GregR_2
Footballguy
Edit: To quote joffer below, this thread is not this is what your rules should be, but this is what your rules should cover. Though I may give what I think is the best way for the rules to handle a situation based on the actual problems people post about, the important thing is that your rules handle the situation, somehow.
Every year commissioners post for advice and impartial opinions on issues they encounter. I read most of these threads and the problems are seldom new ones. I think there are a set of rules that every league should consider having that will avoid the most frequent issues. Here are the ones that came to mind. I'd like to see any that people can think of that I've missed, as I'm always trying to make sure my leagues are set up to avoid strife as much as possible.
1) For leagues with entry fees: League fees must be paid by X (days/weeks) prior to the draft.
-- If you let someone play without paying, then any dispute that comes up involving the owner gets worse as he may use paying what he owes as leverage to get the league to decide in his favor. If you have the draft as your deadline you're faced with the choice of letting him draft without paying, or postponing the draft. So set the deadline far enough in advance of the draft that you have time to find a replacement owner.
2) Fantasy games are final as of (the start of the following week of games / the following Friday / two weeks from... etc).
-- One big headache some leagues face is discovering a problem late in the season. Perhaps a scoring error, a team that got away with illegal lineups, whatever. If you're in the playoffs already, do you go back and change the whole season? How far back do you retroactively change results? Putting in a rule that declares when the score is final and will not be changed can avoid a lot of the headaches.
3) Owners are responsible for verifying the scores and the legality of lineups of both their own team and their competition. Owners are responsible for notifying the commissioner/website of stat changes should they occur.
-- This puts the burden on an owner to verify that his own and his opponent's score are right, and gives him no one to blame but himself if a mistake is later found after it is too late. Special for MFL users: MFL puts stat changes in a forum. I would include mention of the forum in this rule and include that owners are responsible for reporting to the commish any stat changes that affect their game. So again, the responsibility is on them to keep up with their own results, not on the commish.
4) The official source of stats for our league is (our website / NFL.com gambebooks / etc).
-- If you use a league provider, I strongly suggest from a very unpleasant experience as FF commish that you stick with the website and let the owner have to go through the website for a stat change if one is necessary. And that change would have to get in before the game results are final (#2).
5) For leagues with Def/ST units, a definition of what constitutes a Defense/Special Teams/regular offensive play. Make sure your rule accounts for changes of possession.
-- I suggest something of the following: "If a kick actually takes place (including a blocked kick) it is a special teams play. Otherwise the team that snaps the ball is the offense for the entire play, and the team that did not snap the ball is the defense for the entire play. Aborted/fake FG/punt attempts are not special teams plays since no kick occurred." This avoids all those arguments about the PK who threw the touchdown pass on the fake FG, or the WR who fumbled to the CB, who fumbled it back to the RB who ran it in for a touchdown.
6) What, if any, communications with the commish will be considered official in regards to the commish changing lineups, etc.
-- If you accept email/phone/personal requests to go perform team functions, then your goal here is to remove any doubt from other owners that a request was made, and what the exact timing of it was. If it's email require it go to the entire league when possible. If it's a phone call, require them to also inform a 2nd member of the league / their opponent. Also, make sure you say that the responsibility of making sure the message was received is on the owner, not you. So until he hears back from you it is received, he should assume it wasn't. Email isn't 100% reliable after all.
7) Whether any transactions committed on the website by an owner are final. If you allow owners to "take back" a mistake, you need to detail exactly what the conditions are for them to take it back and what steps they must take as far as league notification.
-- This one comes up a lot. "I didn't mean to hit accept." "I dropped the wrong player". Be specific, especially if allowing teams to take mistakes back. I.e. "If you make a mistake, you must (mail the entire league/post on the message board) within 15 minutes of the transaction timestamp on the website for it to be rolled back." Include in your rule that the responsibility is on the owner to verify his transactions before and after submittal. Then your role when a problem arises is made even more simple since it was explicit what they should have already known -- that they had the responsibility to verify it themself.
8) Trades offered on the website are considered valid offers until they are revoked or rejected. Owners are responsible for removing offers they have made. Due to the risk of a player asked for in a trade being injured, it is strongly recommended owners conduct negotiations outside the website and only use the website to consumate trades that are agreed to.
-- This is the old, Player X for Steve Smith offer, which lingers for a week and then is only accepted because Steve Smith broke his leg. Put the burden on the owner to be responsible for trades he leaves out there, and put in writing the suggestion that the website only be used to execute trades, not to make initial offers. You could include requiring a valid email for owners so trade negotiations can take place outside the site.
9) Trades must be consumated on the website to be official. Agreement by any other medium is not binding. -OR- Trades may be consumated by email only by both parties separately indicating their acceptance of a trade, including exact parameters, by email to the commish/entire league. Once such acceptance by both parties is received the trade is final.
-- Resolves situations where "But he agreed to the trade in email, then backed out once we got to the web page." Also deals with situations where one owner forwards you an email discussion about a trade and claims it contains the other owner's acceptance. Which you obviously should not accept as valid, but this just makes it clear to everyone that both owners have to explicitly say they accept and what the parameters of the trade are. I've had this personally be an issue, where one owner mailed me an email chain showing that the other owner agreed but couldn't get to the website. It put me on the spot of whether I make this trade on his word, before lineups had to be submitted. With a clear and concise rule you don't face an argument (or as big of one) when you say "Sorry, the rules say I'm not allowed to execute that trade until I hear from the other owner directly."
