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Is this move bush league? (1 Viewer)

Shaq90

Footballguy
Our league had a vote to decide how to handle Rookie Drafts for 2022 and going forward. This year, we are doing a traditional snake draft.

The vote ended up:

Snake Draft: 6
Auction Draft: 6


The vote is tied and the commissioner decided that we are switching to Auction Draft "because he says so". Do you think it's bush league for the commish to just empower his will like this? I also must mention, the commissioner who made the auction system has already traded away his first round pick.

Thoughts?

 
Sounds like you need to run for the hills.   So you guys started up in 2020, but didn't decide how the rookie draft would be held for 2021, or 2022?   The automatic assumption for the rookie priority should be that the worst teams get slotted into the best picks for all rounds (the way the NFL does it).    It definitely shouldn't be a snake, that's what you would do for the startup draft. 

Furthermore, the commish traded away his 2022 1st for assets to bolster his team, and now is dictating that everyone's just going to start fresh in 2022 with an auction draft?   In my book, that makes him a complete scumbag.   Unless he has some kind of system in place where there will be a weighted rookie draft auction budget, and he will be severely punishing his own team for not owning a 1st while giving those funds to the guy that owns two firsts.  This is a bad idea in general, but that's really the only way where he doesn't come off as a complete crook.    Tell him that some anonymous guy on the internet now thinks he's a creep.   Also, the people that voted to go along with this idiotic plan are mindless sheep.

 
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Ya, should have had a rule in place that the vote needs X% to pass.  Usually most leagues will have this number OVER 50%.  Ours is 60% needed to change a rule.

Re-do the vote, say that 51% is needed to change a rule, and if you get 51% then go for it.

But like someone said earlier, this should be voted on for NEXT year since a player already traded away his pick.

Auction draft seems silly for a rookie draft for many reasons, but that's on you guys to decide.  Either way, he can't just push it to Auction this year without 51% of the vote, and the vote should be for NEXT year.

 
I could see where the commish would have tie breaker power, but that would need to be stated up front and agree with the others that the first year of the change should be one with no draft assets traded.

 
I agree that something more like 60%  to 2/3 vote is better than 50-50 for deciding more generic proposals where nobody is really gaining a competitive edge, but I don't see this as an issue of majoritive vote.   This is common sense, morality stuff.   Even if the vote was 11/12 for auction in 2022, and the one dissenting vote was the guy who owns two firsts because of a prior trade, it wouldn't be right to do an auction because of an 11/12 majority.    This move is about as dirty as it gets given the circumstances.   Was it the commish who was beating the drum for this in the first place? 

 
I'm in an auction league that has draft picks, but they're only there for trading purposes.  The auction money each team gets is based on their finish to the season so if you came in 1st your 1st is worth something like $150 and if you came in 12th it's worth like $250 (not real numbers but you get my point).  2nd and 3rd round picks also have their weighted values.  If that's how the auction money is going to be divided then trading away his 1st is ok since he lost that amount of auction money and the other team gained it.  That said, I think the change shouldn't have happened until it was a year where no picks had been traded, and in general you have to give the league at least 1 year notice ahead of time for a major change like changing from draft to auction.

Otherwise, you simply can't change the draft into an auction and not take into account that future picks were traded.  No way would I stay in a league where that's happening.

 
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Also, in leagues that I'm commissioner, a tie means it didn't pass.  You need a majority to pass rule changes.  I don't give myself tie-breaker power.  I don't think a commissioner that plays in the league should have any more or different power than other teams, especially when it comes to things that affect team building and management.

 
Would the commish give himself less auction dollars than he would have had and give that to the team who acquired the 1st?

 
That's an important detail.   Was expecting to see a chart where he still gets 90% of the budget that every other team has, but that's a legit point system to convert draft picks to auction tokens.   That said, the league still should have been making this change effective for 2023, and not 2022.   But the commish is clear of what otherwise sounded like a heinous act in the realm of fantasy. 

 
And how do you do an auction for a rookie draft anyway?
Easy. You make a grid of values for the traditional rookie picks.  Pick 1.01 might be worth $300 in auction dollars dropping to say $150 at pick 2.01. You might make all fourth rounders worth $25. 

After the season you simply convert all owned picks to auction dollars available and voila....a rookie auction.

I see no way to do this fairly AFTER picks have been traded though, as the values can be set up very differently. You can have a sharp decline in value where the 1.01 is worth 4 times the 1.14 or a more gentle slope where 2.01 + 2.02 are worth as much as that 1.01. 

 
What do your league bylaws say about how many votes are required to pass a new rule?

