Inactive owners?

[mthomas720]

I am the commissioner of a 12-team Yahoo league, made up of mostly family and a couple friends. Even though, obviously, everyone wants to win, it's a very non-competitive league, just for fun. This past year was our first year, and everything went well except for one team whose owner was inactive for virtually the entire season. I feel like I should make a rule about inactive owners, but I don't want to come off as too strict, or being too competitive and not just having fun. I would say kicking the owner out is certainly out of the question. What rules/penalties do you guys have regarding inactive owners that aren't too strict and don't involve kicking someone out of the league? As I said, its a Yahoo league, so I don't really have any power as far as overturning results/taking away points/changing the standings.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Kilroy]

Are we talking inactive as in didn't scour the wire or inactive as in didn't set their lineup?

Assuming it's something along the lines of the latter and considering it's F+F I'd just talk to the owner. Let them know (nicely) that if they wish to participate in the league there are things they'll need to do, and if not that's fine. They'll either say "yay" (at which point you can go over (and possibly assist them with learning how to do) what they need to) or "nay" (at which point there's no hard feelings and you can get someone else).

I commished a league for F+F last year and had the same dilemna. Friendly conversation and a little "how to" later that owner made the playoffs and has already said how psyched they are for '07.

[flotsamnjetsam]

Are we talking inactive as in didn't scour the wire or inactive as in didn't set their lineup?

Assuming it's something along the lines of the latter and considering it's F+F I'd just talk to the owner. Let them know (nicely) that if they wish to participate in the league there are things they'll need to do, and if not that's fine. They'll either say "yay" (at which point you can go over (and possibly assist them with learning how to do) what they need to) or "nay" (at which point there's no hard feelings and you can get someone else).

I commished a league for F+F last year and had the same dilemna. Friendly conversation and a little "how to" later that owner made the playoffs and has already said how psyched they are for '07.

I agree. Considering that it's a league with friends and family, I think that you need to talk to the inactive owner and ask them if they can at least handle setting their lineup each week. They don't have to scour the waiver wire each week and actively try to make trades. But the absolute minimum that an owner needs to do is set their lineup every week. If you talk to the owner and they say that they can't do that...then you have to tell them that you'll have to find a replacement that can do that. Good luck!

[steelerfan513]

Like Kilroy said, how inactive are they? If it's just not making many waiver moves, that's not a big deal.

If they were more inactive, like they weren't changing their lineup at all and such, then you should talk to them if you know them personally and politely tell them that they need to be at least setting a lineup every week. Hopefully that will solve the problem. If it doesn't, well, let's just hope it does.

[mthomas720]

They're inactive in the sense that they had players in the lineup who were on bye week or injured, or had been starters but lost the starting job. It's not just not making moves on the waiver wire...I agree, not doing that is not a big deal, but they need to set a lineup each week, with all active players.

[steelerfan513]

They're inactive in the sense that they had players in the lineup who were on bye week or injured, or had been starters but lost the starting job. It's not just not making moves on the waiver wire...I agree, not doing that is not a big deal, but they need to set a lineup each week, with all active players.

In that case, follow the advice that was given above.

[Kilroy]

They're inactive in the sense that they had players in the lineup who were on bye week or injured, or had been starters but lost the starting job. It's not just not making moves on the waiver wire...I agree, not doing that is not a big deal, but they need to set a lineup each week, with all active players.

In that case, follow the advice that was given above.

Exactly. A friendly chat should resolve the issue (one way or the other) without ruffling too many feathers.

Good Luck.

[lmcjaho]

I am the commissioner of a 12-team Yahoo league,
***SNIP FOR RELEVANCE***
As I said, its a Yahoo league, so I don't really have any power as far as overturning results/taking away points/changing the standings.

As a Yahoo Commish you have plenty of power as far as overturning results/taking away points - all you have to do is go back to whatever week you want to and remove a player from their starting lineup and the points that player scored will be deducted and voila! The only problem is that this doesn't necessarily have any affect on the inactive team since if he/she didn't care enough to set their rosters in the first place they will probably also not care about any changes you make to punish them for that inaction...

One thing I would suggest if you are doing this again next year and you have concern about something like this being a problem is to make your league a total points league rather than a Head-to-Head league. In a total points league an inactive team harms nobody but themself whereas in a H2H league an inactive team can harm others by making certain games easier matchups than others and possibly affecting the overall records...

[bobbing_headz]

I find that the best thing to do is to just set the owner's lineup for him. It's no fun if you bench players on his team so the other teams get essentially an automatic bye, especially if he's only inactive for part of the year (cause it's unfair). I say start his best players every week. You're not penalizing anyone except yourselves if you try to remove his team cause he's gone and he obviously doesn't care anymore.

[Kilroy]

I find that the best thing to do is to just set the owner's lineup for him. It's no fun if you bench players on his team so the other teams get essentially an automatic bye, especially if he's only inactive for part of the year (cause it's unfair). I say start his best players every week. You're not penalizing anyone except yourselves if you try to remove his team cause he's gone and he obviously doesn't care anymore.

I'm not crazy about the idea of commishes setting lineups for other teams unless that owner has expressly given the commish permission (the owner will be out of town, etc.). That can be a slippery slope that leads to a league full of p****d-off owners. How do you define who that team's "best" players are? Points? Matchups? What about injuries? Inevitably you're going to make a lineup decision that leaves someone crying "foul".