Sandbagging Issues, how has your league dealt with it??

[vbbish]

Hi guys,

A couple of the owners in our league have brought something forward and I was wondering if any of you had dealt with the issue before.

Basically we have a couple teams that are losing on purpose in order to get a higher draft pick. They are have lineup set with all active players, however benching guys that are auto starts.

Now some grumbling has come from the fact that they are getting a high pick, however the big issue stemming from this is from the guys that are fighting for a playoff spot and the people in front of them are basically being handed a bi week.

We have a $50 fine for last place, however some are wondering if additional steps need to be taken in order to prevent this. Some even went as far as proposing giving commissioner control of the teams starting roster (which I am grossly against).

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Phaded]

Warnings for tanking.
After 1 warning, if still tanking - booted from the league.

[skip]

Warnings for tanking.
After 1 warning, if still tanking - booted from the league.

Agreed.

Maybe it's just me but there seems to be an abnormally large numbers of posts this year regarding teams tanking.

[jwint7910]

Use potential points to determine pick order for the teams that do not make the playoffs.

[schiewerma21]

Probably cause it's the best rb class ever. Early picksnthis year are incredibly valuable. I am seeing a lot of teams intentially losing across my leagues too.

[pokerface40]

Warnings for tanking.
After 1 warning, if still tanking - booted from the league.

Agree. As commish I do a 3 strike system. First time for tanking or setting incomplete lineup is a warning. 2nd strike is losing your BBID money, if they don't have any left they lose their lowest draft pick. 3rd strike booted.

[collbey]

Use potential points to determine pick order for the teams that do not make the playoffs.

Potential points award (or in this case penalize) depth and mediocrity of players since more chances of a player going off who wouldn't normally, so won't be representative of actual results.

If a team is eliminated from the playoffs, we use a designated sites rankings to determine their lineup, they don't have control over it. This doesn't eliminate a team sandbagging if they aren't eliminated so then it is a judgement call as to if should be using some sort of rankings.

[joeday]

Warnings for tanking.
After 1 warning, if still tanking - booted from the league.

Agreed.

Maybe it's just me but there seems to be an abnormally large numbers of posts this year regarding teams tanking.

There are so many every year and every year we all say that this seems like a lot...

In the league I commish I put in the bylaws if you are accused of tanking (or trying to) and I see your lineup is clearly in tank mode (Flacco in for Brady for example) then I reserve the right to reset your lineups according to fantasypros consensus rankings. If you do it again then you lose your first round pick.

[Phaded]

In the league I commish I put in the bylaws if you are accused of tanking (or trying to) and I see your lineup is clearly in tank mode (Flacco in for Brady for example) then I reserve the right to reset your lineups according to fantasypros consensus rankings. If you do it again then you lose your first round pick.

This is exactly what I have as well.

Here is the sample of the tidbit in my rules:

- For both an anti tanking measure and for a competitive interest measure, the LM reserves the right to and may remove players from a starting lineup and replace them with a suitable option if the owner of the team has not done so.

Given I've only had to do it once ever - and that was because the owner unexpectedly lost internet access and I found out afterwards.

[vbbish]

Thanks for the feedback... For the most part it sounds like the same options as our league is tossing around.

At what point does the commissioner have the right to take over the teams lineup? At any point? Once a team has been eliminated from the playoffs?

So what happens if an owner is playing a hunch (DGB) and the commissioner takes that player out for someone predicted for more points, and the original outscores the replacement? This exact situation happened this weekend. Everyone was getting on a player who who started DGB & Coleman over Cobb, Watkins & D.Parker (all projected for higher). Both those players ended up getting more points then the players projected for higher?

Im sure all of this has come up at some point and would be very interested to hear how it was dealt with.

[FiremanEd]

Have your pick system not based on record. Do Points For + Bench Points. It removes the starters from the equation and factors total team. If a team sells guys then that's part of the strategy of rebuild. If guys are injured, well then they didn't have a chance anyway. Your current setup, including a reward, encourages the behavior, so of course it will happen.

[broncohead]

Have your pick system not based on record. Do Points For + Bench Points. It removes the starters from the equation and factors total team. If a team sells guys then that's part of the strategy of rebuild. If guys are injured, well then they didn't have a chance anyway. Your current setup, including a reward, encourages the behavior, so of course it will happen.

This. Starter points + bench points for non playoff teams. I don't know if this will keep them from starting a good lineup every week though.

[koalabear]

Probably cause it's the best rb class ever. Early picksnthis year are incredibly valuable. I am seeing a lot of teams intentially losing across my leagues too.

Agreed tanking has been raised in 2 of my 3 leagues recently having never been an issue before. Cos of the stud nature of the RBs I think.

[skip]

Have your pick system not based on record. Do Points For + Bench Points. It removes the starters from the equation and factors total team. If a team sells guys then that's part of the strategy of rebuild. If guys are injured, well then they didn't have a chance anyway. Your current setup, including a reward, encourages the behavior, so of course it will happen.

This. Starter points + bench points for non playoff teams. I don't know if this will keep them from starting a good lineup every week though.

I don't agree with using total team points for a couple of reasons...

1) Maybe I am only speaking for myself, but my bench is primarily all "upside" players that on any given week put up a big pile of zeros. So this format would benefit a team like mine.

2) I don't always roster a full compliment of players either. If the league has rosters that are "too big" then I don't see the point in carrying useless baggage.

[jcc6fd]

Maybe instead of total points you utilize best ball scoring format for teams that don't make the playoffs. Probably would require a lot of manual point tracking though.