers and select Analyze transaction.
REFERENCE LINES

NBA 2026–27 financial limits

Front office field guide

Four leagues, four roster-building systems.

NBA

A soft cap with exceptions, a luxury tax and two aprons. Team salary and apron status can restrict which trade mechanisms a team may use. Matching salary is only one part of trade legality.

  • Salary cap and exceptions
  • Tax and repeater tax
  • First- and second-apron restrictions
  • Draft-pick and roster rules

NFL

A hard salary cap environment where signing bonuses are generally prorated for cap accounting. A restructure can lower the current cap hit while shifting costs and risk into future seasons.

  • Base salary vs. cap hit
  • Signing-bonus proration
  • Dead money and guarantees
  • Post-June 1 designations

NHL

A hard upper limit and lower limit built around annual average value (AAV). Retained salary, contract term, no-movement clauses and long-term injured reserve can affect a deal.

  • AAV and cap hit
  • Retained salary (up to 50% in qualifying cases)
  • Contract term and trade protection
  • LTIR mechanics

MLB

No hard team salary cap. The competitive balance tax (CBT) uses defined payroll calculations and thresholds, with surcharges for repeat payors and certain high-spending levels.

  • CBT payroll vs. cash payroll
  • Tax thresholds and surcharges
  • Arbitration and service time
  • Options, waivers and roster limits
Transparency first

Data, assumptions & limitations.

Current data approach

ESPN rosters and player statistics are supported for all four leagues. Salaries, AAV and cap commitments in trade simulations are manually entered, not verified player contracts.

What is not yet validated

No verified contract feed, full NBA CBA salary matching, trade exceptions, kickers, BYC, poison-pill provisions, aggregation rules, hard-cap triggers, Stepien/pick-protection validation, NFL contract guarantees/proration edge cases, NHL escrow/LTIR calculations or MLB CBT-specific payroll adjustments.

Product roadmap

Available: four-league trade workbench, real roster builder, and player statistics. Planned: verified contracts, player and draft-pick exceptions, and more complete CBA validation.

Full Game IQ is an independent educational prototype and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB or their clubs.

INTERACTIVE / CONTRACT GM

Build the best team.
Beat the budget.

Pick real athletes using reported player contract figures, balance stars against value, and discover why even the best possible lineup comes with financial trade-offs.

FOUR LEAGUES · REAL PLAYERS · YOUR GM SCORE
NBA / 2026–27

Your Starting Five

Roster spots filled0 / 5
Budget spent$0M
Available funds$150M
Lineup rating—

Your lineup

SELECT A SLOT

Player market

RECRUIT A PLAYER

Choose a roster position on the left, then sign a player.

Load the full player directory for this sport.
LEAGUE INTELLIGENCE / STANDINGS

Four leagues. One scoreboard.

Live league standings for the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB. Explore deeper NHL metrics including points percentage, goal differential per game and 82-game point pace.

Updates automatically every 15 minutes while this page is open, and whenever visitors return to stale data.
Source: ESPN league standings

ESPN team standings. Derived NHL metrics are calculated from goals, points and games played; they are not xG, Corsi or proprietary tracking metrics.

FANTASY RESEARCH / WATCHLIST

Scout your next pickup.

Player watchlists across four leagues using seasonal statistics. Check each player on your own fantasy platform before making a claim.

Complete fantasy player directory

Insights for every listed player

Search any roster player, then open their stat-based fantasy profile. The profile shows individual strengths, risks and a transparent custom scoring estimate when enough data is available. No player is presented as confirmed available on waivers.

Estimates are illustrative, not an official platform projection.
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Featured scouting watchlist

Players worth investigating

Stat-based watchlists are not verified available free agents: waiver ownership, custom scoring formats, health and projections are not included. MLB recommendations are offseason scouting notes.

THE FAN ARCADE / TRIVIA

Know the players. Prove it.

Test yourself on NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB players, achievements, historical records, jersey numbers and sourced pregame habits. The question bank expands as active rosters load.

Loading question count…

WELCOME TO THE FAN ARCADE

Select a sport and start a trivia round. Each correct answer earns one point.

Player database / Four major leagues

Every roster. Every available season.

