Nik, I appreciate you making a very good argument, and helping defend the point I originally made. - (I'm referring to the post I didn't quote here).
The more I think about this though, the more I think Barry is correct about this group having an advantage due managing 4 accounts.
My reasoning is:
1. The # of matchups where significant tactical adjustments in match need to be made is quite small. Most managers will find a way to beat themselves, due to either bad tactics or a lack of preparedness.
2. Communication: Having six members in an association can be difficult for communication. Some members will request a bonus, when its obvious they're opponent can't maintain 40% training bonuses. So we end up wasting a bonus on a match where their is no point in giving one.
Another example is a team with 60 points and 30 team training bonuses given, because my horrible math skills can still figure out that's at best an average of 1 point/match, so a calculated risk that points can be secured there w/o a team-training bonus is a wise decision. However, with poor communication the risk of boosting that match instead of doubling up in a different one is higher.
3. Sacrificing a matchup: It's very hard to get a member to agree to take two losses for the good of the association. This really only applies to the top two seeds, since with there loans they have the ability to greatly skew the quality in the favor of an associations lower seeds (in my opinion a very viable strategy when a heavy underdog). For example, I drew a 135% team in the final weekend of last season, but he only had a 5 player bench and that associations 2 seed was 20% weaker. I knew he could loan 2 players max, so I decided to loan out my 8 best players which included a 151% AMR and 142% AML, since I knew the loans were going to cause them major problems. This guy loaned 0 players, and my association won 18-15.
I think this approach also can be used effectively against associations that have an obvious weak link, so you can eliminate two matchups regarding applying bonuses, and still in all likelihood be tied 6-6. But in the other four matches, you've got 6 group training bonuses applied, with 8 loaned players.
All that said, i'm not going to call it an unfair advantage, because I don't think one is going to be able to consistantly beat the elite associations (based on quality) with having 4+ accounts in one association. I just think the number of genuine elite associations is very small in number. Most associations have at least one weak link that can be exploited. Now, in the better associations its going to be more difficult to identify who the weak link is, because stuff like a deep bench can mask a teams deficiencies, especially if the team in question has a deep bench because then 40% training bonuses has to be assumed.