League Issue (1 Viewer)

[leonardkakos]

We had a big issue in my big money league this past week and am looking for some commissioner advice from anyone. 1 owner was fighting to get into the playoffs and the other was out of the running...the one out of the running left Josh Freeman in his lineup and had Mike Vick on the bench...so no other player on bench to move into the line up...he never bothered putting a claim in for any QB and never made a free agent move to get one on game day.

If you are the commissioner do you just go pick a player for him?(I think not cause it effects waiver protocol for the coming week)

I have always stated that as a commissioner I would never do this and I chose not to but now I am asking the masses on what you think?

What I can tell you is I know there is no collusion going on to give anyone a free win because I was the team who needed to get in who was facing the Josh Freeman team and the guys brother who needed me to lose is also in this league and also knows in 13 years I have never pulled a player from the pool after 1pm kickoffs on Sunday. Neither of them are complaining of course but 2 other teams who need me to lose are. Let me add that only 2 QB available would of given me a lose Ponder and Orlowsky...My margin of victory has high enough to beat all the others. The top QB's available week 13 were Moore, Grossman, Hassleback, T Jackson and McCoy before kickoff 1pm.

A league vote was made in my favor but again I am still looking for future commissioner advice...did I handle this all wrong? I was not aware of Josh Freeman not playing until 2pm when I got the 1st call from one of the teams who needed me to lose...my excuse...my 1st cousin was getting married and I never heard the news of him not starting to warn the other team like I usually would.

 

[shnikies]

Have everyone throw in a certain amount extra, $25 or $50, to the league. If it's 10 team league use it to pay the high scorer for each of the final 10 weeks of the regular season or if it's a 12 team league, the final 12 weeks. That should help keep it competitive.

 

[Bruce Leroy]

As commish I created the "Toilet Bowl" where all teams not making the playoffs have a chance at receiving their initial entrance fee by running the table in the consolation playoffs.

Win the consolation round and win your entrance fee. I also like "paying the highest scoring team" too. Between those 2 options, it should keep everyone interested.

 

[leonardkakos]

As commish I created the "Toilet Bowl" where all teams not making the playoffs have a chance at receiving their initial entrance fee by running the table in the consolation playoffs.Win the consolation round and win your entrance fee. I also like "paying the highest scoring team" too. Between those 2 options, it should keep everyone interested.

I like your idea but that would start once the "real" fantasy playoffs start right in week 14...I need to keep owners interested in weeks 12 and 13 maybe even 10 and 11. I like the weekly prize thing but maybe only for weeks 10-13...when some guys just know they have no shot but may still be interested if there was reason to be...I just don't get why some teams would choose to not put there best team forward for the league.

 

[footballnerd]

Penalize the last two teams. Last place is 75% of league fees, 2nd to last is 50%. Take that money and make a prize using the earlier suggestions.

 

[Tchula]

you dont have head to head play each week. instead each team plays every other team every week. in a 12 team league you have 11 matches per week

 

[leonardkakos]

you dont have head to head play each week. instead each team plays every other team every week. in a 12 team league you have 11 matches per week

this I do not understand please give more detail in a 12 team league

 

[leonardkakos]

Penalize the last two teams. Last place is 75% of league fees, 2nd to last is 50%. Take that money and make a prize using the earlier suggestions.

yes but in this case the Josh Freeman owner is not the 11th or 12th place team...he finished 9th and 6 teams get into our playoffs of the 12. He just had no shot to get to 6th place where teams ranked from 4th to 8th all had some kind of a shot based on who wins and loses and season point totals going into week 14.

 

[Neil Beaufort Zod]

I think you handled it "all wrong" by putting it to a league vote. It's always funny when a commissioner fels guilty because something happened that helped his team-- as if he's supposed to do everything in his power to hurt his own chances. You even calculated whether you would have won based on what QBs were on the waiver wire? Why not send the league an apology for making the playofs and promise to try to avoid it in the future?

