Planning for the 2020 Season

[mjpoke]

I’m trying to stay ahead of the game in the leagues I commission and plan to have solutions for any potential issues that come up this season which will be played in a pandemic. Certainly a unique situation we’ve never faced.

Here are some rules I see needing to be voted on by the league:
- How many games need to be played for it to be an “official” season which would include payouts and trophy
- What are the tie breakers for final standings (Total points, Winning %)
- If number of games is not met for an “official” season, what to do with league dues (return to owners, rollover into 2021)
- Expanded rosters in case of players being out due to COVID
- If QB (or any position in which only 1 player of the position may be rostered) is announced out on game day, how to handle

Would love to get everyone’s thoughts on items I am missing or not thinking of.

Thanks!

[dustyroads]

Just my opinions but:
1. Up to you guys, but hard to see how it can be an official season if it gets cancelled at any point. If they cancel unexpectedly, I don't see a fair way to work backwards and suddenly make games already played be considered playoff and championship games. On the other hand, if the NFL does a planned shortened season, I'd say you decide at that point if your league wants to do the season or not.

2. Tie breakers should remain the same as they always are. For my leagues its total points. Also consider instituting an extra game against the median every week on top of your head to head matchups, it will decrease the likelihood of ties, and all my leagues that have gone this direction have really enjoyed it and felt it puts a larger emphasis on putting the best rosters into the playoffs and takes away that bleep luck of those years where you seem to always be playing each owner as they have their best week of the season against you.

3. I'd never want dues rolled over where suddenly one year is paying out double what other ones do. In a dynasty many people purposefully field weak rosters for a year or more when committing to a rebuild, wouldn't be very fair to find yourself suddenly paying double the buy-in a year you were planning on losing due to rebuild.

4. I wouldn't expand rosters personally. While there is a likelihood of losing players to COVID, we aren't sure how frequent it will be or how the NFL will even handle it. We may not be following 2 week quarantines at that point. It adds a lot of complications in a dynasty to figure out rules on how to expand/what number to go to/how to do pickups/adjusting FAAB/re-stabilizing rosters to normal size after the year... lot of work for something that may not have much of an impact anyway. You can lose players every year to hold outs, injuries, etc. I'd consider COVID along those same lines. You should already have a fairly deep bench in a dynasty to compensate for this.

5. Similar to above. Losing players is part of the game, happens every year to every team. Part of the strategy/fun is to try your best to plan for this and react accordingly with trading/waivers to patch up areas where you get especially bad luck. If people are gambling by only rostering 1 QB, that's on them. They benefit with additional roster space when the guy is healthy, they will bust hard when the guy gets injured. Shouldn't be able to reap the benefits of that gamble, but have a parachute rule that saves you when it bites ya in the bleep.

Again, just my opinions, I'm sure others disagree. My tendency as a commissioner is not over-complicating things, keep things as fair and equal as possible not just in one year but taking into account dynasty's are ongoing, and to try to put a much larger emphasis on skill while trying to manage away luck when making rules and configuring league settings.

[Patsfan86]

Good to plan ahead but i dont see the season being cancelled or even shortened. I dont think it would have been anyways because lets face it, money talks. But in light of recent events i strongly feel players are going to want to use the national platform of the NFL to speak out on civil rights issues, and they are going to wan to do this all year. I support it. This is going to give them even more of an incentive to play. With this said i like the idea of expanded rosters in case a player tests positive for COVID. Multiple players will test positive, that is a certainty. I also think Total points is the way to go for tiebreakers. But i think 12 games with playoffs starting in week 10 could be a full season for fantasy.

[FantasyFreak]

Have been speaking to numerous commissioners about this, good thread. It's important because these decisions will ALSO affect 2021 draft positions. I believe MFL has set their cutoff for refunds at week 7, FWIW. I think all play or points for would be a good deciding factor, as head to head in a shortened season may give certain advantages(even more so than normal) to specific teams. I had been thinking about starting a thread like this for a few weeks, thanks for doing it.

[Sinatra's Liver]

If there will be missed games, I'm considering making this season Best Ball. That will hopefully give the better teams a higher chance of making the playoffs. And also ensuring the crappy teams get the best 2021 draft picks.

[FantasyFreak]

If there will be missed games, I'm considering making this season Best Ball. That will hopefully give the better teams a higher chance of making the playoffs. And also ensuring the crappy teams get the best 2021 draft picks.

I think any change that involved the outcome of money needs to be voted on by the league.

[TheNuts]

If there will be missed games, I'm considering making this season Best Ball. That will hopefully give the better teams a higher chance of making the playoffs. And also ensuring the crappy teams get the best 2021 draft picks.

I thought that best ball would be fun for "real" leagues since I do a few mfl10 leagues. I don't think overall points best ball is very fun. I would prefer head to head best ball if it was me.