10) A rule to handle confusion over players with the same name.
-- Roy Williams, safety and Roy Williams, WR are a current example, though the time this really cropped up a lot was there being a RB Ricky Williams on both the Dolphins and Colts. How you handle this is up to you and will need to account for your other trade rules (like accepting email trades or not). I personally would put the burden on the owner involved if it's a website trade. But I would probably also include something that says attempts to deceive another owner as to the identity of a player may result in sanctions.
11) There is a class of issues which depending on your league may or may not be considered acceptable behavior/sportsmanship. Be specific as to if they will be allowed or not. They include:
Starting a player on bye week
Tanking a game (such as to get a better playoff matchup. In some leagues situations can arise where an owner may have a better chance at making the playoffs himself by losing which changes division and wildcard tiebreaks to ones he can win.)
Making trades that result in worsening your team in order to stock another team who plays a rival you want/need to lose.
Firesales (in keeper/dynasty leagues)
Using waivers to make a trade after the trade deadline.
"Loaning" players. (i.e. "I'll trade you my backup defense, but you have to give it back after your bye week.").
Two-part trades. ("You give me LT this week and I'll give you LJ next week," or, "Here's a 3 player for 3 player trade, but I don't want to give you my RB until next week. Let's trade the other 2 for 2 now and agree to swap the remaining players next week")-- The biggest problem here isn't whether you allow them or don't. It's that some owners may think they are fine while others consider them questionable at best or cheating at worst. The conflict is worse when both sides have a different expectation of whether it is allowed. Be explicit if you allow it, and what the consequences are for doing it if not allowed. Put it out there so your owners have to accept they chose to play in a league that allows/doesn't allow it, and that you resolved the situation exactly as the rules indicated you should.
12) For leagues with voting to veto trades, what constitutes grounds for vetoing a trade.
-- Another perception issue like #11. Some owners feel a veto should only be cast when there is a belief of collusion (and that it is viewed as an accusation of it). Some feel lopsided trades should be vetoed. Some owners will want to veto a trade that helps a rival (thus hurting their own team). I'd suggest you detail under what circumstances a veto should be used, if you have them at all.
That's all I can think of for now, though I imagine there's a few more useful ones that I've missed.
Edit to consolidate other good ones:
From Mungo Burrows:
13) You should always have established and documented tie-breaking procedures, whether for games if you don't allow ties, or for playoff spots. It should be clear how you handle multi-team ties (see following comments). And you should always end your tie-breakers with a method that will always work like a coin flip.
-- One common problem is the handling of multi-team ties. In the NFL, if they apply step 1 and it is still a tie, they go on to steps 2 and 3, etc. If after step 3 a team is eliminated, they do not continue to step 4, they go back to step 1 and start all over fresh with just the remaining teams. This can also be an issue with 3 teams tied for 2 wildcards. In the NFL, coming in "second" for the first wildcard does not mean you win the last wildcard slot. I saw this come up as a problem in a friend's league this year. If you are going to use the NFL's method or not, you should be explicit on how multi-team ties are resolved. And I would suggest using examples in your rules. Good catch Mungo!
From videoguy505
14) A rule that has an imperative (you must do this or you must NOT do that) should have stated what consequence results from violating it.
-- One type of problem that commissioners have is that a rule gets violated but the consequence is not stated in the rule, and then a commish has no guidance on how to deal with it. The result is his decision falls under more scrutiny and possibly objection. If you "must start a complete lineup" what happens when someone doesn't? Does the commish fill it with the lowest/highest scoring/drafted/rated player? Does the owner get 0 points?
From smcindoe:
15) Your rules should detail the decision making structure (commish/league vote/etc).
-- Who has the final say? Is it the commish? Is it a league vote? Is it the commish but a league vote can overrule, and if so by what percentage/majority/etc?
From ShadowMaster:
16) Your league rules should be in writing, and distributed to the league in advance.
-- A revision date, and a section listing changes made since the last revision can be helpful in making sure your owners are all up to speed on the rules.
17) You should have a final source for determining what position a player is listed at. You also may wish to address whether a player's position stays what it was at the draft, or changes as your official source changes.
-- Unless you are unhappy with your website's policy on it I would suggest sticking with your website as the final say. A current example of this is WR Marques Colston, who as of this posting is listed as both WR and TE by Yahoo despite both NFL.com and the team website listing him as a WR. Another example could be Koenen, who went from being a punter to a PK, but may go back to punter now that they've signed Morton Andersen again.
18) Money leagues: Future draft picks may only be traded for years which the owner has paid his league fees in advance.
-- This is to stop a team from giving away his future and then leaving the league. Most new owners coming in to take the team would be reluctant to have to pay full price for a team that doesn't even have its regular alotment of picks.
19) Money leagues: In the event of an owner leaving or being removed from the league, his entry fee shall be handled as follows.