Aside from those shenanigans, you can help create interest at the end of the season by either punishing losing or rewarding winning. You could set next year's draft order by how well you finish instead of how poorly...giving zero incentive to tank and all the incentive in the world to finish strong and add a couple of wins to their record.

If that's not palatable, set up a special payout for the team that finishes with the most total points over the last four weeks of the regular season, and only teams that miss the playoffs are eligible to win it. That way weeks 11-14 have a little meaning if you don't play in weeks 15 and 16.

 

[footballnerd]

Penalize the last two teams. Last place is 75% of league fees, 2nd to last is 50%. Take that money and make a prize using the earlier suggestions.

yes but in this case the Josh Freeman owner is not the 11th or 12th place team...he finished 9th and 6 teams get into our playoffs of the 12. He just had no shot to get to 6th place where teams ranked from 4th to 8th all had some kind of a shot based on who wins and loses and season point totals going into week 14.

penalize the last 6 teams..... weekly high points is a decent solution. seeding with a 1st round bye for the toilet bowl for small prize money (maybe have those out of the playoffs throw in extra cash to fund this)another would be splitting into divisions, top 3 of each div goes in, and penalizing the last of each division.

 

[glumpy]

The weekly top score bonus is a good one which we use, plus we've got bonuses for best first half and best second half records. You could expand the playoffs to 7 teams (#1 seed bye) or 8 teams on a three week playoff system which would likely help all but the worst season disasters.

 

[LittlePhatty]

We have weekly payouts for the highest score that week. But we still have a few people who flake out towards the end and stop trying. I don't know why. Even if they are 0/12 they could wind up winning money that week simply by taking 30 seconds to manage their lineup. But they don't. So, if winning money doesn't motivate them, I don't think much else will.

 

[huntunc]

I'm proposing in my big league, that the low scorer each week has to put an additional $10 in the pot. This should help alleviate the not caring part of things. That said, in a keeper league he probably wouldn't have done anything even if he was paying attention b/c wouldn't want to drop someone just for the sake of a useless QB in a meaningless game.

 

[leonardkakos]

I think you handled it "all wrong" by putting it to a league vote. It's always funny when a commissioner fels guilty because something happened that helped his team-- as if he's supposed to do everything in his power to hurt his own chances. You even calculated whether you would have won based on what QBs were on the waiver wire? Why not send the league an apology for making the playofs and promise to try to avoid it in the future?Aside from those shenanigans, you can help create interest at the end of the season by either punishing losing or rewarding winning. You could set next year's draft order by how well you finish instead of how poorly...giving zero incentive to tank and all the incentive in the world to finish strong and add a couple of wins to their record. If that's not palatable, set up a special payout for the team that finishes with the most total points over the last four weeks of the regular season, and only teams that miss the playoffs are eligible to win it. That way weeks 11-14 have a little meaning if you don't play in weeks 15 and 16.

Lol oh I never put it to a vote...the 2 #######s did and they got shot down. And yes I do always feel that it's me against this league at times being the commissioner...to be honest the call at 2pm was a threat to knock me out if he lost due to me and the Josh Freeman owner "cheating" and "sandbaggin"...he would personally come to my house if I did not change Freeman out for a 4pm QB or later QB that was available(short list was McCoy, Feeley and Gabbert which would of not helped his argument) I told him I was not changing anything per league rules as stated he may believe what he likes but it makes no sense when the Freeman owners brother also needs me to lose to get in. Anyways that guy just earned himself a ticket out of the league for talking to me like that and he will be replaced easily.

 

[leonardkakos]

I'm proposing in my big league, that the low scorer each week has to put an additional $10 in the pot. This should help alleviate the not caring part of things. That said, in a keeper league he probably wouldn't have done anything even if he was paying attention b/c wouldn't want to drop someone just for the sake of a useless QB in a meaningless game.

