IF the season is cut short, how is your league handling payouts? (1 Viewer)

[Gally]

in my 25+ years running auction/salary/keeper league i stayed away from having IR spots to keep the weekly transactions and annual draft as active and meaningful as possible. but as soon as the COVID IR news dropped, we added one IR spot specifically for players who are designated to be IR/COVID. the assumption is (more so the hope is) most players going into this designation hopefully don't get fully sick and will recover quickly.

the new wrinkle to 2020 season now is players who opt out for the season. we have three year running contracts with salary cap implications, so owners will get screwed if one of their key players opt out. So far I saw only Goodwin opted out on the offensive side and we're not IDP.

Why should they get screwed contract wise though?  We are allowing each owner to decide if the contract year will count or not if the season isn't played in full (not whether or not a guy gets COVID or not).   If we play a full season (which we deemed as 10 games - we don't do playoffs) the everything is the same as every other year.  If your guy gets COVID well it's like blowing out a knee and he missed games.  However, if we play less than 10 games then the season doesn't count.  The records will roll over to next year and we will have a yr and a half season.  The owner will then decide if the contract year counted or not.  Older players they may want it to count.  Younger players they may not want it to count.  We wanted to be as flexible as possible because one size does not fit all.  Now as far as guys opting out of the season it is kind of like getting injured in pre season.  It sucks but if the season goes on then so be it.  Just like any other catastrophic injury for fantasy purposes. 

 

[Pigskin Fanatic]

Why should they get screwed contract wise though?  We are allowing each owner to decide if the contract year will count or not if the season isn't played in full (not whether or not a guy gets COVID or not).   If we play a full season (which we deemed as 10 games - we don't do playoffs) the everything is the same as every other year.  If your guy gets COVID well it's like blowing out a knee and he missed games.  However, if we play less than 10 games then the season doesn't count.  The records will roll over to next year and we will have a yr and a half season.  The owner will then decide if the contract year counted or not.  Older players they may want it to count.  Younger players they may not want it to count.  We wanted to be as flexible as possible because one size does not fit all.  Now as far as guys opting out of the season it is kind of like getting injured in pre season.  It sucks but if the season goes on then so be it.  Just like any other catastrophic injury for fantasy purposes. 

i think u addressed it, but i was talking fantasy contract year. i'm not clear how this works for you, so every owner can decide whether their fantasy player contract year counted or not if it's a partial season? I get that 2021 will include records from 2020 in this scenario for you (less than 10 games), but are there negative impacts to saying it counts or doesn't? i'm not sure why anyone would say it counts if it's a limited contract year scenario. in my league you cannot keep a player beyond a 3 year contractual period with very few exceptions that i won't get into. it matters greatly whether the season counts or not.

 

[Gally]

i think u addressed it, but i was talking fantasy contract year. i'm not clear how this works for you, so every owner can decide whether their fantasy player contract year counted or not if it's a partial season? I get that 2021 will include records from 2020 in this scenario for you (less than 10 games), but are there negative impacts to saying it counts or doesn't? i'm not sure why anyone would say it counts if it's a limited contract year scenario. in my league you cannot keep a player beyond a 3 year contractual period with very few exceptions that i won't get into. it matters greatly whether the season counts or not.

Ours is the same.  The max contract length is three years however you may have a bad contract and want out from under it so you want the year to count.  Conversely it may be a great contract and you don't want the year to count.  We don't want to punish an owner and force them to count a contract year when the year wasn't a full year OR force them not to count a year on a possible okder player that they don't want on contract anymore.

So we are giving that option to each owner for each player how they see fit.  Max flexibility for a year that isn't a "full" season.

 

[Pigskin Fanatic]

Ours is the same.  The max contract length is three years however you may have a bad contract and want out from under it so you want the year to count.  Conversely it may be a great contract and you don't want the year to count.  We don't want to punish an owner and force them to count a contract year when the year wasn't a full year OR force them not to count a year on a possible okder player that they don't want on contract anymore.

