C'mon guys get your rule book in order. (long post)

[SLAMLLC]

I constantly read posts about should I allow this, is this cheating, what do I do about this, people are quiting, people are not paying, people are dumping teams, owners are mad. C'Mon. Before next year starts, you have got to go through your rule books and play out every senario you can think of. Write as tight a rule book as you can. This is essential. As Commisioners we could help each other with this. We could come up with senarios that others might not have thought about and come up with rules to help. At this point in the year if you are having problems with your league I only hope you can hold it together long enough to make it through the year. You have to rule by your rulebook. Do not go out and make new rules now. If something doesn't look right, preach "the integrity of the league" and how you would like to see all owners back next year, but things might have to change if questionable things continue. That is really all you can do at this point. Changing rules now or making up new rules now is just as bad as people doing what you consider questionable but not specifically against the rules. Some will see it as you are trying to "cheat" them out of doing what they think they need to do to win "without breaking the rules."
The end of the year always brings about these issues. The biggest deterrent to having a lot of these problems is having owners who want to come back each year and who have to play their best each week because each and every game has meaning. For example. In my league, 12 team head to head, we have top 8 make playoffs. Bottom 4 also have playoffs. 9 plays 12, 10 plays 11. Winners play for Best of the worst prize which is full refund of league entry fees. losers also play for a prize. This stops dumping players and games. We do not give first draft pick to the last place team (the one who loses both toilet bowl games.) In the final game as the two teams are playing for 11th and 12th place in the league the winner of that game (11th place) gets the 1st draft pick next season. 12th place gets 2nd pick. This stops these owners from throwing games and dumping players from mid season on. They are always playing for something. It works.

[suhgamer]

wow, getting some words off your chest or what?

i agree to a point. i do think that creating a rule book and having each owner agree, by signing a copy, and create penalties for any rules broken. that'll determine what kind of owners you have within your league.

playoff systems are much more subject to debate. in our 12 team league, only 6 get in. anymore and its like the NHL, where almost everyone gets in. i like to make owners work and try harder to get into those top 6 spots. everyone has their own opinions for playoff systems. what about a playoff system that runs parallel to the NFL playoffs, all the way to the real Super Bowl? would be hard, but interesting.

[Snowhawk]

I agree that alot of problems in young football leagues can be solved by having an in-depth rule book and a commish who enforces those rules. Before our season begins, we will not accept a cut list until the GM acknowledges they have read the rules (dynasty league format). Since a majority of the GMs in our league are experienced players, we have a league wide vote to determine the commish every 2 seasons. The commish is responsible for enforcing the rules so its best to have your most experienced guy there. Rules are never changed during the season, and all rule changes require all GMs to vote and a majority vote (6/10 in ours). Our league has 10 teams, 4 team playoff for the $$$ in a winner-take-all format. If you want to tank your team in our league, you can, its your investment (League dues are due in the middle of the offseason). Our only requirement on rosters is that you keep a minimum of 1 player in each position and you start 1 player in every position available. Draft picks are assigned by how you finished after both playoffs (1-4, 5-8) complete. Kinda like how the NFL does it (why work against existing rules). With the dues being required so early before the draft, we ensure we have enough owners for the following season. After 2 seasons, its been pretty even amongst all the teams. I'm only 10-1 because of the timing of the schedule this season (toughest games during opponents bad bye weeks... thanks yahoo...) However, there is solid competition for the 2-4 positions. Only 1 team from last year hasn't improved (he doesn't participate, he is still new to fantasy football, and will end up having his team purchased by a more experienced fantasy player). We are all friends, so the kinda helped things early on in keeping things together, but with a possibility of expansion with others, we'll really be able to test our rulebook. In the past off-season, 4 new rules were created in our league, 2 rules were amended, just when we thought we had everything addressed. This season, so far so good, only talk about raising the dues and having a trophy (additional bragging rights). I've never found leagues without dues very entertaining as

Perhaps a better response with all the issues is to establish rule book templates for the various types of leagues. Maybe not the Bible for Fantasy Football, but a list of sections/rules covering the spectrum of possible rules and the options a league can make related to that rule.