Agreed but not a keeper it's redraft...I would never expect an owner to drop someone on his roster in a meaningless game especially if the guys he has have value for next year.

 

[Tchula]

you dont have head to head play each week. instead each team plays every other team every week. in a 12 team league you have 11 matches per week

this I do not understand please give more detail in a 12 team league

High scorer every week would have 11 wins and low scorer every week would have 11 losses. second highest scorer is 10-1 for the week, etc. If someone has a bad lineup it effects every other team equally.

 

[stugnut]

1. Kick that owner out at the end of the season. Once you weed out the lazy owners this problem will mostly go away.

2. Hold a toilet bowl for the bottom teams. The winner of the toilet bowl gets to rename the loser of the toilet bowl and the loser has to keep that name for the whole season the following year. No one wants to lose the toilet bowl and get renamed to, oh, "My mom sets my lineup" or "I ##### #####".

 

[leonardkakos]

you dont have head to head play each week. instead each team plays every other team every week. in a 12 team league you have 11 matches per week

this I do not understand please give more detail in a 12 team league

High scorer every week would have 11 wins and low scorer every week would have 11 losses. second highest scorer is 10-1 for the week, etc. If someone has a bad lineup it effects every other team equally.

Sounds like you may be referring to power rankings...this is available on sportsline.com and can be used for ranking a season.

 

[Neil Beaufort Zod]

I think you handled it "all wrong" by putting it to a league vote. It's always funny when a commissioner fels guilty because something happened that helped his team-- as if he's supposed to do everything in his power to hurt his own chances. You even calculated whether you would have won based on what QBs were on the waiver wire? Why not send the league an apology for making the playofs and promise to try to avoid it in the future?Aside from those shenanigans, you can help create interest at the end of the season by either punishing losing or rewarding winning. You could set next year's draft order by how well you finish instead of how poorly...giving zero incentive to tank and all the incentive in the world to finish strong and add a couple of wins to their record. If that's not palatable, set up a special payout for the team that finishes with the most total points over the last four weeks of the regular season, and only teams that miss the playoffs are eligible to win it. That way weeks 11-14 have a little meaning if you don't play in weeks 15 and 16.

Lol oh I never put it to a vote...the 2 #######s did and they got shot down. And yes I do always feel that it's me against this league at times being the commissioner...to be honest the call at 2pm was a threat to knock me out if he lost due to me and the Josh Freeman owner "cheating" and "sandbaggin"...he would personally come to my house if I did not change Freeman out for a 4pm QB or later QB that was available(short list was McCoy, Feeley and Gabbert which would of not helped his argument) I told him I was not changing anything per league rules as stated he may believe what he likes but it makes no sense when the Freeman owners brother also needs me to lose to get in. Anyways that guy just earned himself a ticket out of the league for talking to me like that and he will be replaced easily.

Sorry, I misunderstood. Glad you stood up for yourself. Funny how we use the "go to his house and punch him in the face" joke to resolve disputes...and here's somebody who was serious about making that threat.

 

[Neil Beaufort Zod]

1. Kick that owner out at the end of the season. Once you weed out the lazy owners this problem will mostly go away.2. Hold a toilet bowl for the bottom teams. The winner of the toilet bowl gets to rename the loser of the toilet bowl and the loser has to keep that name for the whole season the following year. No one wants to lose the toilet bowl and get renamed to, oh, "My mom sets my lineup" or "I ##### #####".

It's not laziness. It's a lack of incentive, and it's common enough that you'd just be rotating teams over and over. I don't like the weekly high score thing because if a team isn't good enough to make the playoffs it's not exactly likely to win a weekly prize. Sure, anything could happen, but I'm not sure it's a real incentive. A bad team could go off but probably won't. I don't think that will encourage people to be active.

 

[Alkahsu]

My league gives weekly prizes to the highest scorer, it keeps people interested. Last year the worst team in the league scored the most points in the last week of the season so even he won something.

