MFL System Loophole (1 Viewer)

[Birdie048]

I am the commissioner of a 12 Team 3 Player Keeper league. We are in our 4th year and we have encountered a loophole in the system. Small $$ ($25 each owner). Friendly, mostly local to Raleigh, NC league.

Our rules state that if an owner fails to provide a new line-up for any given week, his previous week's starting line-up will be used - our line-up submission By Law is listed below. However, since we had a Thursday game and an owner did not have a chance to submit a new line-up, the system rightly assumed his previous line-up. However, it also allowed him to go in to modify his starting line-up and replace a player who was in the previous week's starting line-up - Pitt RB Willie Parker. His score of 3.70 pts has been removed from his current score.

I have issued a note to the league stating that any future occurances like this will result in the line-up being locked once any game has started. Basicly stating that if you fail to provide a new/updated line-up, once any game starts, you can no longer make any changes to your current starting line-up.

Note: The owner notified me of this situation prior to his making the new line-up submission move. I asked him to go in to see how much the system would allow. There was no intentional deceit on his part. He asked me to correct this.

THOUGHTS? How would you handle this? How can we prevent it in the future?

The official wording from our By Laws:

Each owner is responsible for their own line-up submission each week. Failure to continually provide a competitive starting lineup each week could result in removal from the league. However, in the case of a "Family or Personal Emergency", the team owner can designate a friend to manage the team and make any and all necessary transactions to provide a competitive line-up. If they are unable to find a temporary replacement, the previous week's line-up will be used with the exception of Bye week players and players listed as Injured (I) or Out (O) who will be replaced with the highest rated player from the FBG weekly's projection. Notifying the league and/or Commissioner of the situation as soon as possible is recommended. This will be effective retro-actively for only 1 week and supersedes the Wednesday 12:00 pm "Official" Score ruling. Commissioner will accept phone calls to update line-ups and make a free agency acquisition, but will not make Waiver Wire bids or Trades on behalf of another player.

 

[Velvet Revolver]

His FWP score should stand.

The owners last weeks lineup had FWP in it and since he didnt prepare himself for a Thursday game he should not benefit from replacing FWP.

 

[PosterNutBag]

The answer seems obvious to me and that is that Willie Parker must remain in his lineup and the commish needs to set up MFL correctly to lock all players at the start time of their game. This is so cut and dry that I am surprised you are starting a thread about it. How could it be acceptable for a guy to take a player out of his lineup once he saw the player had a bad game?

 

[valhallan]

"This will be effective retro-actively for only 1 week". Does that mean owners can change lineups after games are played? If so, you're stuck letting him make this change but I would advise restructuring that rule in the future.

To prevent guys from manually removing starters who have already played, check your Weekly Lineup Options under Commissioner Settings. You should have it set to "Gametime - players are locked at scheduled kickoff of their game". This would allow him to adjust the rest of his lineup, but Parker would be locked in.

 

[austinke]

...the commish needs to set up MFL correctly...

that's the key here - the owner could do this because the league was set up to allow the owner to do this. change your league settings, and this problem goes away.in other words, this is not an "mfl loophole". it's a "your league setup loophole".

 

[stedman]

Lineup Submission Deadline:

Early - Players in early games are locked at kickoff of their game, other players are locked Sunday at 1PM ET

[

we use this selection

 

[The man on the moon]

i, as the commish of my league, have another situation.

Because in MFL, lineups do carry over, i had an owner who did not submit his lineup thinking that rothlisberger would automatically stay in. He probably should have thought that. However, he submitted his lineup after thursday's game was over and he couldn't put in rothlisberger. had he left his lineup alone, last weeks lineup would have carried over. am i wrong for thinking this is poor roster management? Part of me wants to put his qb in for him and give him a slap on the wrist, but at the same time, we've made owners aware that if there is a thursday game, that they need to make sure their players are in...

MFL clearly states that if no lineup is submitted, the previous weeks lineup will be used. because he did submit a lineup after the thursday game, that becomes null and void and rothlisberger becomes 'frozen'.

Advice please...

 

[The man on the moon]

I am the commissioner of a 12 Team 3 Player Keeper league. We are in our 4th year and we have encountered a loophole in the system. Small $$ ($25 each owner). Friendly, mostly local to Raleigh, NC league.

Our rules state that if an owner fails to provide a new line-up for any given week, his previous week's starting line-up will be used - our line-up submission By Law is listed below. However, since we had a Thursday game and an owner did not have a chance to submit a new line-up, the system rightly assumed his previous line-up. However, it also allowed him to go in to modify his starting line-up and replace a player who was in the previous week's starting line-up - Pitt RB Willie Parker. His score of 3.70 pts has been removed from his current score.