-- I.e.: The departing owner will be refunded his entire fee / a prorated amount / the entire fee if before game 7 and some other amount if after / etc. A replacement owner will be responsible for the following portion of the league fees, ... etc. If you only refund a prorated amount, you might consider also giving him a prorated amount of any winnings his team later earns from the playoffs. This also might be a good topic for a resident FBG lawyer to chime in on what it would be best to include so the league covers themselves if it ever comes to small claims court. Perhaps a "Participation in this league signifies agreement to the following..." section?
20) Provide clear guidance on the situation where an owner is not able to manage his team. It could be due to illness/hospitalization, family tragedy, etc. Some things to consider in crafting your rule might include:
* Who makes the decision this is in effect?
* What guidelines should be met for alternate ownership to go into affect?
* Who will make management decisions for the team until the owner can take back over?
* If it is the draft/auction that the owner cannot make, and he cannot have someone cover for him, how will his team be selected?
-- This isn't an owner calling in a lineup on the phone. This might be an owner who is hospitalized. In a league of mine, an owner had no ability to run his team for a short time because of having to help his parents whose home was demolished by a tornado.
Who decides a situation warrants the team being temporarily managed by someone other than the owner? What sorts of situations should be included? If an owner had 4 days to submit his lineup then had someting happen on Saturday, does he get the benefit of a change? I suggest limiting this to general guidelines as you cannot foresee every possibility. But do include language that makes clear whether you include things like "no internet connection" or "travelling for work".
Then once that decision is made, how will the team be managed? Will a person outside of the league be brought in to temporarily take over? Will a website's ranking be used each week? Will the commish use his best judgement? Will the commish use the previous week's lineup? If so, does he take into account byes? Injuries? Obvious choices like benching a RB who lost the starting job? Subtle choices like a preference for one plyaer over another? Just be clear enough in your guidelines that anyone following them would come to the same answer every time for starting lineups, waivers, etc. Also realize that you might find out after the fact of an owner's situation, such as in the case of a hospitalization. So you especially want a process for setting his lineup that can be applied fairly even after results are known.
From GoBears84
21) For leagues that lock players after they are dropped, what happens if a team picks up players and drops them just to deny them to other teams?
-- Realize that in applying this rule, you may have the legitimate case of the owner who changes his mind once or twice as he hears new information on players. You may wish to word the rule to give the commish latitude in deciding what the intent behind the waiver moves was. You may also wish to go with something straightforward like, "Players who are dropped in the same week they are picked up will be unlocked." Though then you can get into issues of who has first dibs on them, so be sure to account for it in your rules.
From The Jerk:
22) Use examples in your rules whenever there is a chance that someone might not understand from just the text.
-- Made mention once or twice of using an example to clarify something, but this is worth being it's own bullet point. If there is a situation where something may not be clear, give an example that illustrates the spots that might be fuzzy. Some great examples of places to do this include:
* A walk through assigning playoff seeds
* A walk through a multi-team tiebreak
* Example "wierd" plays and how they will be scored, like multiple fumbles on a play, field goal return TDs, fake field goals and defensive scoring, etc.
Added 9/3
23) For keeper leagues that require giving up draft picks for the keeper, clarify which pick must be given up if the team has multiple picks due to trades. Also address a "trading down loophole" if necessary.
-- Several issues to make sure you handle here. The most contentious ones would probably be, what happens if a team acquires a second pick in a round they must give up a pick in? Do they have to give up their original pick? Do they have to give up their earliest pick (which if so might defeat the purpose of them trading so might be a questionable way to do it)? Or can they choose which pick they give up.
Also, there is a loophole with this kind of situation which Al Davis exploited in the NFL, causing them to close it. Davis had to give up a draft pick as compensation. So he traded his pick for the last pick in the round in exchange for other considerations since the last pick would meet the requirements of the rules.
The fantasy version is very similar. Your team has to spend a 3rd on a keeper, while another team plans to use their 3rd normally. So you swap your 3.1 for their 3.12 in exchange for a later round swap in your favor. You can use the 3.12 as easily as the 3.1 on your keeper unless the rules state otherwise. So the easiest way to close this loophole is to do what the NFL did, make the rules require the pick you give up be equal to or better than your team's original pick in the round.
24) As much as possible, rule changes should not go into effect that will impact decisions and transactions that teams have already made. They should instead be broadcast so the owners have advance warning, and then go into effect at an appropriate future date after they have had a chance to prepare for the change.
This one should have appeared in the first few, can't believe I missed it. It isn't fair to owners when they make decisions based on the rule structure in place, and then suddenly the rules are changed in ways that they would have done differently had they known. There are some extremely bad examples of this that are posted in the Shark Pool, like people changing the scoring system in the middle of the draft. But some other examples of where this advance notice should be given would include:
* changing the scoring system after the draft or during the season
* deciding to go from a redraft to a keeper format using the current rosters drafted when teams thought it was a redraft
* changing the procedure for determining draft slots when teams have already traded for future year picks
* changing starting lineup requirements.
Sometimes you may come across a rule change that there is merit or a lot of support to implementing immediately, though it may impact decisions that were already made. In those cases, a good way of handling it is to require unanimous approval to make the change immediately. If you do so, I also suggest you make it secret ballot so no one feels publicly pressured to approve it.