 

[dagwood]

Why do you all bend over backwards to offer carrots to get the idiot interested.

If he can't take 5 minutes to create and turn in a lineup for the week, then he should be not asked to return next year.

Pretty simple.

 

[belljr]

Does it cost money for transactions?

 

[belljr]

you dont have head to head play each week. instead each team plays every other team every week. in a 12 team league you have 11 matches per week

this I do not understand please give more detail in a 12 team league

High scorer every week would have 11 wins and low scorer every week would have 11 losses. second highest scorer is 10-1 for the week, etc. If someone has a bad lineup it effects every other team equally.

Sounds like you may be referring to power rankings...this is available on sportsline.com and can be used for ranking a season.

no its rottisserie scoring, you have 11 games a week. We have one league do this and its pretty fun

 

[leonardkakos]

Does it cost money for transactions?

NO

 

[belljr]

Does it cost money for transactions?

NO

Ok I wouldnt make a team out of it have to pay, was curious

 

[Hipple Long Ware & Peete]

In one of my leagues we have a 'toilet bowl' where the non playoff teams battle for the #1 pick next year. teams 2-7 are thrown in a lottery for picks 2-7.We also expanded the playoffs to 6 teams with a bye going to 1/2 1st round. Even teams that fall out of contention early stay active because waiver wire moves are often very important if you still have a chance to play for the number one pick next year (giving them something to play for b/c they don't have to keep up with the playoff teams, they just have to try and be better than the 7th -9th place teams.

 

[Hipple Long Ware & Peete]

We have weekly payouts for the highest score that week. But we still have a few people who flake out towards the end and stop trying. I don't know why. Even if they are 0/12 they could wind up winning money that week simply by taking 30 seconds to manage their lineup. But they don't. So, if winning money doesn't motivate them, I don't think much else will.

we do this too, but they are often so defeated emotionally from being thumped repeatedly that they don't see it a much incentive (because of the low % that their 2-8 squad is going to beat out the 8-2 /9-1 squads. But when they are vying for a prize with other sub 500 teams (a goal they think they can still reach) they stay more active and involved.

 

[Hipple Long Ware & Peete]

I think you handled it "all wrong" by putting it to a league vote. It's always funny when a commissioner fels guilty because something happened that helped his team-- as if he's supposed to do everything in his power to hurt his own chances. You even calculated whether you would have won based on what QBs were on the waiver wire? Why not send the league an apology for making the playofs and promise to try to avoid it in the future?Aside from those shenanigans, you can help create interest at the end of the season by either punishing losing or rewarding winning. You could set next year's draft order by how well you finish instead of how poorly...giving zero incentive to tank and all the incentive in the world to finish strong and add a couple of wins to their record. If that's not palatable, set up a special payout for the team that finishes with the most total points over the last four weeks of the regular season, and only teams that miss the playoffs are eligible to win it. That way weeks 11-14 have a little meaning if you don't play in weeks 15 and 16.

Lol oh I never put it to a vote...the 2 #######s did and they got shot down. And yes I do always feel that it's me against this league at times being the commissioner...to be honest the call at 2pm was a threat to knock me out if he lost due to me and the Josh Freeman owner "cheating" and "sandbaggin"...he would personally come to my house if I did not change Freeman out for a 4pm QB or later QB that was available(short list was McCoy, Feeley and Gabbert which would of not helped his argument) I told him I was not changing anything per league rules as stated he may believe what he likes but it makes no sense when the Freeman owners brother also needs me to lose to get in. Anyways that guy just earned himself a ticket out of the league for talking to me like that and he will be replaced easily.

Why didn't they take 1/10 of that time and just call the guy and tell him to pick up a qb?

 

[NYRAGE]

I've done two things in my league:

1) The Consolation Bowl Teams 5-8 play each other in weeks 15-16. The winner of this mini-tournament plays the loser of both games from our playoffs for 4th place in week 17. That's worth about 10% of the pot ($250).