If your league does not have a rule like this defined in the bylaws, then it is likely that the commish also does not have enumerated tie breaker powers either. 

If it’s not defined, it doesn’t exist for the purposes of the league. 

 
Shaq90 said:
That seems fair.  I would have voted for the auction. 

Shaq90 said:
Our league had a vote to decide how to handle Rookie Drafts for 2022 and going forward. This year, we are doing a traditional snake draft.

The vote ended up:

Snake Draft: 6
Auction Draft: 6


The vote is tied and the commissioner decided that we are switching to Auction Draft "because he says so". Do you think it's bush league for the commish to just empower his will like this? I also must mention, the commissioner who made the auction system has already traded away his first round pick.

Thoughts?
The leagues by laws need to address rule changes. Preferably before the league starts, but apparently it's too late for that here.

If people join the league where rule changes are simple majority and the speaker gets to break the tie, then that's that. We have always been ⅔ or along those lines. 

Is this the first year? If not why are you doing snake for a rookie draft?

 
Agree this is not justifiable.  As already stated, the key is the League Bylaws should have a rule on voting majority required (like 2/3).  Also the Bylaws also should define if the Commish has the “tie breaker” authority.  Without both of these in place, I don’t see the league surviving long.  These are stabilizers when change occurs. 
And finally, since the Commish had already traded away his 2022 1st, there should be a financial deductible applied as consequence and it rewarded to whomever had the pick.

Sorry but this type of move would have me looking to disrupt his world. Withdrawal is the smart option. Propose a league vote on amending the Bylaws. Something where sanity prevails. 

 
I'm less offended by the move, but yeah, 6-6 with commish laying down the hammer is kind of bush league.  At least it's a reasonable point system to convert picks to auction points.  How did the guy with two first round draft picks vote?    How did the guy who was going to have the top pick, but now will lose out on the most auction points to the guy that accumulated two firsts vote?

Is your league bush league?   Absolutely, and you have your self to blame.   You're conducting a 2021 rookie draft via snake.    That's sign #1 that you're entering into a dynasty league with poor leadership and decision-making.   Nobody tried to right this wrong when the league was forming? 

 
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RC94 said:
Also, in leagues that I'm commissioner, a tie means it didn't pass.  You need a majority to pass rule changes.  I don't give myself tie-breaker power.  I don't think a commissioner that plays in the league should have any more or different power than other teams, especially when it comes to things that affect team building and management.
That’s how I feel. I’m an administrator. Anyone could do it. NBD.

 
I'm less offended by the move, but yeah, 6-6 with commish laying down the hammer is kind of bush league.  At least it's a reasonable point system to convert picks to auction points.  How did the guy with two first round draft picks vote?    How did the guy who was going to have the top pick, but now will lose out on the most auction points to the guy that accumulated two firsts vote?

Is your league bush league?   Absolutely, and you have your self to blame.   You're conducting a 2021 rookie draft via snake.    That's sign #1 that you're entering into a dynasty league with poor leadership and decision-making.   Nobody tried to right this wrong when the league was forming? 
To clarify, our draft is linear, snake is just the verbiage the commissioner used to describe the poll options.

 
The entire point of the thread, was to illustrate to the commissioner how bush league their decisions were. He tried acting like I was the bad guy for speaking up about it. I found this league on Footballguys. This is the brainchild of one of your members, lol.

So when he tried insisting to the rest of the league that I was the problem, I made this thread to show him that unbiased strangers on the internet would espouse the same exact concerns as I had, unsolicited. So thank you for your participation. Next year, we are doing an auction, which I don't mind. I just let the commissioner know his move was ####### bush league and he said that I was the one with the problem.

Point proven, huh commish? I'm sure you're still reading...

 
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Logically, the commish did not simply break a tie... He also had a vote.  Without his vote it would not have been an auction.  Since he's the only to have traded a pick, it does not make sense for him to vote anyway.  Also, the team that previously paid for a pick just got screwed.  

If nothing else, you have to wait an additional year out to apply a change like this so that everyone is aware before the season that impacts the draft. 

 
As a commissioner, I try to refrain from the vote so that the collective will of the league wins out without my interference.   At least with generic things where I don't see a right or wrong answer for what would be in the best interest of the league.

This guy brings a polarizing rule change to the table for a year where picks have already changed hands.   He casts his vote, but when the result ends up 6-6, he unilaterally decides that his vote matters more than anybody else.   That is so wrong.   6-6 means that your proposed rule change didn't pass, unless the league bylaws previously established that this would be the case.   In which case, shame on the league if they actually let the commish get away with such a rule.   If no bylaws were previously established, you would have to assume it takes a majority vote to make any changes.