So we are giving that option to each owner for each player how they see fit.  Max flexibility for a year that isn't a "full" season.

very intriguing, thanks for sharing. it's been fairly easy for owners in my league to just get out of a bad contract through trades or FA, so this concept sounded foreign to me but i get it, it's great fair play.

 

[Mr.Pack]

Inspired by MFL's structure:

If fewer than 7 games no payout, all monies roll to 2021.

If 7-13 games, division winners and weekly/season high scores will be paid out, the rest of the monies will roll to 2021 and dues will be reduced to only replenish payout.

If 14 or 15 games, all eliminated teams will be paid out per placing, all remaining teams will split the rest of the pot.

We will only have playoffs for an uninterrupted 16 week season.

Where on MFL's website is this?  I have searched high and low for this and cannot find it. 

 

[Mr.Pack]

If for some reason, they cancel and don't return, the finish order is based off total points. 

I like this as it's simple and right to the point. No one can argue this as it's as black and white as it gets.

 

[Mr.Pack]

If a league goes Total Points, would it be better (of course this is opinion), to still pay out the top X based on total points (same number of payouts and value of payouts as beforehand), or pay all 12 owners?  I almost feel like all 12 owners should get SOMETHING. 

In order to minimize people from complaining (yes rules would be set out before hand, but people always find a way), it might be nice to give everyone money so that the 5th place team doesn't have a "I was 1 point out of 4th and would have caught him over the full season!" argument where he gets $0.  The same could be said all the way down to 12th place.

1st- 20%
2nd- 14%
3rd- 12%
4th- 10%
5th- 9%
6th- 8%
7th-  7%
8th- 6%
9th- 5%
10th- 4%
11th- 3%
12th- 2%

In the age of paypal, its easy to pay someone any amount of money.

No way I do this. I wasn't brought up in the era of everyone gets a trophy just for participating. I also know my guys wouldn't go for this based on the same reasoning. 

Not criticizing just throwing my $.02 in.

 

[nittanylion]

Before I convinced the Dyn League I run to 'punt' the Season to 2021, I worked on concessions and contingencies for hours over many days. After looking at it from every angle I could think of, I firmly believe that the most 'fair' way to attempt to play out a 2020 Season that's likely to be corrupted by C-19, is to go with an 'All-Play' format (starting lineups vs starting lineups, no bench scoring included). Ours is a 14-Team League with a 13-game Regular Season where every Team plays every other Team, 1 time. If we'd decided to play out the Season, using 'All-Play' would have allowed every Team to play every other Team, the same # of times, no matter how many weeks of the Season actually were played. Combining 'All-Play' record with Points Scored makes for what I think is a clean and fair way to decide who finishes in what place, and for what prizes.

 

[Deamon]

No way I do this. I wasn't brought up in the era of everyone gets a trophy just for participating. I also know my guys wouldn't go for this based on the same reasoning. 

Not criticizing just throwing my $.02 in.

ya this was jsut an idea, not what im doing.  and it was only if the season is cut short.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

For redraft I went with this:

If there are less than 8 games played we will consider the season a null and all fees will be refunded or you can choose to roll it over to 2021 season.
If there are 8 or more games played but less than 16, the three division winners will get paid out in normal fashion and the rest of the pot will be split between the 2 teams with the best W-L records in the league (with normal tiebreakers used) and the remaining team (outside of the top 2 records) with the most points in the league. 

 

[Mr.Pack]

For redraft I went with this:

If there are less than 8 games played we will consider the season a null and all fees will be refunded or you can choose to roll it over to 2021 season.
If there are 8 or more games played but less than 16, the three division winners will get paid out in normal fashion and the rest of the pot will be split between the 2 teams with the best W-L records in the league (with normal tiebreakers used) and the remaining team (outside of the top 2 records) with the most points in the league. 

I like this a lot. Going to put this up for a vote

 

[Hankmoody]

Where on MFL's website is this?  I have searched high and low for this and cannot find it. 

Click Help click What's New?

