Financial Literacy / EconomicsGrades 9-126 roles55 min1 class period
Financial Literacy / EconomicsGrades 9-126 roles55 min1 class period
The Continental League free-agent market. Student agencies value an athlete, structure a four-bucket contract under a shared hard salary cap, survive one hidden season, and then watch the headline number deflate into the real take-home.
Your students are sports agents for the fictional Continental League. A "$60 million deal" lands on the table - but what is it actually worth? Across one class period, agencies value a free agent, structure a contract from four moving parts (guaranteed money, signing bonus, performance incentives, deferred salary), and watch a season test their structure under a shared, hard salary cap. Then the reveal: present value, expected value, taxes, and risk peel the headline down to what the athlete actually keeps - and the agency that "won the headline" is usually not the one that won the money. The closing lesson generalizes the windfall to lottery winners, heirs, and settlement recipients: sudden money is hard to keep for anyone.
Standard (4 groups, ~8-18 students), Full (5 groups, ~16-30 students)
Learning Objectives
6 objectives
Standards
5 standards aligned
Where This Fits in Your Curriculum
Run this in the time-value-of-money stretch of a personal finance or economics course, or as the applied day in Algebra 2 right after geometric series, since present value is the sum of a finite geometric series with a reason to exist. The incentive math makes it fit a probability unit too. Students need to be comfortable with percentages and a calculator. They do not need to have seen the present value formula, because the game scaffolds it, do not need probability notation, and do not need to know anything about sports. What it teaches is that a headline number is a claim, not a value: guarantees, timing, taxes, and risk all move the real total, and the agency that wins the press conference usually loses the money. The closing beat generalizes it to lottery winners, heirs, and settlement recipients, which is where your students live.
What Students Will Learn
(core) Compute the present value of a multi-year payment stream at a fixed discount rate.
(core) Compute the expected value of a probabilistic incentive (amount times probability).
(core) Apply an after-tax and commission haircut to convert gross to real take-home.
(core) Compare two contract structures with the SAME headline and explain why their real values differ.
(extension) Estimate an injury probability with a confidence interval from a comparable-player sample.
(extension) Maximize present value subject to a hard salary-cap inequality, and amortize a windfall into a sustainable annual draw.
Cases Included
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSA-SSE.B.4: Derive and use the formula for the sum of a finite geometric series to solve problems - the present value of a multi-year payment stream at a fixed discount rate
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS-MD.A.2: Calculate the expected value of a random variable and interpret it as a mean - a probabilistic incentive worth amount times probability
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSA-CED.A.3: Represent constraints by equations or inequalities and interpret solutions as viable or nonviable options - maximizing value under a hard salary cap
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSS-IC.B.4: Use data from a sample to estimate a population mean and develop a margin of error - an injury probability with a confidence interval from a comparable-player sample
CEE National Standards for Financial Literacy, Standard III (Saving), grade 12 benchmark 5: compare future money with money today by discounting; Standard V (Financial Investing): higher expected returns tend to carry greater risk
Social & Emotional Learning (CASEL)
Aligned to the CASEL framework's core competencies. These are the SEL skills students actively practice while playing.
Responsible Decision-MakingAgencies structure a contract from four buckets - guaranteed money, signing bonus, incentives, deferred salary - weighing headline against real take-home and making binding option calls once the hidden season is revealed.
Relationship SkillsThe Turn 2 Trade Window sends Negotiators around the room to propose, counter, and accept structured trades while Analysts re-run the waterfall, and a deal locks only when both sides agree under the shared cap.
Self-ManagementEvery table competes for one hard shared salary cap, so students must restrain a fat headline that steals room from rivals and choose guaranteed money over a flashier number that could crater in an injury season.
Social AwarenessThe Cash-Out debrief generalizes the athlete's windfall to lottery winners, heirs, and settlement recipients, reframing 'going broke' as a structural problem rather than a character flaw.
Flexible Class Sizes
Standard (4 groups, ~8-18 students)
Two agency tables competing for one shared cap pool, plus the Cap Office gate and The Tape market. The core game - group size scales it from a lean 8 students to a full 18.
Full (5 groups, ~16-30 students)
Three agencies competing over one shared cap pool - maximum cross-table scarcity.
How the Game Plays Out
Turn 1: Value
What is this athlete worth?
"What is a fair annual value for this athlete - and how likely are they to stay healthy?"
Turn 2: Structure
Build the deal from four moving parts
"How do you structure guaranteed, signing, incentive, and deferred money so the REAL value is highest - under a hard shared cap?"
Turn 3: Season
The structure meets reality
"When the season happens, which dollars actually pay - and which structure protected the athlete?"
Turn 4: The Edge
Last call on the deal
"With the season known, what is the last structural move that protects the most real value?"
Turn 5: Cash-Out
The headline meets the real money
"Where did the money go between the headline and what the athlete actually keeps - and who does that happen to besides athletes?"
Roles Your Students Will Play
5 roles across 3 factions. Each has different information, different goals, and different leverage. Click any role to see their background and what they are trying to accomplish.
Summit Sports Group
agency
Summit Sports Group represents Rell Quaide, a high-ceiling young Striker. You sit at Table 1. Your job is to turn the market's view of your client into the contract that protects the most real money for them - not the contract with the biggest headline.