I have issued a note to the league stating that any future occurances like this will result in the line-up being locked once any game has started. Basicly stating that if you fail to provide a new/updated line-up, once any game starts, you can no longer make any changes to your current starting line-up.

Note: The owner notified me of this situation prior to his making the new line-up submission move. I asked him to go in to see how much the system would allow. There was no intentional deceit on his part. He asked me to correct this.

THOUGHTS? How would you handle this? How can we prevent it in the future?

The official wording from our By Laws:

Each owner is responsible for their own line-up submission each week. Failure to continually provide a competitive starting lineup each week could result in removal from the league. However, in the case of a "Family or Personal Emergency", the team owner can designate a friend to manage the team and make any and all necessary transactions to provide a competitive line-up. If they are unable to find a temporary replacement, the previous week's line-up will be used with the exception of Bye week players and players listed as Injured (I) or Out (O) who will be replaced with the highest rated player from the FBG weekly's projection. Notifying the league and/or Commissioner of the situation as soon as possible is recommended. This will be effective retro-actively for only 1 week and supersedes the Wednesday 12:00 pm "Official" Score ruling. Commissioner will accept phone calls to update line-ups and make a free agency acquisition, but will not make Waiver Wire bids or Trades on behalf of another player.

I believe FWP's points should stand. If an owner can't get to a computer to change his lineup he needs to take the appropriate measures to make sure his lineup is correct and what he wants. after the game, that player becomes frozen in the starting lineup.

 

[PosterNutBag]

Lineup Submission Deadline:

Early - Players in early games are locked at kickoff of their game, other players are locked Sunday at 1PM ET

[

we use this selection

My league uses the "Gametime" one (since it seems silly to lock players at 1pm if your gametime is later). Either one should have worked if this league had chosen one of them.Once logged in as commish, here is where you go in MFL to make these changes:

For Commissioners > Setup > Weekly Lineup Setup (listed under Transactions Setup at bottom right) .... then you have to pick from one of these 4 options:

Kickoff - All players are locked at scheduled kickoff time for first game of the week

Early - Players in early games are locked at kickoff of their game, other players are locked Sunday at 1PM ET

Gametime - Players are locked at scheduled kickoff of their game

Calendar - As specified on the league calendar

My assumption is that your league has the calendar option selected since the other 3 should not have allowed you to replace a player after his game started.

 

[valhallan]

i, as the commish of my league, have another situation. Because in MFL, lineups do carry over, i had an owner who did not submit his lineup thinking that rothlisberger would automatically stay in. He probably should have thought that. However, he submitted his lineup after thursday's game was over and he couldn't put in rothlisberger. had he left his lineup alone, last weeks lineup would have carried over. am i wrong for thinking this is poor roster management? Part of me wants to put his qb in for him and give him a slap on the wrist, but at the same time, we've made owners aware that if there is a thursday game, that they need to make sure their players are in...MFL clearly states that if no lineup is submitted, the previous weeks lineup will be used. because he did submit a lineup after the thursday game, that becomes null and void and rothlisberger becomes 'frozen'. Advice please...

So Roethlisberger was in via carryover from last week, he submitted a lineup after the game, and Roeth was pulled out by the system?

 

[PosterNutBag]

i, as the commish of my league, have another situation. Because in MFL, lineups do carry over, i had an owner who did not submit his lineup thinking that rothlisberger would automatically stay in. He probably should have thought that. However, he submitted his lineup after thursday's game was over and he couldn't put in rothlisberger. had he left his lineup alone, last weeks lineup would have carried over. am i wrong for thinking this is poor roster management? Part of me wants to put his qb in for him and give him a slap on the wrist, but at the same time, we've made owners aware that if there is a thursday game, that they need to make sure their players are in...MFL clearly states that if no lineup is submitted, the previous weeks lineup will be used. because he did submit a lineup after the thursday game, that becomes null and void and rothlisberger becomes 'frozen'. Advice please...

This doesn't make sense. If he submitted his lineup after the game was over, then BigBen should have already been locked and anyone in his lineup not in last week's game should have been submitted. This is not poor roster management on his part. BigBen should be locked and anyone else who did not play last night should be allowed to be changed. Just look at the Transactions log for this team if you question anything. You are getting too technical on this IMO. BigBen clearly is his QB this week.

 

[PosterNutBag]

So Roethlisberger was in via carryover from last week, he submitted a lineup after the game, and Roeth was pulled out by the system?

That is exactly why I said it doesn't make sense. MFL doesn't work that way in my experience.

