Contraction... (1 Viewer)

Background: Contract (years) Dynasty League started in 2001, 16 Teams. Local, mid-stakes ($300).

Several seasons ago, we expanded from 14 to 16 Teams. I'm an original Owner, served as Assistant Commish from founding though 2013, then assumed the Commish mantle and have managed the League since. There's a fair amount of democracy, but there's a fair amount of benevolent dictatorship as well...

...one of my primary roles as AC, and as Commish, was to curate and maintain a wait list of potential replacement Owners. Although the League still has 10 'original' members (8 founders + 2 replacements that have been on board for all but the first 2 or 3 seasons), I've brought in 10 guys along the way to fill the other 6 Franchises, as spots have opened through the years.

We're all older now, and spread a bit thinner around the area (we were all restaurant/bar guys at one point, some still are, many have moved on). Families, etc...we don't see each other nearly as frequently, and manage most everything via a Message Board Forum, calls and texts, but it's a good, strong League, for the most part.

The acumen level, for the most part, is very high. The original group was hand-picked from a # of local Leagues (best of the best sort of thing), so finding qualified replacement Owners is challenging, and gets more so every time I have to pull someone up from the list, which, by now, is pretty much exhausted. Unlike the 'good ol' days', I'm not exactly out there in the scene actively meeting and recruiting potential replacements. Life just ain't what it used to be, and all that...

It's time to get things revved up again, and one Owner has announced (to me) his retirement from FF, and another has literally vanished without a trace. I don't have the time, energy or desire to jump on the recruiting trail, find and vet the quality of Owner the League requires. So right now, I'm at 14, with 2 Orphans.

I'm about to let everyone know the situation, and may put it out there that if anyone else wants to walk away (or partner up, which I'm willing to do), now is the time. Honestly, I'd rather downsize to 12 than 14 for the sake of aesthetics and ease of management. Going from 4 4-Team Divisions to 4 3-Team Divisions is more palateable (read: easier) than 2 7-Team Divisions, at least for me. There are enough hard-core guys involved, it's close to certainty that we're not going to fall below 12 Teams.

Post NFL-Draft, we have an RFA Period, which is an auction format. Players whose Contract (years) have expired. Owner with rights can match high bid. Winner gets to assign Contract to Player. RFA's not put up for auction are retained by Owner who holds rights.

In early August, we have a Rookie/UFA Draft.

I'm quite committed to contracting the League, either to 14 or 12 Teams. The question is, what's the most ideal way to disburse the Orphan Players?

My inclination is to make them available for the upcoming RFA, so everyone has a theoretical shot at them. I say 'theoretical' because the Fantasy $ we use carries over from year to year, along with a set amount of yearly replenishment, and there's a pretty wide margin between 1 ($142) and 16 ($25)...but it's a League full of wheeler-dealers (big criteria for admission), and in the period where the League opens for business and RFA begins will offer everyone a sizeable window to deal their way into the new reality. I think these Players should carry their existing Contracts with them into RFA.

As I'm sure you can imagine, there are some pretty desirable Players that are going to be available...JuJu S-S/5 Years, anyone?

I'm inclined to pool the Fantasy $ of the Orpans, and divide it evenly between the remaining Teams. Gives everyone a little extra scratch.

The August Rookie/UFA Draft is worst-to-first, and many Owners have already traded away 2019 Draft picks as part of 2018 trades, and much of that math is based on forecasting what will be available in that market, as it's a relatively simple exercise to figure out what's going to be avaible in that Player Pool.

I'd like to bring a possible solution to the table when I present the situation to the League. I'd sure appreciate commentary from anyone who's had to deal with anything similar to this, and any original ideas as well.

Thanks, guys.

I commish a few leagues like this and I've flirted with this idea in the past as owners get harder to come across.  The problem is that it's patently unfair to use any existing resources - rookie draft, RFA $, etc - because owners would have managed their resources very, very differently had they known about this entire new pool of players.

I think I've made the decision that if it ever comes to it, I will do a separate auction dispersal draft with everyone being given a fund to use in the auction of 200% of the annual reload.  Any money not spent can be carried over into RFA but existing RFA money cannot be imported into the dispersal.  All owners start that on equal terms.  All players, picks, and previously allocated future picks (hopefully none) would be in the dispersal draft pool.  Obviously it would be run by the membership and discussed but I think it's the only fair way to do it.