MFL Purchase Policy for 2020 Leagues (Published Wed May 27 10:06:14 p.m. CT 2020)

Our early bird discount deadline is coming up in about 2 weeks, so we wanted to provide more information about our purchase policy for the 2020 season. Here at MFL, we are forging ahead with the assumption that the NFL will play all of their games as scheduled starting on September 10th. But there is obviously some uncertainty regarding all future sporting events, and we realize the NFL season could potentially be postponed, canceled, or only play a partial season. With that in mind, here is our purchase policy for the 2020 season:

If you purchase your MFL league and the NFL cancels the 2020 season completely, then your league payment will be automatically carried over to the 2021 season.

If the NFL plays at least 7 weeks of the season (whether it is a continuous 7 weeks or broken up into several periods), then we will consider it to be a full season, and your MFL purchase will be considered as payment for the 2020 fantasy season as usual.

If the NFL plays at least 1 week, but less than 7 weeks, then we will consider it to be a partial season, and your league payment will be carried over to the 2021 season.

We've always had a flexible refund policy through Week #4 of the season, but we've updated it for clarity since the 2020 season has the potential to be an unusual one:

You can request a full refund if you won't be using your league for the 2020 season, but refund requests must be made before the season starts. After the NFL season kicks off with their first official game, then your payment will be considered to be applied to the league for the 2020 season, and the above policies for your payment will be in effect.

Any refund requests received after the NFL seasons starts will only be eligible to receive 50% of the purchase price.

As always, refunds are only available until week #4 of the season. After week 4, then refunds are no longer available.

Regardless of what happens with the NFL this season, we will continue to operate MFL as usual, so you will have full access to your league for the entire 2020 fantasy season. This means you can manage your rosters (by making waiver moves and trades, and conducting drafts and auctions as needed). You can also use the league message board, chat, polls, articles, etc. to keep in touch with all of the owners and keep them engaged in the league. All of your league information will be maintained and ready to go in 2021, no matter what happens with the 2020 NFL season. If there aren't any games played, then stats and scores will not be updated, but otherwise everything else in your league will be available.

Hopefully this helps clarify the fantasy football season for you as commissioner of your MFL league. We understand that it can be frustrating and time consuming as a fantasy commissioner when there is uncertainty about the NFL season. We'll provide more guidance in the future as needed to help you deal with contingencies for your fantasy league if it starts looking like the season could be postponed or interrupted. In the meantime, keep in mind that MFL has full support for on-line drafts and auctions, so if your league usually gets together in person for your draft or auction, you have options to conduct them on-line this year to avoid getting together in person.

 

[Mr.Pack]

Click Help click What's New?

MFL Purchase Policy for 2020 Leagues (Published Wed May 27 10:06:14 p.m. CT 2020)

Our early bird discount deadline is coming up in about 2 weeks, so we wanted to provide more information about our purchase policy for the 2020 season. Here at MFL, we are forging ahead with the assumption that the NFL will play all of their games as scheduled starting on September 10th. But there is obviously some uncertainty regarding all future sporting events, and we realize the NFL season could potentially be postponed, canceled, or only play a partial season. With that in mind, here is our purchase policy for the 2020 season:

If you purchase your MFL league and the NFL cancels the 2020 season completely, then your league payment will be automatically carried over to the 2021 season.

If the NFL plays at least 7 weeks of the season (whether it is a continuous 7 weeks or broken up into several periods), then we will consider it to be a full season, and your MFL purchase will be considered as payment for the 2020 fantasy season as usual.

If the NFL plays at least 1 week, but less than 7 weeks, then we will consider it to be a partial season, and your league payment will be carried over to the 2021 season.

We've always had a flexible refund policy through Week #4 of the season, but we've updated it for clarity since the 2020 season has the potential to be an unusual one:

You can request a full refund if you won't be using your league for the 2020 season, but refund requests must be made before the season starts. After the NFL season kicks off with their first official game, then your payment will be considered to be applied to the league for the 2020 season, and the above policies for your payment will be in effect.

Any refund requests received after the NFL seasons starts will only be eligible to receive 50% of the purchase price.

As always, refunds are only available until week #4 of the season. After week 4, then refunds are no longer available.

