How to regulate against inactivity.

[Cult of Dionysus]

A recurring issue in many leagues seems to be where owners tend to start inactive players in the 2nd half of the season. Sometimes this is due to an owner simply failing to log-in. Sometimes it is an owner starting a player on Bye or Out in his starting lineup. In DLF PL, it really became a big problem this year, and some of us are trying to figure out ways to address the problem.

Obviously, the simple answer would be “get better owners.”. And while that is of course, true. The reality of the matter is that you will never get 16 owners who are all fully-engaged at all times, and sometimes it's hard to even spot it until it's too late.

So I just want to open up a discussion here about possible regulatory solutions to this issue.

My ideas are as follows:

First, it is really hard to figure out what owners have set their lineups and what owners have not. So my first idea is to have MFL not carry over starting lineups from week to week. This way, if you click on Fantasy Previews, any owner who has not set their lineup will have a blank lineup. Thus making it easy to see who has actually set their lineup.

Second, I think it would also make sense to have a Thursday deadline for when all owners need to set their initial lineup.

Third, there needs to be a way to penalize owners who fail to (i) set their lineup by the initial deadline and (ii) who don’t set their deadline at all or include players who are on BYE or OUT.

Again, would love to hear some practical, proactive regulatory ideas about how to handle this issue, beyond “get good owners” and “kick out guys who start inactive players”.

[PPE82]

I really like the first idea. Is that possible on MFL?

[Jigga94]

I like the first one. Take everyone out and then have them put everyone back in each week. Of course I'd probably wake up Tuesday morning and then I dropped everyone

[Krypto_King]

late week inactives are tough for even active managers but early or bye week guys I'd go 1 warning then start docking draft picks

[honcho55]

I’m debating Best Ball in my next startup and this is one of the reasons. Of course that comes with its own set of pros and cons and maybe isn’t the solution you’re looking for.

I get that you’re looking for solutions outside of “kick the guy out” but I gotta say, a guy that doesn’t set his lineup consistently isn’t a guy I wanna play FF with, period. Gotta deter them, boot them, or make it impossible.

[Pac_Eddy]

I don't think MFL had a rule you can enable to enforce number two, and manually policing that is going to be tough.

There really isn't a way to force owners to be more diligent. I suggest potential points door standings for all non playoff teams, that's as close as you can get.

[M-Dub]

FWIW, here are the sections of my league’s constitution pertaining to this issue:


Valid Lineups:
A valid weekly starting lineup consists of eight players: one QB and seven RBs, WRs or TEs, with a minimum of one at each position and a maximum of four at any position. A lineup that includes empty slots, players on bye weeks, or players listed as “out” in an NFL injury report at least 24 hours prior to the kickoff of that player’s game is considered invalid. Invalid lineups have repercussions beyond the individual matchup. The team playing against an invalid lineup gains an unearned competitive advantage due to their opponent’s neglect, which could have playoff and/or draft ramifications. The MFL platform for our league is configured to set every team’s roster to empty slots each week, effectively forcing owners to set a valid lineup or earn zero points for the week.

Indifference:
Obviously inferior rosters submitted due to apathy/indifference will be treated in the same manner as invalid rosters. None of us expect this dynasty league to be the most important thing in your life, but you owe it to your fellow owners to put forth at least a minimal effort to field a competitive lineup. As we have seen in the past, failure to set a competitive lineup can have ramifications beyond the individual game and can unfairly affect playoff seeding and draft position for multiple other teams. Setting a valid, competitive lineup is a task that can be completed in three or four minutes on a smartphone while taking a dump, so claiming you were “too busy” to set a valid lineup is an excuse that will not fly in this league. Nobody is perfect, of course, and it’s entirely understandable if an otherwise vigilant, engaged owner has a “brain fart” one week and forgets to set a valid lineup before the games kick off on Sunday. However, repeated failure to engage in even the bare minimum of league activity will be taken as a sign of indifference to the welfare and integrity of the league and may result in removal from the league.

Team Abandonment:
A team will be considered abandoned by its owner when there is a failure to submit a valid lineup for two consecutive weeks. The owner abandoning the team will sacrifice the entire fee for that season to the league and the commissioner will immediately invoke league control of the franchise. During the period of league control, the commissioner will initiate two separate actions in tandem:

— The ongoing operation of the team (lineups, waivers, etc.), based on a minimalist strategy for personnel changes (limited number of trades, free agents and any serious roster changes). The minimalist approach ensures that the team makeup remains as intact as possible until the new owner has been installed. The league will use FantasyPros as the definitive authority in determining the lineups each week.

— Identifying, and interviewing the replacement owner. The commissioner will review the list of names of prospective owner candidates that has been assembled by the league and with the help of one or more committee members, award the franchise to the new owner.

These actions will commence in tandem immediately upon team abandonment, but since there is no certainty that a replacement can be found after the season has begun, it’s possible that league control of the franchise will extend for the remainder of the season. In the unlikely event that the league controlled franchise should qualify for any of the postseason financial awards, any prize money will be added to the empire fund (see below).

Should a new owner be awarded the abandoned team after the season has begun, he shall be required to pay the following season’s fee in advance. He will have the opportunity to participate in all of the league prize money, with the exception of the empire fund for that season. For example, if the defending league champion abandons his team and the replacement owner leads that team to a second consecutive title, the empire fund bonus would not be triggered. However, if the replacement owner wins the championship that year, he is eligible to win the empire fund the following year.

