Playoff Fantasy Football (1 Viewer)

[TheJoeMachine]

I am looking to get some friends together for a easy to manage playoff fantasy league. Does anyone have a set of rules I can steal or know of a place where I can get the basics.

TIA

Joe

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

The way we run it (and it has been pretty fun the last four years) -

use the same scoring system as we use in the regular season.

Each participant selects 2 qb, 4 rb, 6 wr, 2 k, 4 dl, 5 lb and 5 db. Once a team is eliminated from the playoffs, those players are dead and no new players are selected.

Team with the most points after the Super Bowl wins. Super Bowl players score double points in the Super Bowl.

 

[Utter Chaos]

I am looking to get some friends together for a easy to manage playoff fantasy league. Does anyone have a set of rules I can steal or know of a place where I can get the basics.TIAJoe

Here's one I've been doing the past couple of years:You get 12 players, exactly one from each playoff team, using the following positions.2 QB4 RB4 WR1 TE1 KUse standard scoring (1 pt per 10 yards rushing and receiving, etc.).Since you're only allowed one player per team you to make choices like going with Manning, Harrison, or Wayne for the Colts, who to take from the Ravens......For the tie-breaker I have each participant rank their players 1 through 12 on how many points they think they will get. For example if two teams have identical players and team A ranked Manning 1st on the tie breaker and team B ranked LT2 first then whoever scored more between Manning and LT will determine the winner.

 

[Utter Chaos]

Super Bowl players score double points in the Super Bowl.

I like that idea. Might have to try it in my contest this year.

 

[Jeff Pasquino]

The way we run it (and it has been pretty fun the last four years) -use the same scoring system as we use in the regular season.Each participant selects 2 qb, 4 rb, 6 wr, 2 k, 4 dl, 5 lb and 5 db. Once a team is eliminated from the playoffs, those players are dead and no new players are selected.Team with the most points after the Super Bowl wins. Super Bowl players score double points in the Super Bowl.

Not bad, I've done similar leagues w/o IDPs.Also you can do one where you are allowed to change your roster, in entirety, ONCE. Could be before the Super Bowl, before the Conf. Championships, or after Wild Card Weekend.

 

[TheJoeMachine]

Thanks, gonna put one together.

Joe

 

[snake6509]

Thanks, gonna put one together.Joe

Edit: To quote joffer below, this thread is not this is what your rules should be, but this is what your rules should cover.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: 1. Starting a player on bye week 2. 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.) 3. Making trades that result in worsening your team in order to stock another team who plays a rival you want/need to lose. 4. Firesales (in keeper/dynasty leagues) 5. Using waivers to make a trade after the trade deadline. 6. "Loaning" players. (i.e. "I'll trade you my backup defense, but you have to give it back after your bye week."). 7. 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 videoguy50514) 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.

 

[Mr. Know-It-All]

Thanks, gonna put one together.Joe

Edit: To quote joffer below, this thread is not this is what your rules should be, but this is what your rules should cover.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: 1. Starting a player on bye week 2. 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.) 3. Making trades that result in worsening your team in order to stock another team who plays a rival you want/need to lose. 4. Firesales (in keeper/dynasty leagues) 5. Using waivers to make a trade after the trade deadline. 6. "Loaning" players. (i.e. "I'll trade you my backup defense, but you have to give it back after your bye week."). 7. 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 videoguy50514) 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.