But this brings up an important point.   It's important to have the leadership of a commish that can recognize when a league wide vote is even reasonable in the first place.  I don't think this was reasonable for 2022.   You have picks that have already changed hands, including the very commish pushing for the change.  I do give him some credit for a reasonable point system that accounts for the missing and acquired picks, however it still doesn't make this something that should have even come to vote.   The change most likely puts the team with two 1sts in the driver's seat to outbid everyone else for the top player in the 2022 draft  (unless it ends up being two later picks).  My guess is that there's most likely a team that looks like the worst team on paper.   So if this guy goes on to have a 2-12 season, and is unable to acquire additional 1sts of his own, he now misses out on the top player of the draft despite having the worst team.   

To put it another way, my dynasty league started as a 1QB league.   I have Mahomes and haven't invested much in backup QBs.  It amazes how many teams are loading their roster with four middling starting QBs in a 1QB league.   It would be completely inappropriate for the commish of this league to allow a vote to suddenly turn the league into a start 2 QB league..   If the 8 teams with quality backups vote for it and the vote goes 8-4 for the change, it doesn't make such a change right.  If you're in a dynasty league with no defined end point, and you really want to make a change that you think is for the better, you need to at least make something like this effective for something like 4-5 years out in the future, where teams have an opportunity to adjust and the years tend to wipe out any apparent advantage or disadvantage of the present.   Luckily, my dynasty league is an empire league that ends when somebody wins the championship in consecutive years.   In this case, I find any meaningful changes completely inappropriate.     You wait until the current  league ends, and make the change at the reset.   

If the commish in this case wants to have this vote for 2023, that's probably okay.   Picks haven't changed hands, and it's far enough away that the dregs of the league have a reasonable opportunity to build themselves up by that point.   There's no clear bottom feeding team that looks to be getting screwed out of the top pick for 2023.   But again, a 6-6 vote should never succeed in changing an established rule.

To the commissioner of this league:   https://youtu.be/VN29X2HCKpU     

 
Yes, pretty bush lg, you can't make a change like that for the following yr after future draft picks have been exchanged. At the very least he should have abstained from voting and absolutely not have forced it thru after the tie vote. 

 
I would keep an eye on this commissioner. If he had no problem pulling this bs off, he may be capable of anything. I once caught a commissioner who ran his own website with many leagues switching out players during play on multiple occasions. No surprise he would annually win more than half the leagues he was in. 

 
Bush league, yes. I would bail on this league quickly.  Once a commissioner starts pulling shady stuff, it takes all of the fun out of playing. 

 
That’s how I feel. I’m an administrator. Anyone could do it. NBD.
This is completely false.  There are plenty of fantasy players that I would want no where near the commish office.  The good commish's feel this way because they oversee fairly and don't see it as any big deal.  There are plenty of people out there that would not oversee in the best interest of the league and would do what is best for their team in times of grey area.  

ETA:  The part that is completely false is that "anyone could do it".  The fact that you feel that way means you are one of the good ones because you treat it like an admin effort.  

 
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As other's have said above many times, the bylaws need to be clear about what is needed to make rule changes.  Typically that involves a majority of votes to change something.  The only caveat we put into our rules was that it is a majority of votes received but there needs to be at least 2/3 of the league voting.  That way if a couple people don't vote you can still get stuff done.  

But all that is stated clearly in the by-laws.  

We also won't institute a new rule if there are strategy or assets (draft picks) involved.  We can trade up to two years in advance so anything involving draft picks will not go into affect for 3 years so everyone trading those picks are aware of the changes.  For example, we voted in 1 pt per 2 receptions before the 2020 season but did not put it into affect until the 2021 season so that people could adjust if they wanted to for a full year before it was enacted.  The Commish office makes that clear (when it goes into affect) prior to a vote so that everyone is aware of what is affected by the change.  

Clear communication really is the key to a good commish.

 
A 6-6 split means the commissioner already voted.  Why would he get to vote again?  I'm sorry, but you are in a bad league.  This guy cares more about winning than running a fair league.  Being the commissioner is always difficult, because you almost have to be overly accommodating with trades and any league changes to protect league integrity.  

Changing rookie drafts to snake drafts?  Absolutely stupid.  The fact you had 5 + the commissioner vote yes for this is reason enough to consider leaving.  Nevermind Joseph Stalin playing commissioner.

 
I would take a 6-6 vote in my league to mean that the league is pretty underwhelmed by the proposed change and it wouldn't go through.

 

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