From burd:
25) Make sure that your rules specify when players are locked in place in a lineup. These days many leagues use their website to enforce this. Common rules are to lock only players whose games have started, to lock the lineup at a given day of the week and time, or to lock them with the start of games that week.
Leagues with formations or flex players may be the place an issue arises even when you use your website for locking. For example, someone has the following as part of their lineup in a league where players are locked in a lineup when his game starts.
WR: WR Ted Ginn
Flex: WR Kevin Curtis
After Curtis' game starts, but before Ginn's game, the owner decides he'd rather have a RB in his flex. He would like to move Curtis from flex to required WR, and remove Ginn to put a RB in the flex. The question would come down to, do you allow him to change positions within the lineup for Curtis after the player's game starts, or does your league require him to remain in his slot he was originally put in. Like many of these rules, I would tend to let your website dictate what will be allowed whenever possible to limit the commissioners need to make manual changes (and to limit confusion on what is allowed), unless your league just can't live with it the way the website does something.
Merging in some things from a thread specific to playoff problems.
26) For leagues with "head to head" as a tiebreak, how do you handle multi-team ties if number of games played is not even for all teams in the tie?
-- This one seems to come up a lot. Take for example a 3-way tie in a league where you play some opponents more than others. Team 3 played Teams 1 and 2 once each. But Teams 1 and 2 played each other twice. So Team 3 has 2 games, and Teams 1 and 2 have 3 games of head to head. Do you just ignore head to head entirely then, or do you go with winning percentage even if # of games is uneven? You will seldom get a group of a dozen people to agree that there is a single "right" answer, so spell it out in advance.
27) In the playoffs, does the bracket stay "locked" as it was originally set, or does the top seed always get the worst seeded opponent? Or some other method like top seed gets to choose their opponent? If the latter, I'd suggest a deadline for when their choice must be in otherwise they get the worst seed left.
-- In the NFL playoffs, the top seed always gets the worst seeded opponent. In the NCAA basketball bracket, it is "locked" in place and if #1 loses, then #16 has the easiest schedule in his bracket the rest of the way. There is no "right" answer, you just need to be clear which your league will use, especially if your website has an actual bracket that some may look at and think the opponents are set in stone like the NCAA bracket.
28) Do you break ties between divisional foes before including non-division teams?
-- This is another one that comes up mainly because of how the NFL does its tiebreak. Some expect it to be done the same, others don't see this as the intuitive way to do it. So state in advance which it will be. In the NFL in a wildcard tiebreaker, if there are tied teams from the same division, they have the tie broken using the division tiebreak before teams from other divisions are considered. So if the Texans, Titans, and Browns are tied for a wildcard, the division tiebreaker rules get used to resolve the Texans and Titans. Whoever wins that tiebreak then has a non-division tiebreak used between them and the Browns. Some fantasy leagues would just have all 3 teams in the tiebreak, so just be clear how your league does it.
29) What is the status of waivers during the playoffs? Can only teams still in the playoffs make waiver claims?
-- One incident that seems to get posted every year, is that some team who was already eliminated goes in and makes a waiver claim for a player that a team in the super bowl put in a claim for. Avoid the possible argument and establish in advance whether everyone can do waivers, regardless of playoff status, or if only teams still having a game (including or not including consolation games) can do them. As part of this, also consider if you wish to have a rule locking the roster of any team who no longer has playoff games remaining, so a team who is eliminated cannot drop key players that the remaining playoff teams then pick up.
30) If your league includes divisional record, is it used when teams are not in the same division?
-- I'd have never thought this was an issue, but I watched an argument over it this preseason so figured I'd add it. Some people think division record matters even when teams are not in the same division. So if you included it your tiebreak rules, but did not intend it to be used in all cases, such as when not in the same division, you need to be clear on it. I.e.: The next tiebreak is division record only if the teams are in the same division.
From WisWolvrns:
31) Explicitly state how regular season ties affect the tie break. I.e. whether a 7-7 team = 6-6-2 team for tie-breaker purposes.
-- Another one that I wouldn't have thought would ever come up, but it shows up every year in the Shark Pool around fantasy playoff time. If there is a "standard" based on what you see sports leagues using, the records are equivalent. But some people don't expect it to be that way, so be explicit so there isn't room for argument since it was set in advance.
32) Either lock the ability to drop players during the draft, or have a rule covering what is the draft status of a player who is drafted and then dropped during the draft.
-- Occasionally owners will draft a player and then drop them for some reason. It could be that the owner drafted the wrong player and decided to cut him immediately. The player's status in the NFL could have changed (released, injured, etc). Then the question arises, can they be drafted again by another team or not? I would guess that more people would say "no" than "yes", but I'm not sure there is an absolutely correct answer. So deal with the situation in your rules. Or better yet, lock the ability to drop players.
From coolnerd:
33) How do you handle NFL Supplemental Draft players in a dynasty league.
This probably isn't an issue in redraft or keeper leagues since the NFL Supplemental Draft occurs before most fantasy drafts. But dynasty leagues may have their rookie draft before the Supplemental draft takes place. If so clarify how it works. Do you hold your own Supplemental Draft? Does the player just go into your next vet draft/auction? Or does he become available in waivers immediately? You could also just reschedule your rookie draft to be after the Supplemental.