Browse current ESPN team rosters across the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB. Open a player to see reported in-season statistics, historical seasons, career totals, awards and available performance metrics.

Regular-season data is loaded on request. If the current season has no reported stats yet, the page says so. The database covers ESPN-listed active team rosters and available seasons, not every retired or minor-league player.

Choose a league to load the roster database.
Rules and contracts / 2026 reference

Understand why a transaction may fail.

Model a single team's side of a potential transaction under the NBA, NFL, NHL or MLB rules. Enter verified cap figures and select special contract or draft-pick conditions to receive a transparent checklist of arithmetic checks and matters that still need review.

Important: this is an educational pre-screen, not a certified transaction approval. When verified contract details, exceptions, draft protections or league-specific adjustments are missing, the result will explicitly say Requires verification.

2026–27 NBA · Team-side review

Enter one team's transaction

Input values in USD millions and review both teams independently. This calculator does not automatically verify individual contract records or acquire complete team cap sheets.

Rules covered and remaining limits

Reference amounts and criteria correspond to 2026 league guidance. Rules can depend on trade date, cap accounting, specific CBA exceptions, guaranteed compensation, protected picks and league decisions. Missing inputs must not be interpreted as approval.

The daily briefing

What matters across the big four.

The latest NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB headlines, gathered from ESPN's editorial feeds. Filter by league, date or topic, and open original reporting directly.

Loading the latest articles…

Articles and publication dates are from ESPN. Stories refresh on visits or while this page is open; headlines aren't pushed while the site is closed.

Interactive GM Academy / Four leagues

Learn the rules before you make the move.

Each league handles contracts, cap limits and trades differently. Pick a sport, explore the real concepts, then solve a transaction scenario and apply what you learned in Franchise Season.

Choose a league

Test a GM decision

These scenarios explain common rules, not every CBA exception. Select an answer to see the reasoning.

Franchise GM / Season simulation

Run an entire franchise.

Build a full-sized professional roster with real athlete names, manage a financial target and simulate the season one game at a time. Injuries, trades, wins, losses and your decision history carry forward.

Simulation disclaimer: rosters use ESPN-listed players, but game ratings, results, opponents, injuries and many player costs are simulated. NFL cash salary is not a cap hit; MLB uses a tax threshold rather than a hard cap; NBA has soft-cap exceptions. This is a learning game, not an official roster, contract or season prediction.

Set up your franchise

Choose a league and franchise to load player options.

Your roster

Full professional roster-size targets are used. Grouping by position is a management guide, not an official league eligibility certification.

Player market and roster moves

Search real athletes. In this sandbox, acquiring a contracted player is a fictional roster move until league rules, consent, salaries and matching are independently verified.

Season control room

Generated schedule: simulated opponents, not the official 2026–27 or 2026 league schedule. All game results are fictional.

Finish a full roster to start your season.

Game-by-game results

Simulated injury report

GM transaction log

Real video-game ratings and real season results

Player ratings. Season stats. Every game.

Search current NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB rosters, compare published video-game overall ratings, view the reported season and open each regular-season box score. Ratings are separate from simulated GM scores.

Ratings sources: NBA 2K27 via NBA 2K API, Madden NFL 27 and NHL 27 via EA SPORTS, and MLB The Show 26 Live Series cards via MLB The Show. Some athletes have no published matching rating; missing values are never invented. ESPN provides actual statistics and game logs.

Find a player

Choose a league to load players.
World Sports / Cricket

Cricket, beyond the scorecard.

Explore official ICC men’s and women’s rankings in Test, ODI and T20I cricket. Follow match scorecards and news, learn batting and bowling analytics, and build a ranked-player fantasy XI.

ICC rankings cover international cricket, not every IPL or domestic player. Player ratings are ICC performance points, not video-game ratings or player salaries.

World Sports / Tennis

The tour, explained.

Track ATP and WTA singles rankings and points, explore match results and reporting, understand ranking calculations and surface tactics, then challenge top-ranked players in a simulated tournament.

ATP and WTA rankings are official tour-style singles point tables as reported by ESPN. Tournament outcomes in the game are fictional, not match forecasts.