2) The top 10 teams get to play in the NFL Playoffs tournament. Everyone can keep 3 players from their roster and we hold a draft a couple of days before the NFL Playoffs start. That's also worth 10% of the pot. Week 17 scores determines the draft order.

That 20% gets taken away from the pot for the top 4 playoff teams, but everyone loves the way we do it now. Not only does it extend our season into week 17 and the 4 weeks of NFL playoffs, but it keeps everyone interested until the end of the regular season. People try to make the top 8 and top 10. They even care about the seeding and their rosters since they have to name 3 keepers.

As far as starting injured players goes, we all want to be in the most competitive league. If 1 or 2 owners are careless with their line-ups, everyone else is not happy. Thus repeat offenders are not asked back into the league. We are also considering having a Gladiator Bowl this year. The two worst teams face off for the right to stay in the league. The loser is gone unless the owners vote a thumb's up to let that losing owner stay in the league.

 

[mjr]

We have a toilet bowl as well. Winner of that gets $40 and a comp pick. $5/week to high scoring team. Division winners get $40. Point leader after week 17 games wins $60. 3rd place gets $75. Second gets $100. Champ gets $200. All of that keeps everyone interested throughout the year in our league.

If none of that works, then your problem isn't your set up. It's your owners.

 

[Jersey35]

We offer a weekly prize (10$ of entry) for the highest scoring starter each week. One of the problems with offering a prize for the high scoring team each week is that the teams you are trying to incentivise are the teams least likely to win this prize.

Additionally, once an individual player wins the award, he is ineligible to win again. For example, Rodgers won it in our league in week 4, he was therefore ineligible to win it in weeks 9 & 11 when he qualified again (if I remember correctly). This prevents the whole "rich get richer" problem that can occur.

Another idea, since you are redraft, is to tie draft picks the following season to teams' finish this season. But not by giving the Superbowl winner the #1, last place #12, etc. That's possibly too great an advantage and could create resentment.

Instead, give each team the choice of draft spot, based on their finish - Superbowl winner gets first choice, and so on. It's plenty of incentive, yet doesn't necessarily confer the same advantage that straight slotting would.

 

[Topes]

I was not aware of Josh Freeman not playing until 2pm when I got the 1st call from one of the teams who needed me to lose...my excuse...my 1st cousin was getting married and I never heard the news of him not starting to warn the other team like I usually would.

You don't need an excuse for not noticing another owner has entered a scratch into his starting lineup.Unless you make a practice out of warning owners in such cases, as you suggest you have.mad move. Once you start doing that, you become almost responsible for doing so. Babysitting is bad. Babysitting in a money league is worse.

 

[Herm23]

We do a few things in both of my leagues that I run that help make sure this problem never comes up (and so far, it never has). Some of this is only doable because they are keeper/dynasty leagues, but much of it still applies.

- Weekly high score payout (as someone mentioned). While in an ideal world everyone would pay attention and set a lineup for the sake of integrity, this is far from an ideal world and you have to account for some owners having multiple teams and becoming disinterested in the league in which they are struggling. Also helps if you are able to make the weekly payout high enough that it is actually worthwhile to the owners ($25 and up).

- Toilet bowl playoffs decide odds in our draft lottery for the following year. This gives teams enough incentive to attempt to position themselves better for the toilet bowl playoffs, as even 1 win can increase your chances of landing a better draft spot.

- We penalize any team who doesn't submit a full lineup due to apathy. We have not had to do it yet, but our rules state that if someone is known to be out and is played by a team, that team forfeits a draft pick (I won't get into the specifics of how high of a draft pick as it gets more complicated from there). This can be difficult to enforce if you don't have a good, logical, level headed group of owners because someone can always say they thought a player was going to play, however in the example used, Josh Freeman was known to be out before the weekend hit, making it easy to know to bench him. Maybe in your particular league you would want to tailor the rule to say that any player that is ruled out before the weekend that is played will cost the team a draft pick?