Every year commissioners post for advice and impartial opinions on issues they encounter. I read most of these threads and the problems are seldom new ones. I think there are a set of rules that every league should consider having that will avoid the most frequent issues. Here are the ones that came to mind. I'd like to see any that people can think of that I've missed, as I'm always trying to make sure my leagues are set up to avoid strife as much as possible.
1) For leagues with entry fees: League fees must be paid by X (days/weeks) prior to the draft.
-- If you let someone play without paying, then any dispute that comes up involving the owner gets worse as he may use paying what he owes as leverage to get the league to decide in his favor. If you have the draft as your deadline you're faced with the choice of letting him draft without paying, or postponing the draft. So set the deadline far enough in advance of the draft that you have time to find a replacement owner.
2) Fantasy games are final as of (the start of the following week of games / the following Friday / two weeks from... etc).
-- One big headache some leagues face is discovering a problem late in the season. Perhaps a scoring error, a team that got away with illegal lineups, whatever. If you're in the playoffs already, do you go back and change the whole season? How far back do you retroactively change results? Putting in a rule that declares when the score is final and will not be changed can avoid a lot of the headaches.
3) Owners are responsible for verifying the scores and the legality of lineups of both their own team and their competition. Owners are responsible for notifying the commissioner/website of stat changes should they occur.
-- This puts the burden on an owner to verify that his own and his opponent's score are right, and gives him no one to blame but himself if a mistake is later found after it is too late. Special for MFL users: MFL puts stat changes in a forum. I would include mention of the forum in this rule and include that owners are responsible for reporting to the commish any stat changes that affect their game. So again, the responsibility is on them to keep up with their own results, not on the commish.
4) The official source of stats for our league is (our website / NFL.com gambebooks / etc).
-- If you use a league provider, I strongly suggest from a very unpleasant experience as FF commish that you stick with the website and let the owner have to go through the website for a stat change if one is necessary. And that change would have to get in before the game results are final (#2).
5) For leagues with Def/ST units, a definition of what constitutes a Defense/Special Teams/regular offensive play. Make sure your rule accounts for changes of possession.
-- I suggest something of the following: "If a kick actually takes place (including a blocked kick) it is a special teams play. Otherwise the team that snaps the ball is the offense for the entire play, and the team that did not snap the ball is the defense for the entire play. Aborted/fake FG/punt attempts are not special teams plays since no kick occurred." This avoids all those arguments about the PK who threw the touchdown pass on the fake FG, or the WR who fumbled to the CB, who fumbled it back to the RB who ran it in for a touchdown.
6) What, if any, communications with the commish will be considered official in regards to the commish changing lineups, etc.
-- If you accept email/phone/personal requests to go perform team functions, then your goal here is to remove any doubt from other owners that a request was made, and what the exact timing of it was. If it's email require it go to the entire league when possible. If it's a phone call, require them to also inform a 2nd member of the league / their opponent. Also, make sure you say that the responsibility of making sure the message was received is on the owner, not you. So until he hears back from you it is received, he should assume it wasn't. Email isn't 100% reliable after all.
7) Whether any transactions committed on the website by an owner are final. If you allow owners to "take back" a mistake, you need to detail exactly what the conditions are for them to take it back and what steps they must take as far as league notification.
-- This one comes up a lot. "I didn't mean to hit accept." "I dropped the wrong player". Be specific, especially if allowing teams to take mistakes back. I.e. "If you make a mistake, you must (mail the entire league/post on the message board) within 15 minutes of the transaction timestamp on the website for it to be rolled back." Include in your rule that the responsibility is on the owner to verify his transactions before and after submittal. Then your role when a problem arises is made even more simple since it was explicit what they should have already known -- that they had the responsibility to verify it themself.
8) Trades offered on the website are considered valid offers until they are revoked or rejected. Owners are responsible for removing offers they have made. Due to the risk of a player asked for in a trade being injured, it is strongly recommended owners conduct negotiations outside the website and only use the website to consumate trades that are agreed to.
-- This is the old, Player X for Steve Smith offer, which lingers for a week and then is only accepted because Steve Smith broke his leg. Put the burden on the owner to be responsible for trades he leaves out there, and put in writing the suggestion that the website only be used to execute trades, not to make initial offers. You could include requiring a valid email for owners so trade negotiations can take place outside the site.
9) Trades must be consumated on the website to be official. Agreement by any other medium is not binding. -OR- Trades may be consumated by email only by both parties separately indicating their acceptance of a trade, including exact parameters, by email to the commish/entire league. Once such acceptance by both parties is received the trade is final.
-- Resolves situations where "But he agreed to the trade in email, then backed out once we got to the web page." Also deals with situations where one owner forwards you an email discussion about a trade and claims it contains the other owner's acceptance. Which you obviously should not accept as valid, but this just makes it clear to everyone that both owners have to explicitly say they accept and what the parameters of the trade are. I've had this personally be an issue, where one owner mailed me an email chain showing that the other owner agreed but couldn't get to the website. It put me on the spot of whether I make this trade on his word, before lineups had to be submitted. With a clear and concise rule you don't face an argument (or as big of one) when you say "Sorry, the rules say I'm not allowed to execute that trade until I hear from the other owner directly."
