Anyone use mock fantasy insurance?

[Little Johnny]

I am the commish of a 16 team H2H keeper/auction league. I am considering the use of a mock insurance policy starting next year. Here are the basics...

The league utilizes 22 man rosters....the first 11 players are auctioned for with a spending limit of $130. The remainder are acqured via rotational draft. My proposal is that a mock insurance policy could be "purchased" on draft day using auction funds at a rate of 20% per players. So an owner that acquires a player for $20 on draft day would have the option of paying an additional $4 to secure an "insurance policy" for the player. The additional $4 would also be deducted from the $130 auction spending limit.

Should an owner need to use the insurance due to injury, the owner would receive 75% of the player's weekly projected fantasy point total. For example, for week 1, a player projected to score 160 total points would average 10 projected points per week. The insurance would provide 7.5 points per week in the player's absence.

This type of thing is more practical in a large league since players are so depleted and productive free agents are scarce.

I am wondering if anyone has ever tried something like this and I'm wondering what your overall thoughts are on this idea. Prime example: Jamaal Charles owners would be loving the insurance policy since it is going to be an uphill climb for his owners and such a major injury so early in the season. But, like ordinary insurance, there is also the possibility that an owner invests in insurance and never uses it.

I hope to get some feedback and draw on your experience.

Thanks much,

Johnny

[Cleokatrah]

I personally don't like it. Fantasy football is about gambling on players, checking your weekly score multiple times to see what your players produce, and staying up late or getting up early to make waiver moves. That is what the competition is. When I join deep leagues it is because I want a TOUGH competition. I want depleted waivers and rag-tag rosters. I want those kind of gambles. When you let me insure my players, you take a lot of that gamble and tough competition away. So it's not for me but maybe someone else, though I do understand your reasoning.

[dream_017]

I personally don't like it. Fantasy football is about gambling on players, checking your weekly score multiple times to see what your players produce, and staying up late or getting up early to make waiver moves. That is what the competition is. When I join deep leagues it is because I want a TOUGH competition. I want depleted waivers and rag-tag rosters. I want those kind of gambles. When you let me insure my players, you take a lot of that gamble and tough competition away. So it's not for me but maybe someone else, though I do understand your reasoning.

[lmcjaho]

Whose projections do you use to determine this insurance rate? What if a player was seriously over/under-achieving prior to the injury? Does his pre-season projection apply or an adjusted rate based on his current play?

Sounds like a lot of work to make this thing work in anything approaching fairness to me.

[Cleokatrah]

Was thinking about this and other ways to allow bereft teams to still be competitive. What about instead of an insurance system, an alternate player system? Each week, randomly select a number of players equal to the number of owners. Use an online dice roller or something to help with selection. Allow these players to be the "backup players".

Following the order of weakest team to strongest team, let owners select an extra player from the backup player pool. That owner then gets the points that player produces that week. They don't own them, so this takes nothing away from actual owners, and since everyone is allowed to participate, the teams that are doing well can't complain as they get extra points as well. It also keeps the gambling and payoff risk involved in the competition, along with research and matchups, etc. It is, however, more work than your insurance idea, depending on where/how you planned on establishing your player averages.

For an example, as a commish of a 14 team league, our third week randomly generated backup player pool could look like the following list. I used a d20 to select the QBs, a d30 on RBs, a d40 on WRs, and a d10 on the TEs.

QBs
Brees
Freeman

RBs
Matthews
Gore
Greene
Petersen

WRs/TEs
White
D. Moore
Burleson
Fitz
Boldin
Doucet
Witten
King

There are a few issues, of course. A commish would have to draw and post this by Tuesday morning and the owners would have to make their selections by Saturday. You would need to have every owner post their pick publicly and quickly, or have each owner reply with their preferences in an ordered list and then hand out the players accordingly. An easier way to do that would be having far less players (4-6), each one only selectable [x] amount of times, then having the owners rank their preferences with you handing out the results.

Definitely needs work but could be an idea.

[aaawall91]

was that serious?

[Cleokatrah]

Are you?