Cheating or NOT? Help!

[bnicol82]

In week 12, the second placed team, who already clinched a playoff spot, decided to take out his QB (Drew Brees) last minute, so that he would lose on purpose. I'm not sure of his intentions, but the person he let win is on the edge of getting into the playoffs, could be collusion but I don't know for a fact. I do know that he would rather the person he let win into the playoffs rather than other team... He said he feels that this isnt cheating since he is playing to win and he thinks this would give him a better chance of winning the playoffs in the end. Other league managers feel that this might be cheating, especially those who were also on the verge of making the playoffs... Is this considered cheating? Should I change his line up to make it the way he initially had it, which would make him win the game? Please help me out with this issue...

Thanks,
Billy

[bigmck]

Sounds pretty legal to me. Just check week 17 of the NFL. The stars usually sit and subs play. I don't see this as any different.

[dgan]

It's a matter of ethics, not legality. Sure you'd like every owner to try to win every game - unlike the NFL, they don't have to protect their players from injury. But how are you going to police it? All you can put in the rules is that you field a full lineup...you can't tell an owner who he can and can't play.

Plus he's in the playoffs so he's earned the right to 'choose his opponent' so to speak. There's nothing wrong with it, but I personally try to win every game. If you don't like the ethical standard of that league, either leave or (if you're the commish), replace that owner the following year. Just be careful of upsetting the other owners...

[ReverendStomp]

I think that is unethical, I simple fix for future years as commish is to set a penalty fee of some sort for not starting a complete line up. Or you can also make it so that if they forget to start a player, you will automatically change/edit the roster to with the lowest scoring person. Example below

Did not start a QB,
Person has 2 Qb's in Bench
QB1=20 points
QB2=45 points

Automatically edit roster to reflect QB1 starting that week instead of an empty spot.

This obviously all needs to be stated before the season starts. Or going back to the penalty fee for next season make them pay an outrageous fee for not having started a full roster.

[Professorxxx]

In my league we define this as strategy and put it in the constitution to avoid any problems.

[Hags888]

If he left his QB spot empty, then it our league it would be in violation of one the league rules in our constitution that states you must field a starting lineup of X, Y, Z. If he swapped out Brees for a lesser QB, then it's a legal move. It all depends on the rules you have setup in your league. If no official rules were broken, then it's not cheating necessarily. It's worth pointing out that we use ESPN, and it's literally impossible to leave a spot vacant, except in the case where you drop someone from your starting lineup.

If a guy is in position to purposefully lose AND still make the playoffs, then that's his prerogative to do so. My league is pretty competitive, so every win is vital for pretty much every team. Taking a dive for a better seed wouldn't really factor into it. Collusion is so hard to prove, that if you're going to discipline someone for it, then it has to be an obvious rules violation. One of the most important things you can do is have an iron-clad constitution. Here's a link to ours: http://www.mediafire.com/?tp5x8mvf3hsxvn2