10) A rule to handle confusion over players with the same name.
-- Roy Williams, safety and Roy Williams, WR are a current example, though the time this really cropped up a lot was there being a RB Ricky Williams on both the Dolphins and Colts. How you handle this is up to you and will need to account for your other trade rules (like accepting email trades or not). I personally would put the burden on the owner involved if it's a website trade. But I would probably also include something that says attempts to deceive another owner as to the identity of a player may result in sanctions.
11) There is a class of issues which depending on your league may or may not be considered acceptable behavior/sportsmanship. Be specific as to if they will be allowed or not. They include:
Starting a player on bye week
Tanking a game (such as to get a better playoff matchup. In some leagues situations can arise where an owner may have a better chance at making the playoffs himself by losing which changes division and wildcard tiebreaks to ones he can win.)
Making trades that result in worsening your team in order to stock another team who plays a rival you want/need to lose.
Firesales (in keeper/dynasty leagues)
Using waivers to make a trade after the trade deadline.
"Loaning" players. (i.e. "I'll trade you my backup defense, but you have to give it back after your bye week.").
Two-part trades. ("You give me LT this week and I'll give you LJ next week," or, "Here's a 3 player for 3 player trade, but I don't want to give you my RB until next week. Let's trade the other 2 for 2 now and agree to swap the remaining players next week")-- The biggest problem here isn't whether you allow them or don't. It's that some owners may think they are fine while others consider them questionable at best or cheating at worst. The conflict is worse when both sides have a different expectation of whether it is allowed. Be explicit if you allow it, and what the consequences are for doing it if not allowed. Put it out there so your owners have to accept they chose to play in a league that allows/doesn't allow it, and that you resolved the situation exactly as the rules indicated you should.
12) For leagues with voting to veto trades, what constitutes grounds for vetoing a trade.
-- Another perception issue like #11. Some owners feel a veto should only be cast when there is a belief of collusion (and that it is viewed as an accusation of it). Some feel lopsided trades should be vetoed. Some owners will want to veto a trade that helps a rival (thus hurting their own team). I'd suggest you detail under what circumstances a veto should be used, if you have them at all.
That's all I can think of for now, though I imagine there's a few more useful ones that I've missed.
Edit to consolidate other good ones:
From Mungo Burrows:
13) You should always have established and documented tie-breaking procedures, whether for games if you don't allow ties, or for playoff spots. It should be clear how you handle multi-team ties (see following comments). And you should always end your tie-breakers with a method that will always work like a coin flip.
-- One common problem is the handling of multi-team ties. In the NFL, if they apply step 1 and it is still a tie, they go on to steps 2 and 3, etc. If after step 3 a team is eliminated, they do not continue to step 4, they go back to step 1 and start all over fresh with just the remaining teams. This can also be an issue with 3 teams tied for 2 wildcards. In the NFL, coming in "second" for the first wildcard does not mean you win the last wildcard slot. I saw this come up as a problem in a friend's league this year. If you are going to use the NFL's method or not, you should be explicit on how multi-team ties are resolved. And I would suggest using examples in your rules. Good catch Mungo!
From videoguy505
14) A rule that has an imperative (you must do this or you must NOT do that) should have stated what consequence results from violating it.
-- One type of problem that commissioners have is that a rule gets violated but the consequence is not stated in the rule, and then a commish has no guidance on how to deal with it. The result is his decision falls under more scrutiny and possibly objection. If you "must start a complete lineup" what happens when someone doesn't? Does the commish fill it with the lowest/highest scoring/drafted/rated player? Does the owner get 0 points?
From smcindoe:
15) Your rules should detail the decision making structure (commish/league vote/etc).
-- Who has the final say? Is it the commish? Is it a league vote? Is it the commish but a league vote can overrule, and if so by what percentage/majority/etc?
From ShadowMaster:
16) Your league rules should be in writing, and distributed to the league in advance.
-- A revision date, and a section listing changes made since the last revision can be helpful in making sure your owners are all up to speed on the rules.
17) You should have a final source for determining what position a player is listed at. You also may wish to address whether a player's position stays what it was at the draft, or changes as your official source changes.
-- Unless you are unhappy with your website's policy on it I would suggest sticking with your website as the final say. A current example of this is WR Marques Colston, who as of this posting is listed as both WR and TE by Yahoo despite both NFL.com and the team website listing him as a WR. Another example could be Koenen, who went from being a punter to a PK, but may go back to punter now that they've signed Morton Andersen again.
18) Money leagues: Future draft picks may only be traded for years which the owner has paid his league fees in advance.
-- This is to stop a team from giving away his future and then leaving the league. Most new owners coming in to take the team would be reluctant to have to pay full price for a team that doesn't even have its regular alotment of picks.
19) Money leagues: In the event of an owner leaving or being removed from the league, his entry fee shall be handled as follows.