You represent Rell Quaide, Striker. Your client has a high ceiling and high injury variance. You compete with the other agencies for one shared league salary cap. The headline is your reputation; the real take-home is your client's wealth.
Goals
Maximize your client's real take-home (after present value, expected value, tax, and commission).
Structure the four buckets so the deal survives an injury season, not just a healthy one.
Stay under the shared cap pool - a fat deal here shrinks every other table's room.
Keystone Athlete Partners
agency
Keystone Athlete Partners represents Mara Olwen, a durable veteran Anchor. You sit at Table 2. Your client is the floor play - low injury risk, modest ceiling. Your job is to convert that durability into the most real money.
You represent Mara Olwen, Anchor. Your client is durable with low injury risk and a modest ceiling. You compete with the other agencies for one shared league salary cap. The headline is your reputation; the real take-home is your client's wealth.
Goals
Maximize your client's real take-home.
Use your client's durability - a low injury probability makes guaranteed and non-guaranteed money both reliable.
Stay under the shared cap pool.
North Star Representation
agency
North Star Representation represents Davi Stronk, a breakout-or-bust Playmaker. You sit at Table 3 (full preset only). Your client's value swings hard on whether the incentives hit - your job is to price that swing.
You represent Davi Stronk, Playmaker. Your client is breakout-or-bust with a wide incentive swing. You compete with the other agencies for one shared league salary cap. The headline is your reputation; the real take-home is your client's wealth.
Goals
Maximize your client's real take-home.
Decide how much of the deal to bet on incentives - high upside, but expected value haircuts and injuries can zero them out.
Stay under the shared cap pool.
Continental League Cap Office
league
You are the Continental League Cap Office - a NEUTRAL math referee. You own the shared salary-cap pool and the rate sheet (discount rate, tax rate, agent commission). You are not a labor adversary and you never moralize about player pay or owner spending. You enforce one number: the cap.
You publish the cap pool, discount rate, tax rate, and agent commission. The game checks every contract's cap charge against the shared pool, and you watch it on the Cap Board. When the league total goes over the pool, the game returns the most expensive pending deal for re-structuring. You are a neutral referee with teeth, not a bargaining party.
Goals
Keep the league cap-compliant - no table busts the shared pool.
Publish the rate sheet clearly so every agency values its deals correctly.
Apply the season cap event neutrally when it fires.
The Tape
market
You are The Tape - the league's market analyst and players-association bureau. You publish the comparable-player database, the headline-inflation index, and the market mood that gates which contract structures are legal each turn. You report numbers, never character.
You publish the market mood. The mood limits how big each part of a contract can be. In Turn 3 you run the headline event, Market Re-rate: a similar player signed with another team for less money. In Turn 4 you set the closing mood. It limits how tables can restructure their deals.
Goals
Publish accurate comps so agencies have a fair anchor.
Set the market mood zone that gates legal structures each turn.
Run the headline event and the closing mood neutrally - replacement-cost data, never a narrative about anyone's worth.
Hand Each Student Their Own Sheet
One click on the teacher dashboard prints a dossier for every role - background, goals, key facts, and their confidential briefing - plus the primary-source packet and a vocabulary sheet. Print them, or save as PDF, so each student reads their role on paper instead of huddling around one screen. The app still runs the votes and the action; the paper just carries the reading.
Primary Sources
Every role includes real historical documents. Students read them because they need the information to make their case.
Key Terms Students Will Learn
present valueexpected valueafter-tax valuerisk-adjusted valueguaranteed moneysigning bonusperformance incentivedeferred compensationdiscount ratesalary capcap chargemarginal revenue productwindfalltime value of money
After the Game: Debrief Questions
Rank the agencies by headline. Now rank by real take-home. Did the ranking change? Which deal had the biggest gap between headline and real value, and why?
Find a deal on the board with a lower headline but a higher real take-home, if there is one. Explain to its client why it is the better deal.
Look at the featured deal's Drop. Where did the money go between its headline and its real take-home? Put a dollar figure on each step of the Drop: deferral, EV haircut, tax, and risk / fees.
Guaranteed money usually means a lower headline. Was paying for guarantees a good DECISION even in a season with no injury? Separate the decision from the outcome.
The league has one shared cap pool. Who has more market power under a hard salary cap: the athletes or the teams? Economists call a market with one main buyer of labor a monopsony. Does that fit this league?
Deferred money paid in year 5 was worth ~78 cents on the dollar today. If a deal offers a HUGE headline that is mostly deferred years out, what should you suspect about WHY it was structured that way?
An athlete's earning window might be 3-6 years against a 50-year adult life. How does a short, front-loaded, finite income stream change what 'managing your money' must mean compared to a steady salary?
We sometimes hear 'athletes go broke' as if it is about athletes. Based on today, what is the more accurate way to say what is actually going on?
People say sudden-money recipients are irresponsible. But the SAME thing happens to lottery winners, inheritors, settlement recipients, and buyout takers. What do they all have in common that has NOTHING to do with the person's character? Design the one piece of financial infrastructure - a draw rule, a trust, a literacy requirement - that would protect ANY windfall recipient.
Ready to run this in your classroom?
Get free teacher access in 30 seconds. No account needed - just a passcode that unlocks the full game library, teacher guides, and session tools.