 

[valhallan]

So Roethlisberger was in via carryover from last week, he submitted a lineup after the game, and Roeth was pulled out by the system?

That is exactly why I said it doesn't make sense. MFL doesn't work that way in my experience.

Agreed, I've never seen that happen. Roeth should definitely be the guy's QB.

 

[PosterNutBag]

So Roethlisberger was in via carryover from last week, he submitted a lineup after the game, and Roeth was pulled out by the system?

That is exactly why I said it doesn't make sense. MFL doesn't work that way in my experience.

Agreed, I've never seen that happen. Roeth should definitely be the guy's QB.

Yea...I think the commish of this league needs to look at the Transaction log for lineup submissions to make sure he has the story 100% straight b/c something doesn't sound right here.

 

[Birdie048]

Thank you for feedback. I admit that I am not the most proficient with MFL League Set-up configurations as a commissioner. This has been a "work in progress" for me. This is my 3rd year as commish and I have had numerous rules and by laws I have had to modify and create to enable this league to run smoothly. I have used the old thread about "Rules Every league should Have" as a foundation, but I still am finding things that need to be "repaired" .

Also, the owner was not looking to keep Parker out of his line-up. He was just updating the rest of his starting line-up and I asked him to test the system.

Valhallan - Thanks for the type of response I was looking for. I may be guilty that my post was not perfectly clear, but I have had to modify the rules too many times already.

 

[Birdie048]

To prevent guys from manually removing starters who have already played, check your Weekly Lineup Options under Commissioner Settings. You should have it set to "Gametime - players are locked at scheduled kickoff of their game". This would allow him to adjust the rest of his lineup, but Parker would be locked in.

I have confirmed that this is how it is set up. What am I missing? Also, no Partial Line-ups are allowed.

 

[Skipdog77]

i, as the commish of my league, have another situation.

Because in MFL, lineups do carry over, i had an owner who did not submit his lineup thinking that rothlisberger would automatically stay in. He probably should have thought that. However, he submitted his lineup after thursday's game was over and he couldn't put in rothlisberger. had he left his lineup alone, last weeks lineup would have carried over. am i wrong for thinking this is poor roster management? Part of me wants to put his qb in for him and give him a slap on the wrist, but at the same time, we've made owners aware that if there is a thursday game, that they need to make sure their players are in...

MFL clearly states that if no lineup is submitted, the previous weeks lineup will be used. because he did submit a lineup after the thursday game, that becomes null and void and rothlisberger becomes 'frozen'.

Advice please...

I don't believe this is automatically true. MFL allows you the option to set your league up to allow lineups to carry over or not. They do not carry over in my league, and the owners have to resubmit every week. Depends how the league is setup.

 

[PosterNutBag]

To prevent guys from manually removing starters who have already played, check your Weekly Lineup Options under Commissioner Settings. You should have it set to "Gametime - players are locked at scheduled kickoff of their game". This would allow him to adjust the rest of his lineup, but Parker would be locked in.

I have confirmed that this is how it is set up. What am I missing? Also, no Partial Line-ups are allowed.

I don't think you are missing anything, but you should also confirm the transaction log for the team in question just to make sure. It looks like you might be right that it is an MFL loophole. You need to email MFL about it (Help > Help Center) to find out why this is possible. I am thinking that maybe they don't use your previously submitted lineup until Monday night overnight when they update the standings. They should obviously just submit it for you at the start of the 1st game of the week instead (if I am right about the monday night thing) since otherwise they effectively are giving you the option to wait and see on a player in a game.

 

[PosterNutBag]

i, as the commish of my league, have another situation.

Because in MFL, lineups do carry over, i had an owner who did not submit his lineup thinking that rothlisberger would automatically stay in. He probably should have thought that. However, he submitted his lineup after thursday's game was over and he couldn't put in rothlisberger. had he left his lineup alone, last weeks lineup would have carried over. am i wrong for thinking this is poor roster management? Part of me wants to put his qb in for him and give him a slap on the wrist, but at the same time, we've made owners aware that if there is a thursday game, that they need to make sure their players are in...

MFL clearly states that if no lineup is submitted, the previous weeks lineup will be used. because he did submit a lineup after the thursday game, that becomes null and void and rothlisberger becomes 'frozen'.

Advice please...

I don't believe this is automatically true. MFL allows you the option to set your league up to allow lineups to carry over or not. They do not carry over in my league, and the owners have to resubmit every week. Depends how the league is setup.

