Intentional Tanking

[jp67]

Long Story Short:

Am owner contacted the commish that one of the owners in a league looked like he was tanking. Owner in question fininsed in last place.

Commish posted the accusation and his findings on Thursday night

Commish took a look and decided it looked really bad (league rule is you tank you get kicked out). Owner is claiming he use his phone and did not become aware of the problems until the week 14 loser bracket playoff that he won and gets pick 1.13.

I was at the Mall (bored) so I started looking at them team in questions decisions and results.

Turns out he was putting in players on bye starting in week 5 (he played me and should have beat me had he played a kicker).
Week 6 he started Diggs who was out
Week 7 he started Diggs again--Fournette out---Wull Fuller bye
Week 8 Four Starters took Zero
Week 9 Five Starters took Zero
Week 10 Fournette and Gronk were benched
Week 11 Fournette and Gronk on the pine (with three zeros)
Week 12 Fournette, Gronk, Bulkhead Jamal Williams (with three Zeros)
Week 13 Fournette, Gronk, Bulkhead Jamal Williams (with three Zeros)

According to him it was week 14 and he realizes his app was not working and he starts to play all his good players.
He crushed his opponet in week 14 and 16.

Commish has decide he should move back to the third spot in the draft. My opinion is if he wants to stay in the league he should his first round pick. Had he played his obvious starters different teams would have gone to the playoffs.
I made the playoffs had he played his team (started a full team) I would not have made the playoffs.

Thoughts on this?

[Dynasty DeLorean]

How do you not realizing your starting players on bye every week for 2 months. You’d have to be in 50 leagues or something for that to be plausible.

Also, how was this not brought to everyone attention before the season ended...

[slaughterrt]

If the commish sees enough evidence to believe he is tanking, then he probably should be booted per the bylaws.

[jp67]

Commish decision:
The rules in regards to tanking are immediate removal of that owner. I believe this is to harsh, so I decided to institute a draft pick penalty. Tyranny of Evil Men will be dropping to bottom of the 3-10 overall record group and will now be picking 3rd instead of 1st in 2018. I believe this a fair middle ground between the vague rules we have and doing nothing since the season is over.

[slaughterrt]

Commish decision:
The rules in regards to tanking are immediate removal of that owner. I believe this is to harsh, so I decided to institute a draft pick penalty. Tyranny of Evil Men will be dropping to bottom of the 3-10 overall record group and will now be picking 3rd instead of 1st in 2018. I believe this a fair middle ground between the vague rules we have and doing nothing since the season is over.

That’s really not middling ground. In my opinion, if he stays then he either loses his first round pick or his pick is moved to the end of the first round. Moving him to 3rd isn’t really a punishment.

[gunzwil guinea pigs]

you should have defined what tanking means in advance. f.e. is starting Kittle and bench Gronk a problem? of course not... so it cant be rule that you have to play certain players... so I can see your point esp. with this many cases, but I hate commish decisions on things like that...

In my league, everybody who doesnt make the playoffs gets spot decided by drawing lots. and if you make playoffs it's no problem IMO, because anything can happen in these games.

[FiremanEd]

A few thoughts:

1) Not sure I understand the ruling. If you think the rule of removal from league is too harsh then it never should have been in the bylaws to begin with.

2) How does this not come up sooner? Those are a lot of obvious ‘errors’ to overlook for so long and no one say anything, publicly or to Commish.

3) Guy who broke rules clearly compounded his misdoings on the league by lying about how the errors occurred. The first issue is enough to remove him from the league, the second makes it near mandatory. Why would you want this person in the league going forward.

Commish needs to take action for the benefit of the league and find a new owner. For that new owner I don’t see an issue with them using the middle ground approach to give them 1.03 on what sounds like a solid team. They shouldn’t get punished, but not sure 1.01 is mandatory, though I can argue it keep it given the league at large (all owners) didn’t identify and act to address this sooner. Clearly other motives are at play to mention it at this point (I.e. playoffs were made, outcomes finalized, and now draft order becomes the priority...). League as a whole needs to do a better job.

[SpartyOn]

Not sure how this went unnoticed for 8 weeks. Did anyone bring this up during the season or at the time were they just happy to collect a win against him? I had a similar situation with a couple owners 2 years ago but they admitted to tanking and we decided to take their blind bidding budget away for a year. They're still in the league and are not a problem. It is however, in our bylaws that if an owner starts a player on a bye then the highest projected player will be placed in their lineup.

I think it's a small penalty to move from 1.01 to 1.03 and if I were in the league I would be in favor of taking away the 1.13 that he was awarded when he suddenly discovered his lineup errors. Either way if the league is in approval of the punishment then all is well just pay a bit more attention to lineups throughout the season.

[millworkguy]

The commish has the job to enforce the rules. Not to do what he sees fit. Call for a league vote. The commish has agreed he was tanking (as he dropped his draft spot) does the remainder of the league see that as punishment or should it be a) expulsion as per the rules you all agreed to play b) loss of pick (s) c) punishment as chosen by the commish.

If you go this route id email all saying you think the commish is wrong in being able to choose their own penalty. Our rules are clear, and I doubt anywhere in the rules it says the commish can make it up as they go along. Then ask for a vote . I'd likely previously email a buddy in the league to ensure they 2nd tour request

[Mephistopheles]

A penalty a month and a half after the season ends? That's bullshit. commish should have been on top of this earlier, warned him and given him a chance to rectify it.
Should be no penalty for this at all if it comes up this far after the season ended.

[clarion contrarion]

this pretty much ^^^ But I would tell the cat he just used his 1st 8 lives , next slip up and he gets the hatchet !

[skip]

Booting an owner is definitely not too harsh. I fully expect that anyone who intentionally is tanking their season to be kicked from a league.

[Orenthal Shames]

this pretty much ^^^ But I would tell the cat he just used his 1st 8 lives , next slip up and he gets the hatchet !

This is where I stand as well. The owner in question should be told he's on notice, but if people had such an issue, it should have been addressed long ago. Most casual owners are in hibernation mode now until draft time fires up

[jp67]

Thank you for all the input. I am going to leave the league. This is an IDP league with 15 Starters so I get you can make a mistake but all the people that played him should have said something.

The week he played the commish he was short two starters. People were just taking the win and keeping quiet about the lack of players in his lineup.

[prinefan]

I would leave too. The fact that it went on for so long is ridiculous. Wouldn't be a fun league to be in.