Alright here is the list of items that I am considering changing this year. Every league member gets a vote on each issue. I am not bound to go with majority on any of these issues, there are certain issues that I feel must have 2/3 or possibly 3/4 to do or not to do. If you dont feel comfortable voicing an opinion out here in the open then feel free to PM me your take on the issues below. The easiest way to do this is to write a response to each numbered item and indicate you are referencing that numbered item. This is your chance to direct the direction that the league will take going into next season, by not responding to a proposed change you are decline to have a voice on that matter. If you have any other questions, just let me know. Here are the changes:

1) Would you quit the league if I charged 6 dollars to play in the league? This money will be used to buy two trophies each year. The first would go to the winner of the playoffs, the second would go to the team with the best record in the regular season if that team did not win the playoffs. If the best team in the regular season wins the playoffs, the second trophy will go to the team that is voted the second best team of the season, which will be voted on by the members of the league in our end of season changes.

2) Keeper League: I have tossed the idea around a few times, but now it is time to get serious. I need a vote on your opinion for Keeper leagues. Do you support changing this league over to a keeper league? If so how many players should we allow teams to keep per year 1, 2, or 3? If you are not familiar with a keeper league, basically a keeper league allows you to keep a certian amount of players from one year to the next. Non retained players are drafted like normal.
2b) If we move to a keeper league, what is your preferred draft order? The three options are: Random, inverse order of last seasons standings, or ordered from smallest to biggest in terms of number of players kept (ie. if you retain zero players you will be one of the first in drafting order)? Give an opinion on this even if you say no to a keeper league.

3) Trades: There was an issue with trading this season. Do you want to leave the trading as it currently is where trades are voted on by the league, or do you want to change the setting to where all trades are subject to my approval? A assistant commish will be chosen to approve any trades involving myself.

4)Playoffs: This is going to be the most radical of proposed changes. I am going to give three and a half options below. Tell me which option you support the most.

4a) 12 team setup. In this format all 12 teams will make the postseason. The top four teams in the league will get a first round bye. Seeds 5-12 will play opening weekend (Week 13), those four winners will play the four teams with a bye in what will amount to a 8 team tournament. so essentially we are going from 4 to 8 teams in the playoffs.
4b) 6 team setup. This would work similar to the way the NFL playoffs work. Top two teams would get a bye, the other four would play each other week 14. Week 15 would be the semi finals, and week 16 the finals.
4c.1) Keep to the four team setup. This would work the same way it has, but with one proposed change below.
4c.2) If we stay with the four team setup would you like to make the playoffs double elimination? See College baseball tournament for how this format would work. The playoffs would begin in week 14 and end in week 16 or 17. There is one round where three teams will compete against each other for the highest score in a week to make this work right.

5)Divisions: I do not have the best of setup yet for divisions, but I want to take a look at them and get the ball rolling on some changes. Do you like the current setup? Would you rather keep it at 3, 2, or 0 divisions? If we have to double up teams for scheduling ( If the reg season goes 13 weeks, you have to play one team twice), how should that one team be determined? Would you be opposed to having a bye week in the middle of the season?

6) The final part here your chance to decide if you want me to return as the commish of the league. What are your general thoughts on the league; what can be done to improve the competitiveness of the league? What other changes not listed above would you like to see proposed for next season? Finally, we need to name an assistant commish, who do you think should be the assistant commish? If you want to send this as a PM to me, that is perfectly fine.

Please respond to those 6 questions giving your opinion on each one. I will wait a few weeks and then let everyone know offically what changes we will make to the league going into next season.

NOTE: All changes are subject to compatibilty with the Yahoo! FF system. There are a few things I can do by hand and override Yahoo!, however, there are probably a few things I cannot do, in which case we will default back to the way it was this season for that particular issue. Thanks for the great season and I hope to see you all back next year. Keep an eye on here and in your mailboxes around August or so for the invite to the league. I do not know when I will be back from Italy, but it should be early August some time.

 

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1 I vote no on trophies, the virtual trophy on Yahoo serves the purpose just fine. Another trophy collecting dust in my apartment I don't need.
2 a) yes 3 keepers
b) Inverse order of standings with keepers edited in as teams first picks, if 8 teams keep 3 3 teams keep 2 and 1 team keeps 1: first round would be all keepers, 2nd round 11 teams picks would be keepers the remaining team would pick 3rd round Yahoo would assign the remaining keepers when it's their turn to pick, when a team without a keeper comes up they would pick. The rest of the draft would proceed normally.
3 No opinion.
4 a) No way
b) I have no problem with this, several of my other leagues did this.
c) no to double elimination
5 No opinion
6 I'm fine with you as commissioner, I don't have any preference as assistant commish.

1. Don't care either way about trophies. Would pay 6 bucks if the group wanted to and it would not be a make or break thing with my participation.

2. Don't care either way about keeper league. It sounds like it would be a good idea but I can also see how it could suck for new people joining the league later on.

2a. Don't care about number so I vote 2
2b. People that keep 0 players get 1 pick in first round, People that kept 1 player would then join those others in round 2. People that kept 2 players would then join in round 3. Then to start round 4 at this point everyone would have 3 players so start a regular serpentine draft in inverse order of the previous years finish.

3. Don't care either way.

4. If playoffs are altered I would either like to keep them the same as they are now (2 pods of 4 teams), or move to a 3 week playoff with 8 teams. On the surface I would not like to have a setup where there are byes for anyone or double elimination either.

5. Don't care either way about divisions. I would say pick whatever divisions are needed to even out the weeks for whatever playoff is used.

6. I think you are doing fine. Its a thankless job and the last person I want to have to thank is a beaker. I also don't have an opinion about assistant commissioner.

 

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I'm not in your league, but I think you should consider dynasty over keeper. Where you keep nearly your entire team and then have a draft of like 3 rounds the next year for rookies and free agents. And then do the draft order like the NFL, inverse order of final standings. I find dynasty more interesting, but you actually need people that want to play it down the line and not just set their team in September and never check it again. It also provides a more level playing ground for new teams.

 

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jon, im always a text away so i could help with asst commish. and you already know my thoughts but ill get into more detail when i have time

 

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1) dont care here either way, what ever you decide im good with...would be nice to have a virtual logo or something or sig that could go on our profile rather then a trophy that no one on these boards would see other then the winner.


2) dont care what you decide here again, the keeper league can be fun...but i suggest either starting out small and see how everyone liked it or just go dynasty...and allow people to drop players. the amount of players they drop would determine draft order...but i would start off at scratch. meaning we start the keeper league next year, and so that we would draft accordingly.

3) Trades:they have to be approved pretty simple...all the leagues im in, the commish is the say, and the league keeps him in line...

4) i like 4B...the fact that its set up like the NFL is nice. this would be a big change and i have yet to exp. this in any league i have played in.

5)Divisions...i like divisions. but i would nix the bye week though.

6) the fact that you continuously want to improve the league and request feedback is good enough for me to want you as the commish. its difficult to find the right person to want to put in the time and actually make a profitable league. i say the job is yours till you quit or go all Daniel Stearn.

 

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