It's an agreement between two teams, to make a trade, with a pre-arranged trade-back after a week. That agreement is what makes it collusion. Collusion is illegal in pretty much all of FF. Thus it is cheating. It's not the trade that makes it illegal. It's the agreements to make a trade, and then later reverse it, which is illegal. It is ABSOLUTELY cheating.
Felix the Cat wrote:I really don't think it's cheating. I suppose it depends on the trade and the league.
Perhaps it's because the only situation in which I can see this happening is in contract leagues with kickers and defenses... I have one kicker, you have two kickers, my kicker is on bye, neither of your kickers are, I trade you my kicker for one of yours, plus maybe a future draft pick as compensation.
My feeling is that if the trade itself wouldn't be considered collusion (i.e. it's not LT for Taco Wallace or whatever), the reverse trade isn't either. Obviously if the trading itself is collusion (trying to stack a team, whatever) then it's bad.
It doesn't matter if the trade is balanced or not... if LT is involved or not. The agreement, implied in the first trade, to trade back after a week, is what makes it collusion, plain and simple. Any commish has an obligation to prevent this from occurring.
If both people benefit (IE: one team has an extra BN WR that week and thin at QB, and vice versa for the other player) and its clearly not to just help one person, then I see no reason why this is wrong.
Last edited by suppasonic on Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
That's exactly the point of it. Those agreements help the 2 teams in the agreement, undermining the roster constraints all other teams face. Because you are able to hang on to players who you don't want to drop for their byes, or for their injuries, etc, and still get top value at those positions. You can't rent players out.
Teams would choose to rent players to certain other teams, but for several varied reasons, NOT rent them to others.
Hypothetical: You are on the bubble for making the playoffs. It's you and one other team. That team has injury concerns, and looks to lose it's last game. The team with Tom Brady and Randy Moss is a lock, and is run by the best friend of the other bubble team. He RENTS Tom Brady and Randy Moss to the bubble team, which kicks your arse that week. But they trade back, so it's okay, right?
Even if it helps both teams out, the point isn't that neither of the teams in the temporary trade got hurt... it's the rest of the league. Other hypothetical: One team is stacked at RB, other team is stacked at WR. In order to get around bye weeks, they temporarily swap a RB for a WR and then trade back after the games. Who gets hurt?
THE LEAGUE. The two teams they play are facing artificially strong teams. They should be playing against a team that's fielding one RB and a backup, and against a team that's fielding a junk WR lineup. But they don't due to these fake arse trades.
That is total crap. It is absolutely cheating. You never see that sort of thing happen in the real world because it is collusion. It is essentially having a 32-man roster and fielding two starting lineups. "Hey I have a tough matchup this week, and you are playing the last place team. Let me borrow LT and Moss." It totally undermines the ability to fairly compete in the league.
Total friggin' horsepuckey. Both teams should be thrown out of the league, or at least have a very stern talking to, and have their trade priviledges revoked for the remainder of the year. If the trade-back hasn't happened yet, the return trade should be disallowed.
It's time to put down the crack-pipe and step away from the keyboard.
I've *always* heard they are considered cheating, for the reasons posted already. The commissioner should veto the return trade, and next year, the participants would not be invited back to my league.
What do you guys think of a situation where one team trades a player for a bye week fill in DEF. and then after that week trades the DEF back to the same team for another lesser player.
Part two... Does it matter if that other player is then dropped or stays on the roster?
If there's an agreement to trade back, it's collusion. If teams drop the players, it's open season, and it doesn't matter. Trading for a defense for a week, and then trading for another player... this would be okay, if there isn't a pre-arranged agreement to trade the defense back, or to trade player X for the use of defense Y for one week, and then ownership of player Z from there on out... I would think. But more likely than not, the solution is to simply ban one week trades... if you trade away a player, you can't get him back in the next week. Eliminates gray area.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Baseball
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by FatFoot » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:34 pm 
Both teams should be thrown out of the league, or at least have a very stern talking to, and have their trade priviledges revoked for the remainder of the year. If the trade-back hasn't happened yet, the return trade should be disallowed.
