[Burt the Butcher]

Definitely not a stupid question....I have no idea which way it would influence it, but if you know what the outcome of the Match/Decline decision would be, how can it not have an influence on your bidding?

But I would think it would tend to make prices lower, since the person bidding knows they are going to win the bid, why bid it up higher than necessary? There are several people who will bid a player up, only because the player is too low, and they don't want the team who owns the RFA rights to get a good deal on that player...but if you know the team will not match, why would you bid it up, other than to stick it to another team bidding? Maybe it would end up being the same...

Another thing it does, it influences who you may go after....say you like Jennings and Wayne equally...are you going to bid on Wayne, know he will most likely be matches, or on Jennings, knowing he is not going to be matched...

I just think it's unfair to influence the bidding in any way, and this definitely influences it