TONIGHT – League Summit is scheduled for 8:30 pm (Eastern) at House Jones. Anyone who would like to attend is welcome. If you cannot make it in person, we will have a virtual setup as well. Just let Jones know if you want to be involved, and we’ll take a look at the changes listed below, as well as whatever nonsense Jon comes up with.

Over the years, plenty of changes have been proposed, some were tried and abandoned, others were dismissed without much thought – figure now is as good a time as any to see what people want for next year…

OUT?

Bonus Points

Per Dave: Bring back the bonuses for QBs with 300+ yards passing, or for skill position guys that get over 100 yards rushing or receiving. This is a throwback to the inflated scoring era we had earlier this decade. This wasn’t popular then, probably not coming back now. But here it is.

Flex Spot

The addition of a Flex Spot has been proposed many times but never implemented. Over the years we’ve actually gone the other way, eliminating bench spots rather than adding an active roster spot. If this were to balloted, there are a few ways to do it;

Replace the TE slot with a WR/RB/TE Flex Spot
Replace the K slot with a WR/RB/TE/K Super Flex Spot
Keep both TE and K and add active roster Flex Spot – WR/RB/TE
Get real stupid and go ULTRA FLEX – QB/WR/RB/TE/K

I don’t suspect that any of these will happen anytime soon.

DOUBTFUL

Auction Draft

As Coach Kaiser brought up recently, and Josh Kreger proposed years ago and continues to be a proponent of, is changing our draft style. This would be the most drastic change the league has ever made if it were to happen. Everyone has a starting budget, and we bid on players – auction-style – and you have to decide if you should spend all your money upfront for the best players or hold off while Dave blows his load on Aaron Rodgers and just wait to grab a bunch of mid-range guys late. This would for sure require a steep learning curve.

Draft Order

For years now, we’ve determined draft order based on where the manager finished the previous season – as it’s done in the NFL. But as we are not a Dynasty League (like the NFL) and we do not employ keepers, so is this really the best way to do things? No keepers mean no real carry-over or connection to the previous year, so why not look at other options? Here are a couple ideas…

Allow Yahoo to Randomize the draft order.
Choose your own spot based on where you finished the year before.
Rather than letting Yahoo Auto-Randomize, do our own draft lottery for order.
Tie-in the Consolation Bracket (See Below)

Kick Return Yardage

This is something I proposed some years ago, and it passed momentarily, and then both Jones and Dave changed their votes (out of spite?) and it was shelved. Since then the NFL has changed how kickoffs work and the Kick Return Yardage is a lot less important. But the idea was to reward those DBs and third-string RB and WR special teams standouts with a bonus – giving 1 point for every 3 return yards – which isn’t enough to make a huge difference, but it makes the waiver wire a little more interesting.

Wavier Buys

A new thing Yahoo rolled out is “Waiver Buys” – which they have implemented in my public Hockey league. How this works is you put in Waiver Claims as usual, but you have a ‘budget’ for the season. If you think no one will be going for that guy, you bid nothing and rely on your priority to win you the player. But for those highly contested guys, rather than simply rewarding the guy with the worst record, you can bid some of your budget towards that guy – whoever bids the highest gets the player. The strategy, of course, comes in how you spend you money. By the end of the season, the teams who haven’t been bidding will have big advantages in claims.

QUESTIONABLE

Consolation Bracket

As it currently stands, all winning gets you in the consolation bracket (aside from wins and final standing) is a lower draft spot. For years we have discussed adding something to play for in this bracket. Here are some ideas…

Winner of the Consolation Bracket gets back half of their buy-in.
Winner of the Consolation gets to pick their draft spot – rather than drafting #6 as it is now.
Winner of the Consolation Bracket gets 1 Champ Point, just like the Bronze Team.

IR Spots

This has never been something we focused too much on since we haven’t dealt with keepers in a very long time. That said, some of the designations have changed over the years, and some players come back from the IR later in the season. This would allow teams to hold onto some of these guys in case they do end up coming back (ie; Kerryon Johnson) without further punishing the Manager who drafted/acquired them more than they already have. If you use your first pick on a guy who gets hurt and misses the next 10 games, that seems like punishment enough to me, you shouldn’t have to waste a roster spot to old onto their carcass.

And on a more selfish note, it would help me keep more accurate stats moving forward when I look back at old teams. I am proposing 2 IR spots per team.

Raise the Buy-in

We went from FREE to $5 to $10 to $50 – we’ve been at $50 for quite a while now. That means with the current payout schedule, league champ only gets $300 – and more importantly the trophy – but if we upped the buy-in there are plenty of things we could do;

Bonuses for League Awards (which I’m still working out)
Bonuses for Best Players/Draft Stuff
Higher Payout for Trophy Winners
Trophy Upgrades
Regular Season Champ Prize

Twelveth Place Penalty

There should be some extra shame piled on here. Whatever that be…

PROBABLE

Kill the Divisions

As I have detailed before, the history of divisions in this league is a pretty mixed bag, but the biggest knock against keeping them is how you make them relevant and still schedule it so everyone plays each other. Right now the division winners get first-round playoff BYES, but that can still be accomplished without divisions, and then it ensured the two highest-ranked teams get them. This one isn’t complicated.

Scheduling

This is in part tied to the decision we make on Divisions. We shouldn’t have teams going 2 years without playing each other just cause the divisions didn’t lineup – but if we keep divisions, there are still other options to make sure we all play each other, but they all lessen the importance of the divisions. I would simply have to track the previous year to make sure you don’t go multiple seasons without playing someone.

Trade Approvals

Something that has been discussed this season is Trade Approvals. What was once a Commish decision, became a League Vote situation and a 2-day waiting period. Discussions this year led to a reduction from 48 to 24 hours of wait-time. Is that where we want to keep it – and should it be on @ctansuche to decide or remain a league vote? Or…

Veto Removal

Another suggestion from Dave, just do away with the veto, and thereby eliminate the waiting period. This would certainly increase the trade numbers, as you could make swaps on Sunday morning if you want. This really isn’t as extreme as it sounds either, as discussed earlier, there hasn’t been a real veto since 2011, so while the system once had a real purpose, it seems to have outworn its usefulness. And we always have the option of letting Chris step in and reverse stuff if we decide it’s too egregious.

Suggestions for 2020… (UPDATED)