- The last and by far the most important thing we do is generally just harbor an atmosphere that causes owners to want to check in to the league site at least once a week. Whether it's posting our own power rankings (and accompanied column generally making fun of everyone) or posting polls or posting thoughts on possible rule changes for next year or just general trash talking, we make sure our league is always active and posting, essentially forcing all the owners to check in to read and/or take part. Once they are there to read various columns, message board posts, polls, etc..., they naturally will set their lineup even if they are 0-12. As the commissioner, if you have owners that are checking out once their team is eliminated, I recommend coming up with ways to keep people more engaged and keep the league active. Generally people that disappear during the season only do so because they become disinterested with the league, not because their team is bad.

 

[LargeMouthBass]

Weekly high score getting paid might work. Try that and if that doesn't work, start finding better managers. I hate managers that give out free wins.

 

[bonesman]

1. Kick that owner out at the end of the season. Once you weed out the lazy owners this problem will mostly go away.2. Hold a toilet bowl for the bottom teams. The winner of the toilet bowl gets to rename the loser of the toilet bowl and the loser has to keep that name for the whole season the following year. No one wants to lose the toilet bowl and get renamed to, oh, "My mom sets my lineup" or "I ##### #####".

It's not laziness. It's a lack of incentive, and it's common enough that you'd just be rotating teams over and over. I don't like the weekly high score thing because if a team isn't good enough to make the playoffs it's not exactly likely to win a weekly prize. Sure, anything could happen, but I'm not sure it's a real incentive. A bad team could go off but probably won't. I don't think that will encourage people to be active.

Agreed, top score $$$ is a poor incentive for what you're going for.

 

[Topes]

1. Kick that owner out at the end of the season. Once you weed out the lazy owners this problem will mostly go away.2. Hold a toilet bowl for the bottom teams. The winner of the toilet bowl gets to rename the loser of the toilet bowl and the loser has to keep that name for the whole season the following year. No one wants to lose the toilet bowl and get renamed to, oh, "My mom sets my lineup" or "I ##### #####".

It's not laziness. It's a lack of incentive, and it's common enough that you'd just be rotating teams over and over. I don't like the weekly high score thing because if a team isn't good enough to make the playoffs it's not exactly likely to win a weekly prize. Sure, anything could happen, but I'm not sure it's a real incentive. A bad team could go off but probably won't. I don't think that will encourage people to be active.

Staying in the league should be incentive enough.It sometimes gets tiresome seeing thread after thread of leagues trying to keep owners interested.

Maybe booting folks is the best course..?

I dunno. I really loathe when folks miss lineup deadlines and such. It's laziness. It's disinterest. Yes.

But leagues shouldn't be held hostage to keeping losers interested.

Playing the game, if only to be spoiler, should be its own reward.

Bottom line is that slacking is disrespectful to the league and other owners.

I know it's just a fantasy, but owners should keep up their end of the bargain, and realize what tools they're being by mismanaging their teams after they're eliminated, no matter what half-baked passive-aggressive "fairness"-predicated whine-fest they may have jammed in their cram.

 

[Neil Beaufort Zod]

1. Kick that owner out at the end of the season. Once you weed out the lazy owners this problem will mostly go away.2. Hold a toilet bowl for the bottom teams. The winner of the toilet bowl gets to rename the loser of the toilet bowl and the loser has to keep that name for the whole season the following year. No one wants to lose the toilet bowl and get renamed to, oh, "My mom sets my lineup" or "I ##### #####".

It's not laziness. It's a lack of incentive, and it's common enough that you'd just be rotating teams over and over. I don't like the weekly high score thing because if a team isn't good enough to make the playoffs it's not exactly likely to win a weekly prize. Sure, anything could happen, but I'm not sure it's a real incentive. A bad team could go off but probably won't. I don't think that will encourage people to be active.

