Which of the four major U.S. professional sports leagues still does not have a player salary cap?

• A. National Basketball Association
• B. Major League Baseball
• C. National Football League
• D. National Hockey League

Answer: (B)

The main idea is how each league controls player salaries: a hard cap versus a spending system with penalties. Three of the major leagues enforce a hard salary cap through their collective bargaining agreements, which sets a fixed ceiling on what teams can pay players. That means teams cannot legally exceed the cap, and they must build rosters within that limit.

Major League Baseball takes a different route. It does not impose a hard cap on payrolls. Instead, it uses a competitive balance tax (a luxury tax) that penalizes teams for spending above certain thresholds. Teams can surpass the limits, but they incur penalties that become increasingly severe. The system is designed to discourage excessive spending, not to strictly cap it.

So MLB is the league without a true salary cap, while the other three have a cap mechanism in place. This distinction explains why MLB is the correct answer.