-- I.e.: The departing owner will be refunded his entire fee / a prorated amount / the entire fee if before game 7 and some other amount if after / etc. A replacement owner will be responsible for the following portion of the league fees, ... etc. If you only refund a prorated amount, you might consider also giving him a prorated amount of any winnings his team later earns from the playoffs. This also might be a good topic for a resident FBG lawyer to chime in on what it would be best to include so the league covers themselves if it ever comes to small claims court. Perhaps a "Participation in this league signifies agreement to the following..." section?
20) Provide clear guidance on the situation where an owner is not able to manage his team. It could be due to illness/hospitalization, family tragedy, etc. Some things to consider in crafting your rule might include:
* Who makes the decision this is in effect?
* What guidelines should be met for alternate ownership to go into affect?
* Who will make management decisions for the team until the owner can take back over?
* If it is the draft/auction that the owner cannot make, and he cannot have someone cover for him, how will his team be selected?
-- This isn't an owner calling in a lineup on the phone. This might be an owner who is hospitalized. In a league of mine, an owner had no ability to run his team for a short time because of having to help his parents whose home was demolished by a tornado.
Who decides a situation warrants the team being temporarily managed by someone other than the owner? What sorts of situations should be included? If an owner had 4 days to submit his lineup then had someting happen on Saturday, does he get the benefit of a change? I suggest limiting this to general guidelines as you cannot foresee every possibility. But do include language that makes clear whether you include things like "no internet connection" or "travelling for work".
Then once that decision is made, how will the team be managed? Will a person outside of the league be brought in to temporarily take over? Will a website's ranking be used each week? Will the commish use his best judgement? Will the commish use the previous week's lineup? If so, does he take into account byes? Injuries? Obvious choices like benching a RB who lost the starting job? Subtle choices like a preference for one plyaer over another? Just be clear enough in your guidelines that anyone following them would come to the same answer every time for starting lineups, waivers, etc. Also realize that you might find out after the fact of an owner's situation, such as in the case of a hospitalization. So you especially want a process for setting his lineup that can be applied fairly even after results are known.
From GoBears84
21) For leagues that lock players after they are dropped, what happens if a team picks up players and drops them just to deny them to other teams?
-- Realize that in applying this rule, you may have the legitimate case of the owner who changes his mind once or twice as he hears new information on players. You may wish to word the rule to give the commish latitude in deciding what the intent behind the waiver moves was. You may also wish to go with something straightforward like, "Players who are dropped in the same week they are picked up will be unlocked." Though then you can get into issues of who has first dibs on them, so be sure to account for it in your rules.
From The Jerk:
22) Use examples in your rules whenever there is a chance that someone might not understand from just the text.
-- Made mention once or twice of using an example to clarify something, but this is worth being it's own bullet point. If there is a situation where something may not be clear, give an example that illustrates the spots that might be fuzzy. Some great examples of places to do this include:
* A walk through assigning playoff seeds
* A walk through a multi-team tiebreak
* Example "wierd" plays and how they will be scored, like multiple fumbles on a play, field goal return TDs, fake field goals and defensive scoring, etc.
Added 9/3
23) For keeper leagues that require giving up draft picks for the keeper, clarify which pick must be given up if the team has multiple picks due to trades. Also address a "trading down loophole" if necessary.
-- Several issues to make sure you handle here. The most contentious ones would probably be, what happens if a team acquires a second pick in a round they must give up a pick in? Do they have to give up their original pick? Do they have to give up their earliest pick (which if so might defeat the purpose of them trading so might be a questionable way to do it)? Or can they choose which pick they give up.
Also, there is a loophole with this kind of situation which Al Davis exploited in the NFL, causing them to close it. Davis had to give up a draft pick as compensation. So he traded his pick for the last pick in the round in exchange for other considerations since the last pick would meet the requirements of the rules.
The fantasy version is very similar. Your team has to spend a 3rd on a keeper, while another team plans to use their 3rd normally. So you swap your 3.1 for their 3.12 in exchange for a later round swap in your favor. You can use the 3.12 as easily as the 3.1 on your keeper unless the rules state otherwise. So the easiest way to close this loophole is to do what the NFL did, make the rules require the pick you give up be equal to or better than your team's original pick in the round.
24) As much as possible, rule changes should not go into effect that will impact decisions and transactions that teams have already made. They should instead be broadcast so the owners have advance warning, and then go into effect at an appropriate future date after they have had a chance to prepare for the change.
This one should have appeared in the first few, can't believe I missed it. It isn't fair to owners when they make decisions based on the rule structure in place, and then suddenly the rules are changed in ways that they would have done differently had they known. There are some extremely bad examples of this that are posted in the Shark Pool, like people changing the scoring system in the middle of the draft. But some other examples of where this advance notice should be given would include:
* changing the scoring system after the draft or during the season
* deciding to go from a redraft to a keeper format using the current rosters drafted when teams thought it was a redraft
* changing the procedure for determining draft slots when teams have already traded for future year picks
* changing starting lineup requirements.
Sometimes you may come across a rule change that there is merit or a lot of support to implementing immediately, though it may impact decisions that were already made. In those cases, a good way of handling it is to require unanimous approval to make the change immediately. If you do so, I also suggest you make it secret ballot so no one feels publicly pressured to approve it.