[Cult of Dionysus]

M-Dub, those are pretty benign rules. I'm looking for something with more teeth in it, and a framework that proactively seeks to dissuade/eliminate "inactivity."

The beauty of a deadline, is that if someone doesn't set their lineup (say by Noon on Thursday), he or she will be called out for it 3 days before game time on Sunday. My leagues both use Group Me, so if someone would still have a blank lineup after the deadline, he or she will hear it pretty quick. And if that situation spilled into the weekend, guys would be going to Defcon 2 and the Commish could take command of the lineup by Sunday morning.

Wanna also note that inactive / bad lineups have a greater impact in Victory Point leagues than standard win-loss leagues, as it can skew the results of not only you and your opponent, but also where other teams end up in the VP pecking order.

[Pet_Smith]

The first one seems good - but is it possible? I like the idea some leagues have whereby those not in the playoffs have a competition for an extra bonus pick, either at the start of the 2nd or 3rd round, but structures of that obviously differ.

We rely on league rivalries and banter - everyone is in a whatsapp group - but we all know each other IRL to some extent and try to meet up in person for drafts so it's easier to remind someone. Plus we use Potential points to decide the bottom 4 places rather than record or actual points scored, so there's no direct benefit of being inactive.

I doubt there's any one way, you probably need to have a combination of rules in place, without being too complicated (or harsh). Combination of carrot and stick for continuing to be active...

Locking the roster for a significant period in the offseason (either after the championship game or the Superbowl) so everyone knows they only have to be active until x date rather than all year (for those uber-keen who'd scour the WW every day otherwise).

[Mephistopheles]

I tell all my owners that they get one freebie, which recognizes that life sometimes gets in the way of FF.

Starting an inactive player during the FF regular season, gets the following tiered response.

First - warning
Second time - drop one spot in the draft
Third time - all picks including picks traded for, move to the bottom of each round. As a corollary, if the team has traded their first round pick or half or more of their first 4 round picks, this rolls over to the following year (e.g. inactives started in 2018, first round pick traded in 2019, they would drop in 2020 to the bottom of the round).
Fourth time - removed from league, no refunds.

I am upfront with everyone at the start of the league year about this.
In 20 years, have only had to go to #4 once, and can count on one hand the number of times I even got to #2.

[Monkey]

Yeah, my league is like Pet_Smith's, the top 6 picks are determined by potential points, bottom 6 determined by playoff finish, so you should always be trying to set your best lineup since it won't help you to not do so.

Otherwise, setting a bunch of rules with penalties seems weird to me. It's like making a rule in a marriage to do the business a set number of times a week or else. Life happens, sometimes you just miss it. If you want to do it, you do it, not because there's a penalty if you don't.

I'd say the best way to get me, and probably most people, engaged in a league is like Pet_Smith said, have more involvement besides just the league, meet up, send each other articles via whatsapp or groupme to encourage engagement. If it's a league comprised of a bunch of random internet people, sometimes you're just gonna have people that are just sorta involved and not much to do about it.

[skip]

On MFL: Reports... Franchise... Starting Lineups

How difficult is that to use?

[problemsolver]

Why can't some FF platform create an option by which the software auto sets a lineup every week based on projected points or something. Then owners who want to play a hunch or matchup or something can go in and change things. If you forget to play your hunch, well that's just on you. The league at least isn't hurt by partial lineups.

[M-Dub]

M-Dub, those are pretty benign rules. I'm looking for something with more teeth in it, and a framework that proactively seeks to dissuade/eliminate "inactivity."

The beauty of a deadline, is that if someone doesn't set their lineup (say by Noon on Thursday), he or she will be called out for it 3 days before game time on Sunday. My leagues both use Group Me, so if someone would still have a blank lineup after the deadline, he or she will hear it pretty quick. And if that situation spilled into the weekend, guys would be going to Defcon 2 and the Commish could take command of the lineup by Sunday morning.

Wanna also note that inactive / bad lineups have a greater impact in Victory Point leagues than standard win-loss leagues, as it can skew the results of not only you and your opponent, but also where other teams end up in the VP pecking order.

Yeah, we intentionally worded it so the commish has some discretion to determine if it was an honest oversight or legitimate neglect/indifference.

The thing is, no matter how harsh the penalty is, the reality is that it’s still gonna happen on occasion. So if preserving the integrity of the standings is your main priority, you should probably be more focused on a remedy to the situation rather than the punishment. I’d suggest deciding on an objective website for player projections like ESPN, Yahoo or FantasyPros and just replacing any bye week or injured players after the fact based on their projected points for the week, regardless of what they actually scored. That’s really the only fair way to do it. You certainly don’t want the commish deciding other teams’ lineups based on his own preferences/hunches.

Even then, you might run into a scenario where there is no viable replacement player on the team’s roster, like if they’re only rostering one QB or TE or something. That’s why we chose not to go down that road in my league.

Ultimately, there’s just no way to force people to take this game as seriously as we do. It sucks, but no amount of penalties or rules are gonna prevent these scenarios from ever happening.

[Quinty]

On MFL: Reports... Franchise... Starting Lineups

How difficult is that to use?

Right there is the answer. Clicking on 'Lineup Details' also tells you when the lineup was set and who is in the starting lineup. It keeps track of every change and every new submitted lineup.

If no lineup was submitted, it will say 'No starting lineup submitted - system automatically using previous week's lineup.'