Is this a form of collusion?

[mzkp54]

I co-Commish a league with a friend of mine. He invited 2 of his friends into the league who know each other. The league has several owners who are new to dynasty. One of his friends (Team A) won the league last year.

His other friend (Team B) put out that he wants to trade his players to future draft picks. I make an offer for Julio.

Through our talk, Team B mentions that he talked to Team A who said he shouldn’t trade with me and he would trade for him instead. He then tells me that he wants to trade Julio, but can’t trade him to me because it would make my team too good and too likely to win the league.

I’m pretty irritated by this- if you’re rebuilding why do you care who wins the league? And the fact that he mentioned that this in part came from the reigning champ isn’t sitting right with me. What do you think?

[Gator Sens]

Could be some sort of collusion. Sounds like he is making his case to help his team while not letting your get better through a trade. Not real cool. Not sure what can be done here though. I'm all for bidding wars on the trade market, but this is a bit different.

[LMS123]

Not a fan of that. When I make trades I look at how it’ll affect the other team I’m trading with too, but if he got input from another owner saying not to trade with you so he had a better chance to win is shady imo

[FantasyFreak]

I would have an issue with this, yes. It's not intention collusion from the new owner, but it IS a form of sabotage, and could be deemed collusion with enough evidence. You need to address this for sure. If it was any owner, not just you, it's bad for the league. Team A needs to be addressed for sure, as this is a form of "insider trading" if you will. I would consider removing both from the league if there is any evidence of purposely trying to make Team A's team stronger, however, as you describe it, it seems to be team A preying on his buddy's for his own benefit, at the expense of your team, this time, but who knows how many other things he's said about other teams? As team B willingly divulged the information, it seems his intentions aren't malicious, however Team A is another story, if the information he gave you is true.

This is a potentially toxic situation for the league, as these new owners are new to Dynasty and obviously easily influenced by your defending league champ. Make sure you save the texts with that info of him claiming he shouldn't trade with you, and get in touch with your co-commish immediately. As a commish myself, I would deem this a potential serious issue for my league. If this has happened so quickly, how many more times down the line will there be a situation where Team A is using his friendship and Dynasty experience as leverage on the other 2 to funnel players in his direction?