I agree, but it's already been established that the person asking the original question has his league set up this way (for lineups to carry over.There are 3 options under the copying previous lineups option:

As Soon As The Previous Week's Final Results Are Available

As Soon As Preliminary (Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) Results Are Available

As Soon As Final (Monday) Results Are Available

Maybe it is possible that the league in question has it set up with the 3rd option (if true, then this would create the loophole most likely). My league has it set up with the 1st option.

 

[David Yudkin]

The best way to avoid this in the future is to use the MFL setting that resubmits the previous week's lineup as soon as the preceding week is over (which usually translates to 12:01 Tuesday morning after Monday night games.

That way no one can beef when their players are or are not in the lineup. I realize that this does not help for last night's game, but that is the easiest solution to avoid stuff like this.

A similar situation happened to me that caused our leagues to change the rules for lineup submissions. Last year or the year before I had not yet submitted a lineup and went to do so at kickoff on Thanksgiving. I missed the start by about 2 minutes, so players in that game were locked. I had Kevin Jones in my roster the week before but he was out for the game on Thanksgiving. I clearly was not going to start a player declared inactive two days earlier and submitted my lineup without Jones in it.

Unless the setting is entered by the commish, the MFL system will only use last week's lineup at the end of the day . . . NOT at kickoff. So what I did set up the hypothetical situation that I could have opted to leave my player in, see how well he did, and THEN decide to replace him or not. Thus why we went to the solution I mentioned above . . .

 

[PosterNutBag]

The best way to avoid this in the future is to use the MFL setting that resubmits the previous week's lineup as soon as the preceding week is over (which usually translates to 12:01 Tuesday morning after Monday night games.That way no one can beef when their players are or are not in the lineup. I realize that this does not help for last night's game, but that is the easiest solution to avoid stuff like this.A similar situation happened to me that caused our leagues to change the rules for lineup submissions. Last year or the year before I had not yet submitted a lineup and went to do so at kickoff on Thanksgiving. I missed the start by about 2 minutes, so players in that game were locked. I had Kevin Jones in my roster the week before but he was out for the game on Thanksgiving. I clearly was not going to start a player declared inactive two days earlier and submitted my lineup without Jones in it.Unless the setting is entered by the commish, the MFL system will only use last week's lineup at the end of the day . . . NOT at kickoff. So what I did set up the hypothetical situation that I could have opted to leave my player in, see how well he did, and THEN decide to replace him or not. Thus why we went to the solution I mentioned above . . .

It sounds like this confirms the problem. The "As Soon As The Previous Week's Final Results Are Available" is the one that needs to be selected. Hopefully the original poster will reply and let us know that he did not have this option selected.

 

[Birdie048]

The best way to avoid this in the future is to use the MFL setting that resubmits the previous week's lineup as soon as the preceding week is over (which usually translates to 12:01 Tuesday morning after Monday night games.That way no one can beef when their players are or are not in the lineup. I realize that this does not help for last night's game, but that is the easiest solution to avoid stuff like this.A similar situation happened to me that caused our leagues to change the rules for lineup submissions. Last year or the year before I had not yet submitted a lineup and went to do so at kickoff on Thanksgiving. I missed the start by about 2 minutes, so players in that game were locked. I had Kevin Jones in my roster the week before but he was out for the game on Thanksgiving. I clearly was not going to start a player declared inactive two days earlier and submitted my lineup without Jones in it.Unless the setting is entered by the commish, the MFL system will only use last week's lineup at the end of the day . . . NOT at kickoff. So what I did set up the hypothetical situation that I could have opted to leave my player in, see how well he did, and THEN decide to replace him or not. Thus why we went to the solution I mentioned above . . .

It sounds like this confirms the problem. The "As Soon As The Previous Week's Final Results Are Available" is the one that needs to be selected. Hopefully the original poster will reply and let us know that he did not have this option selected.

Currently, ours is set to carry over the previous weeks line-up "As soon as Final Results are available (Monday)". I just adjusted to "As Soon As The Previous Week's Final Results Are Available". I will have the owner attempt to "adjust Willie Parker from his line-up again. I will edit when he gives me his feedback! THANKS! This is the type of help that makes these boards a great place to roam!!ETA: This works!! He could not take Parker out of his starting line-up. He could still adjust the rest of his line-up though. Thanks again.

 

[Scarpaggio]

I am in the league with The Man on the Moon and I find it odd also. Now our setting might not be set to carry over correctly(I don't have access to that stuff) but what is odd to me is that I updated MFL Game Day last night and I did notice that the rothlisberger owner did have him in. When someone brought up the issue this morning that he wasn't then in I didn't understand what he was talking about. I have yet to update the lineups on MFL Game Day today and went and looked at the rosters. I recently had a trade where I got Kevin Smith and the Roethlesberger owner got Eddie Royal from me. Game Day is showing that Smith is on both rosters and Royal isn't on anyones roster. This was all as of last night sometime in the 1st qtr of the game. This makes me think that MFL did keep his roster lineup from last week since he didn't submit it before game time, and then went and put in royal later since he now has him in his lineup on the MFL site.