Regardless of what happens with the NFL this season, we will continue to operate MFL as usual, so you will have full access to your league for the entire 2020 fantasy season. This means you can manage your rosters (by making waiver moves and trades, and conducting drafts and auctions as needed). You can also use the league message board, chat, polls, articles, etc. to keep in touch with all of the owners and keep them engaged in the league. All of your league information will be maintained and ready to go in 2021, no matter what happens with the 2020 NFL season. If there aren't any games played, then stats and scores will not be updated, but otherwise everything else in your league will be available.

Hopefully this helps clarify the fantasy football season for you as commissioner of your MFL league. We understand that it can be frustrating and time consuming as a fantasy commissioner when there is uncertainty about the NFL season. We'll provide more guidance in the future as needed to help you deal with contingencies for your fantasy league if it starts looking like the season could be postponed or interrupted. In the meantime, keep in mind that MFL has full support for on-line drafts and auctions, so if your league usually gets together in person for your draft or auction, you have options to conduct them on-line this year to avoid getting together in person.

Too easy.

 

Thanks

 

[Mr.Pack]

As always, refunds are only available until week #4 of the season. After week 4, then refunds are no longer available.

Hmmmm, so they consider a full season 7 games, but will only refund up to 4. So if there's stoppage after 5 games their response is "thanks for the money, see ya next year"?

That's some BS right there

 

[Hankmoody]

Hmmmm, so they consider a full season 7 games, but will only refund up to 4. So if there's stoppage after 5 games their response is "thanks for the money, see ya next year"?

That's some BS right there

Yes, but then next year they won't ask for your money again.  No different than what the airlines did, I have $1200 worth of ticket vouchers sitting around wait for whenever it's safe to get into an enclosed space with a couple hundred random strangers again.  Might be a while.

 

[starks]

Lot's of nice ideas in here for points leagues, leagues with divisions and dyno but I don't think I saw one for a good old fashion 12 team redraft. Here is what I was thinking...

5 games or less full refund

6 games or more and don't make it to playoffs top 4  teams get payout of 40%, 25%, 20% and 15% (Maybe give it top 5)

Thoughts?

 

[nittanylion]

Lot's of nice ideas in here for points leagues, leagues with divisions and dyno but I don't think I saw one for a good old fashion 12 team redraft. Here is what I was thinking...

5 games or less full refund

6 games or more and don't make it to playoffs top 4  teams get payout of 40%, 25%, 20% and 15% (Maybe give it top 5)

Thoughts?

How long is your 'normal' regular Season? IMHO, your cutoff should be in relation to that - as in, if under/over 50+% of a 'normal' Season is played...

 

[starks]

How long is your 'normal' regular Season? IMHO, your cutoff should be in relation to that - as in, if under/over 50+% of a 'normal' Season is played...

12 team, playoffs 14-16 but considering making playoffs 12-14 to increase possibility of making it. 

 

[da_budman]

All good stuff in here about what to do about payouts.

What are people doing about IR? Are you allowing more IR slots if guys get COVID? This seems like something that could really be a problem throughout the year.

we are going 0-3 weeks complete  zero payouts  4-7 weeks complete 1/2 normal payouts   8+ weeks complete full payouts....if the season stops before our playoffs then the money is awarded based on the standings at the time.  We didnt have an IR  but for this yearwe will have a 3 player covid only IR.   Question for people using IRs .....  You let a team fill the newly opened roster spot when someone went or IR  immediately or do they have to wait till the next available WW then FCFS?    

 

[da_budman]

All you people in normal leagues  with money rolling over to the next year....just curious...wouldnt it make more sense just refunding whatever portion doesnt get awarded then start fresh the next year?  As commish I dount want to hold their money for  2 years.  What if they decide they dont want to  play next year?  What if I get covid and kick the bucket?  I would much rather cut them a check and start clean next year.  

 

[crowe1130]

We voted to not declare a champion and to roll all season-long prizes into the 2021 budget if the season is cut short. Small prizes for weekly high scores, etc would still be paid out.

Next year will be season 30 for us, so there is talk of using any rollover money towards a huge draft party.