From burd:
25) Make sure that your rules specify when players are locked in place in a lineup. These days many leagues use their website to enforce this. Common rules are to lock only players whose games have started, to lock the lineup at a given day of the week and time, or to lock them with the start of games that week.
Leagues with formations or flex players may be the place an issue arises even when you use your website for locking. For example, someone has the following as part of their lineup in a league where players are locked in a lineup when his game starts.
WR: WR Ted Ginn
Flex: WR Kevin Curtis
After Curtis' game starts, but before Ginn's game, the owner decides he'd rather have a RB in his flex. He would like to move Curtis from flex to required WR, and remove Ginn to put a RB in the flex. The question would come down to, do you allow him to change positions within the lineup for Curtis after the player's game starts, or does your league require him to remain in his slot he was originally put in. Like many of these rules, I would tend to let your website dictate what will be allowed whenever possible to limit the commissioners need to make manual changes (and to limit confusion on what is allowed), unless your league just can't live with it the way the website does something.
Merging in some things from a thread specific to playoff problems.
26) For leagues with "head to head" as a tiebreak, how do you handle multi-team ties if number of games played is not even for all teams in the tie?
-- This one seems to come up a lot. Take for example a 3-way tie in a league where you play some opponents more than others. Team 3 played Teams 1 and 2 once each. But Teams 1 and 2 played each other twice. So Team 3 has 2 games, and Teams 1 and 2 have 3 games of head to head. Do you just ignore head to head entirely then, or do you go with winning percentage even if # of games is uneven? You will seldom get a group of a dozen people to agree that there is a single "right" answer, so spell it out in advance.
27) In the playoffs, does the bracket stay "locked" as it was originally set, or does the top seed always get the worst seeded opponent? Or some other method like top seed gets to choose their opponent? If the latter, I'd suggest a deadline for when their choice must be in otherwise they get the worst seed left.
-- In the NFL playoffs, the top seed always gets the worst seeded opponent. In the NCAA basketball bracket, it is "locked" in place and if #1 loses, then #16 has the easiest schedule in his bracket the rest of the way. There is no "right" answer, you just need to be clear which your league will use, especially if your website has an actual bracket that some may look at and think the opponents are set in stone like the NCAA bracket.
28) Do you break ties between divisional foes before including non-division teams?
-- This is another one that comes up mainly because of how the NFL does its tiebreak. Some expect it to be done the same, others don't see this as the intuitive way to do it. So state in advance which it will be. In the NFL in a wildcard tiebreaker, if there are tied teams from the same division, they have the tie broken using the division tiebreak before teams from other divisions are considered. So if the Texans, Titans, and Browns are tied for a wildcard, the division tiebreaker rules get used to resolve the Texans and Titans. Whoever wins that tiebreak then has a non-division tiebreak used between them and the Browns. Some fantasy leagues would just have all 3 teams in the tiebreak, so just be clear how your league does it.
29) What is the status of waivers during the playoffs? Can only teams still in the playoffs make waiver claims?
-- One incident that seems to get posted every year, is that some team who was already eliminated goes in and makes a waiver claim for a player that a team in the super bowl put in a claim for. Avoid the possible argument and establish in advance whether everyone can do waivers, regardless of playoff status, or if only teams still having a game (including or not including consolation games) can do them. As part of this, also consider if you wish to have a rule locking the roster of any team who no longer has playoff games remaining, so a team who is eliminated cannot drop key players that the remaining playoff teams then pick up.
30) If your league includes divisional record, is it used when teams are not in the same division?
-- I'd have never thought this was an issue, but I watched an argument over it this preseason so figured I'd add it. Some people think division record matters even when teams are not in the same division. So if you included it your tiebreak rules, but did not intend it to be used in all cases, such as when not in the same division, you need to be clear on it. I.e.: The next tiebreak is division record only if the teams are in the same division.
From WisWolvrns:
31) Explicitly state how regular season ties affect the tie break. I.e. whether a 7-7 team = 6-6-2 team for tie-breaker purposes.
-- Another one that I wouldn't have thought would ever come up, but it shows up every year in the Shark Pool around fantasy playoff time. If there is a "standard" based on what you see sports leagues using, the records are equivalent. But some people don't expect it to be that way, so be explicit so there isn't room for argument since it was set in advance.
32) Either lock the ability to drop players during the draft, or have a rule covering what is the draft status of a player who is drafted and then dropped during the draft.
-- Occasionally owners will draft a player and then drop them for some reason. It could be that the owner drafted the wrong player and decided to cut him immediately. The player's status in the NFL could have changed (released, injured, etc). Then the question arises, can they be drafted again by another team or not? I would guess that more people would say "no" than "yes", but I'm not sure there is an absolutely correct answer. So deal with the situation in your rules. Or better yet, lock the ability to drop players.
From coolnerd:
33) How do you handle NFL Supplemental Draft players in a dynasty league.
This probably isn't an issue in redraft or keeper leagues since the NFL Supplemental Draft occurs before most fantasy drafts. But dynasty leagues may have their rookie draft before the Supplemental draft takes place. If so clarify how it works. Do you hold your own Supplemental Draft? Does the player just go into your next vet draft/auction? Or does he become available in waivers immediately? You could also just reschedule your rookie draft to be after the Supplemental.
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