[Corsairs]

Yes, but getting it wrong 100 years in a row (the length of time I've simmed out to test it)? And getting it wrong on every player in the league? And every single scouting director getting it wrong? I just don't think that's very likely.

I am mindful of the differences in scouting between OOTP 8 and 9, and it's because of those differences that I delayed posting this question until now: I was willing to accept that what I was seeing in my test sims may simply be an intended change in OOTP9. However, now that the transition has happened and more eyeballs are on these ratings I'm hearing from owners who have gone through similar 8-to-9 transitions in other online leagues. They claim that they experienced nothing like this, and I'm inclined to believe them.

Basically what I'm asking is what could theoretically account for a change like this? Is there some global game setting that I may have accidentally flipped in the transition? Could it have something to do with scouting budgets in foreign leagues? I don't know what it is, but I do know this can't be chalked up to the normal fluctuations in scouting accuracy.

EDIT: I'll try your suggestion, The Wolf, and see what happens. My expectation is that the reports will be almost identical between the two versions with scouting off.

EDIT 2: Just as I expected, the ratings are practically identical between OOTP 8 and 9 with scouting turned off. This confirms that "true" potential hasn't changed. Of course that doesn't explain the enormous, eternal league-wide discrepancy in scouts' reported ratings between the two versions. I'll take any help I can get here.