Hankmoody said:

I commish a few leagues like this and I've flirted with this idea in the past as owners get harder to come across.  The problem is that it's patently unfair to use any existing resources - rookie draft, RFA $, etc - because owners would have managed their resources very, very differently had they known about this entire new pool of players.

I think I've made the decision that if it ever comes to it, I will do a separate auction dispersal draft with everyone being given a fund to use in the auction of 200% of the annual reload.  Any money not spent can be carried over into RFA but existing RFA money cannot be imported into the dispersal.  All owners start that on equal terms.  All players, picks, and previously allocated future picks (hopefully none) would be in the dispersal draft pool.  Obviously it would be run by the membership and discussed but I think it's the only fair way to do it.

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That’s a very fair and well thought out answer. 

I like @Hankmoody's answer but you will likely have one big issue.  I'm assuming that there aren't 12-14 guys of JuJu's caliber.  So you will likely end up with multiple teams putting in a max bid for JuJu.  So you'll have to figure out how to break ties.  One suggestion would be to do a random dice roll and allocate different funds based on that order.  So if you have 12 owners, and a $200 budget, team 1 would get $200, team 2 would get $199, team 3 would get $198, etc.  The net result is that team 1 would get JuJu -- but someone has to get him.  

One other thought is to do a pre-RFA, pre-dispersal, RFA.  Give owners the right to offer up current guys under contract -- with bids coming from the funds for the dispersal and any money bid would go to the original owner.  Then owners would go into the dispersal with different amounts of money but based on their efforts AFTER hearing about the contraction.  So if someone wants JuJu, maybe they toss a guy like Trey Burton into the earlier RFA period to increase their chances at JuJu.  

A tie isn't really possible because it's auction format but the obvious answer would be to use draft order as tie-breaker.  Everything is open bidding so only one person is going to be the "first" to max bid.  Maybe have a provision that if someone bids max, others can come in after that and trump him if they have worse draft position.  These leagues rarely have that kind of activity anyway because the $FAAB are too precious.  Those dollars roll over from year to year and are used in the next RFA process.  You might get JJSS for $200, but when RFA opens you are going to lose everything else.  These leagues have too many lineup spots and zippo on the wire to fix gaping holes like that.  In one league I used to be in I just saw a guy that mismanaged his cash flow lose Michael Thomas, Brandon Cooks, Jaylon Smith, and more smaller pieces.  He did trade their RFA rights but got pennies on the dollar, which is normal in those circumstances.  Even JJSS can't make up for those losses.  He went from a borderline playoff team (he missed by tie-breaker) to being in the hunt for 1.01 next year.

See this is why I would make sure we have a league discussion, to flesh these things out.  Good comment @wakelawyer

Hankmoody said:

I commish a few leagues like this and I've flirted with this idea in the past as owners get harder to come across.  The problem is that it's patently unfair to use any existing resources - rookie draft, RFA $, etc - because owners would have managed their resources very, very differently had they known about this entire new pool of players.

I think I've made the decision that if it ever comes to it, I will do a separate auction dispersal draft with everyone being given a fund to use in the auction of 200% of the annual reload.  Any money not spent can be carried over into RFA but existing RFA money cannot be imported into the dispersal.  All owners start that on equal terms.  All players, picks, and previously allocated future picks (hopefully none) would be in the dispersal draft pool.  Obviously it would be run by the membership and discussed but I think it's the only fair way to do it.

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Good thought there. 

That "I would have done things differently had I known" angle is important. 

Thanks to everyone who responded. Very grateful for your time, and input.

@Hankmoody, please check your PM's.

How do the salaries of the players get set for the contracts?  If the winning bid sets the salary for the dispersal players that will also help stop people just going to max bid because there is a value to the bid amount.  You don't want to overpay the contract so it isn't palatable to give a longer term deal.

When we started we used an auction format and the winning bid set the price of the contract.  Then each owner had the ability to award a multi year contract at that value.  The penalty for cutting that player was to assume all remaining contract value in the current year cap.  It worked well.  Not sure if this is possible without knowing your salary cap structure and how values are assigned.