 

[The man on the moon]

thanks for all your input. The thing about MFL is that it does state that when the owner does not put a lineup in, the previous weeks lineup will be submitted. I can see where many would think that that would go on a game by game basis if that's how your league is set up. I.E. roth plays on thursday and the owner started him the previous week, so automatically roth gets inserted into this lineup. This owner waited until after Pitts game to submit a lineup because of a trade. Our rules state that once a game has started, the players for that game are frozen regardless. had he not submitted a lineup all weekend, roth would have been in. Because he did do a trade, in order to get that player into his lineup, he had to resubmit his lineup without roth in it. This left him no option to keep Roth in because it wasn't inputted prior to the games beginning.

 

[Birdie048]

I guess it would help to point out that prior to changing from "As soon as Final Results are available (Monday)"

to "As Soon As The Previous Week's Final Results Are Available", Parker's submission box was not highlighted with a check and the owner could not do anything with it. He was not in is starting line-up nor could he be added once the game was played since his previous weeks line up was carried over.

This could be a common problem on carry over line-ups. "As soon as Previous Week's Final Resultws are Available" might solve the problem.

 

[Neil Beaufort Zod]

I'm sorry if I'm confused here...but Parker is still scored for the guy this week, right? Just because he was able to take him out, you put him back in and counted Parker for him?

 

[PosterNutBag]

I guess it would help to point out that prior to changing from "As soon as Final Results are available (Monday)"to "As Soon As The Previous Week's Final Results Are Available", Parker's submission box was not highlighted with a check and the owner could not do anything with it. He was not in is starting line-up nor could he be added once the game was played since his previous weeks line up was carried over. This could be a common problem on carry over line-ups. "As soon as Previous Week's Final Resultws are Available" might solve the problem.

It will solved the problem going forward, but not for this week since you selected to use that option after the final results for the prior week were available. In your case, the commish needs to put Parker in his lineup manually. Parker's lineup submission box should not be highlighted for the owner in question in both cases since his game is already done for the week.

 

[Birdie048]

I guess it would help to point out that prior to changing from "As soon as Final Results are available (Monday)"to "As Soon As The Previous Week's Final Results Are Available", Parker's submission box was not highlighted with a check and the owner could not do anything with it. He was not in is starting line-up nor could he be added once the game was played since his previous weeks line up was carried over. This could be a common problem on carry over line-ups. "As soon as Previous Week's Final Resultws are Available" might solve the problem.

It will solved the problem going forward, but not for this week since you selected to use that option after the final results for the prior week were available. In your case, the commish needs to put Parker in his lineup manually. Parker's lineup submission box should not be highlighted for the owner in question in both cases since his game is already done for the week.

Yes, I am the Commissioner and I discussed with the Owner that Parker would be included in his starting line-up for this week. He was not upset and understood this should not have been permitted in the first place. I returned him to his starting lineup using Commissioner role since he could not do it himself. Parker's 3.7 pts will count this week towards his total score. FWIW: he and I are tied for 1st in our division at 8-3. He holds the scoring edge, but I hold the H2H tie breaker.

 

[PosterNutBag]

I guess it would help to point out that prior to changing from "As soon as Final Results are available (Monday)"to "As Soon As The Previous Week's Final Results Are Available", Parker's submission box was not highlighted with a check and the owner could not do anything with it. He was not in is starting line-up nor could he be added once the game was played since his previous weeks line up was carried over. This could be a common problem on carry over line-ups. "As soon as Previous Week's Final Resultws are Available" might solve the problem.

It will solved the problem going forward, but not for this week since you selected to use that option after the final results for the prior week were available. In your case, the commish needs to put Parker in his lineup manually. Parker's lineup submission box should not be highlighted for the owner in question in both cases since his game is already done for the week.

Yes, I am the Commissioner and I discussed with the Owner that Parker would be included in his starting line-up for this week. He was not upset and understood this should not have been permitted in the first place. I returned him to his starting lineup using Commissioner role since he could not do it himself. Parker's 3.7 pts will count this week towards his total score. FWIW: he and I are tied for 1st in our division at 8-3. He holds the scoring edge, but I hold the H2H tie breaker.

I am glad he is not upset. It stinks that you are involved with the situation in that you are tied with him for first, but it is in the end not at all relevant and you are doing a good job as commish in handling this situation the way you are.