Commissioner of a 20-year league, and I will have to take accountability for the following:
Overtime Players --- Before decimal scoring online became the industry standard, we designated OT players back in the days of manual scoring and final scores ending in whole number. It never decided a playoff contest, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I have some fond memories of this one.
Homefield Advantage Bonus --- My baby. It was an attempt to inject the factor of homefield advantage into fantasy football and make teams battle for superior playoff seeds. Championship games were considered neutral. Originally, it was select a single NFL team with a losing record or playing a team with a winning record for a +5 bonus if they won. Later iteration changed it to +2 bonus picks = seed differential divided by 2, rounded up. So, the 4-seed would be awarded one 2-point bonus pick against the 5-seed. The 1-seed would be awarded four 2-point bonus picks against the 8-seed.
Keeping this was a champion's elective, and it would probably surprise many to learn that the champion always chose to keep playoff homefield advantage for years. Finally, someone pulled the plug and I didn't want to have it be something that flip-flopped every year.
Alternatively, we now have a champion's elective where the top seeded teams can choose their opponent from the bottom half of the remaining playoff teams.
Snake Draft with 1st round FAAB bidding -- Conducted snake draft in the same league. Instead of just drawing ping-pong balls for draft order, we started allowing teams to bid FAAB for draft position in the first round. e.g. #1 overall pick goes up for bid. Winning bid emerges. That owner makes their pick and is now locked into the 1-spot of the snake. 2-spot now goes up for bid.
Basically, we tossed the pro-auction people a little bit of a bone for having control over their top selection.
How exactly does the fa snake draft work? Does each pick come up for auction in a way that the 4th could potentially be worth more than the 1st? And just how important is FAAB, are the benches deep enough that you don't really need your dollars outside of that breakout of nowhere guy?
I guess I see faab as easy come easy go, and draft position critical to team building.
It amounts to the option to spend some portion of your season-long FAAB at the draft to get a desirable spot in the snake. Typically, a team is spending anywhere from half or even as much as 80% of their total FAAB to secure the top spot (or most favorable spot within the snake). Obviously, having the top pick is a great asset, but keep in mind that you're also signing up for the worst pick in the 2nd (along with top pick in the 3rd and so-on).
At the expense of landing the top pick, you're basically not going to win any priority waiver bids all season. Granted, FAAB can sometimes feel overrated based on league depth and settings. The point is that you get to decide how valuable the FAAB is and whether it's worth chucking 2/3s of it away just to secure the top position in the snake. Many owners are happy to conserve all of their FAAB and just slot in to whatever position in the 1st round that nobody is bidding for. Needless to say, their FAAB is going to go a lot farther than a typical league where every team is starting the season at $200.
Occasionally, it's possible that someone has remorse and ends up bidding slightly more for the #4 overall than what the #3 overall spot went for, but that's rare. If anything, it's typically a situation where someone bids $1 to have the turn at the #12, where there's no bidding for #10.