Staying in the league should be incentive enough.It sometimes gets tiresome seeing thread after thread of leagues trying to keep owners interested.

Maybe booting folks is the best course..?

I dunno. I really loathe when folks miss lineup deadlines and such. It's laziness. It's disinterest. Yes.

But leagues shouldn't be held hostage to keeping losers interested.

Playing the game, if only to be spoiler, should be its own reward.

Bottom line is that slacking is disrespectful to the league and other owners.

I know it's just a fantasy, but owners should keep up their end of the bargain, and realize what tools they're being by mismanaging their teams after they're eliminated, no matter what half-baked passive-aggressive "fairness"-predicated whine-fest they may have jammed in their cram.

I agree, but most leagues discourage what you're promoting here. There are so many fantasy leagues now, most of them are just people thrown together for the opportunity to win some money. They aren't great friends and the "pride" of winning isn't enough. Some guys are in a dozen leagues. They don't have 121 close friends. Since people only play for money, they don't have any pride when they're out of it. They abandon their teams because it was just a chance to win some cash. I don't think leagues made up of really good friends have the same problems as more casual leagues where it's just a bunch of people from work or a buddy's league that had an opening in August. Not saying it never happens, but it's less likely when they really play for pride or for the camaraderie.

 

[kinghill]

Some good suggestions above BUT no matter what you do (toilet bowl, weekly high score money, etc) you'll still have this problem occasionally.

Had similiar issue in week 13. 7th place team was playing the 4th place guy fighting for a playoff spot, 7th place team left Leinart (on IR) as his starting QB. I saw it Sunday morning WHILE the 7th place team was logged into MFL, so I figured he was setting his lineup then, but he never changed it. Nor has he spoke up and given an excuse since then. 7th place team lost by 12 points and if he would have started Sanchez, he would've won. It reaaaaaallly affected about 3 teams chances at the playoffs.

In the leagues I commish, if I see my opponent hasn't set a lineup, I send a public message to chat/email saying something like "don't go easy on me". I'm sure part of the reason I do that is a fear of being labeled a cheating commish? In leagues I'm not commish I don't care at all if my opponent doesn't set a lineup, hell i root for it. Anyone else like this?

 

[Jersey35]

1. Kick that owner out at the end of the season. Once you weed out the lazy owners this problem will mostly go away.2. Hold a toilet bowl for the bottom teams. The winner of the toilet bowl gets to rename the loser of the toilet bowl and the loser has to keep that name for the whole season the following year. No one wants to lose the toilet bowl and get renamed to, oh, "My mom sets my lineup" or "I ##### #####".

It's not laziness. It's a lack of incentive, and it's common enough that you'd just be rotating teams over and over. I don't like the weekly high score thing because if a team isn't good enough to make the playoffs it's not exactly likely to win a weekly prize. Sure, anything could happen, but I'm not sure it's a real incentive. A bad team could go off but probably won't. I don't think that will encourage people to be active.

Agreed, top score $$$ is a poor incentive for what you're going for.

Agreed. This is why I advocated weekly top-starter given to with the highest scoring individual player in their lineup. It's far less likely to be directly correlated with the best team(s) on a weekly basis. An additional twist is that each individual player is only eligible to win once, which prevents owners from monopolizing the award with Aaron Rodgers, hehe.

 

[netnalp]

In my league the final standings of the non-playoff teams determines the order of them getting to choose where they draft in next years draft. The order goes from the best non-playoff team record to last, then from last place finish in the playoffs to first place finish. (14 teams. 7th place gets 1st choice - 14th place; then 6th place - 1st place in the playoffs.)

This set up prevents teams from tanking too.

We tried ways to keep non-playoff teams interested during the 3 week playoffs, but, most felt "I'm PO'd my team sucked, don't extend the suffering by making me play in some lame playoff for crap teams."