Commish........101

[theeohiostate]

Ran across a post on a neighboring board and found the info. quite useful and looks to be something i'll review to institute in a few of my leagues, where the rules are not as clear as i would like them to be. Seems with the continous questions many submit for commishing their leagues, a guidline like this could be helpful.

 

 

By GregR

Every year commissioners post for advice and impartial opinions on issues they encounter. I read most of these threads and the problems are seldom new ones. I think there are a set of rules that every league should consider having that will avoid the most frequent issues. Here are the ones that came to mind. I'd like to see any that people can think of that I've missed, as I'm always trying to make sure my leagues are set up to avoid strife as much as possible.

 

 

1) For leagues with entry fees: League fees must be paid by X (days/weeks) prior to the draft.

 

-- If you let someone play without paying, then any dispute that comes up involving the owner gets worse as he may use paying what he owes as leverage to get the league to decide in his favor. If you have the draft as your deadline you're faced with the choice of letting him draft without paying, or postponing the draft. So set the deadline far enough in advance of the draft that you have time to find a replacement owner.

 

 

2) Fantasy games are final as of (the start of the following week of games / the following Friday / two weeks from... etc).

 

-- One big headache some leagues face is discovering a problem late in the season. Perhaps a scoring error, a team that got away with illegal lineups, whatever. If you're in the playoffs already, do you go back and change the whole season? How far back do you retroactively change results? Putting in a rule that declares when the score is final and will not be changed can avoid a lot of the headaches.

 

 

3) Owners are responsible for verifying the scores and the legality of lineups of both their own team and their competition. Owners are responsible for notifying the commissioner/website of stat changes should they occur.

 

-- This puts the burden on an owner to verify that his own and his opponent's score are right, and gives him no one to blame but himself if a mistake is later found after it is too late. Special for MFL users: MFL puts stat changes in a forum. I would include mention of the forum in this rule and include that owners are responsible for reporting to the commish any stat changes that affect their game. So again, the responsibility is on them to keep up with their own results, not on the commish.

 

 

4) The official source of stats for our league is (our website / NFL.com gambebooks / etc).

 

-- If you use a league provider, I strongly suggest from a very unpleasant experience as FF commish that you stick with the website and let the owner have to go through the website for a stat change if one is necessary. And that change would have to get in before the game results are final (#2).

 

 

5) For leagues with Def/ST units, a definition of what constitutes a Defense/Special Teams/regular offensive play. Make sure your rule accounts for changes of possession.

 

-- I suggest something of the following: "If a kick actually takes place (including a blocked kick) it is a special teams play. Otherwise the team that snaps the ball is the offense for the entire play, and the team that did not snap the ball is the defense for the entire play. Aborted/fake FG/punt attempts are not special teams plays since no kick occurred." This avoids all those arguments about the PK who threw the touchdown pass on the fake FG, or the WR who fumbled to the CB, who fumbled it back to the RB who ran it in for a touchdown.

 

 

6) What, if any, communications with the commish will be considered official in regards to the commish changing lineups, etc.

 

-- If you accept email/phone/personal requests to go perform team functions, then your goal here is to remove any doubt from other owners that a request was made, and what the exact timing of it was. If it's email require it go to the entire league when possible. If it's a phone call, require them to also inform a 2nd member of the league / their opponent. Also, make sure you say that the responsibility of making sure the message was received is on the owner, not you. So until he hears back from you it is received, he should assume it wasn't. Email isn't 100% reliable after all.

 

 

7) Whether any transactions committed on the website by an owner are final. If you allow owners to "take back" a mistake, you need to detail exactly what the conditions are for them to take it back and what steps they must take as far as league notification.

 

-- This one comes up a lot. "I didn't mean to hit accept." "I dropped the wrong player". Be specific, especially if allowing teams to take mistakes back. I.e. "If you make a mistake, you must (mail the entire league/post on the message board) within 15 minutes of the transaction timestamp on the website for it to be rolled back." Include in your rule that the responsibility is on the owner to verify his transactions before and after submittal. Then your role when a problem arises is made even more simple since it was explicit what they should have already known -- that they had the responsibility to verify it themself.

 

 

8) Trades offered on the website are considered valid offers until they are revoked or rejected. Owners are responsible for removing offers they have made. Due to the risk of a player asked for in a trade being injured, it is strongly recommended owners conduct negotiations outside the website and only use the website to consumate trades that are agreed to.

 

-- This is the old, Player X for Steve Smith offer, which lingers for a week and then is only accepted because Steve Smith broke his leg. Put the burden on the owner to be responsible for trades he leaves out there, and put in writing the suggestion that the website only be used to execute trades, not to make initial offers. You could include requiring a valid email for owners so trade negotiations can take place outside the site.

 

 

9) Trades must be consumated on the website to be official. Agreement by any other medium is not binding. -OR- Trades may be consumated by email only by both parties separately indicating their acceptance of a trade, including exact parameters, by email to the commish/entire league. Once such acceptance by both parties is received the trade is final.

 

-- Resolves situations where "But he agreed to the trade in email, then backed out once we got to the web page." Also deals with situations where one owner forwards you an email discussion about a trade and claims it contains the other owner's acceptance. Which you obviously should not accept as valid, but this just makes it clear to everyone that both owners have to explicitly say they accept and what the parameters of the trade are. I've had this personally be an issue, where one owner mailed me an email chain showing that the other owner agreed but couldn't get to the website. It put me on the spot of whether I make this trade on his word, before lineups had to be submitted. With a clear and concise rule you don't face an argument (or as big of one) when you say "Sorry, the rules say I'm not allowed to execute that trade until I hear from the other owner directly."

 

 

10) A rule to handle confusion over players with the same name.

 

-- Roy Williams, safety and Roy Williams, WR are a current example, though the time this really cropped up a lot was there being a RB Ricky Williams on both the Dolphins and Colts. How you handle this is up to you and will need to account for your other trade rules (like accepting email trades or not). I personally would put the burden on the owner involved if it's a website trade. But I would probably also include something that says attempts to deceive another owner as to the identity of a player may result in sanctions.

 

 

11) There is a class of issues which depending on your league may or may not be considered acceptable behavior/sportsmanship. Be specific as to if they will be allowed or not. They include:

Starting a player on bye week

 

Tanking a game (such as to get a better playoff matchup. In some leagues situations can arise where an owner may have a better chance at making the playoffs himself by losing which changes division and wildcard tiebreaks to ones he can win.)

Making trades that result in worsening your team in order to stock another team who plays a rival you want/need to lose.

Firesales (in keeper/dynasty leagues)

Using waivers to make a trade after the trade deadline.

"Loaning" players. (i.e. "I'll trade you my backup defense, but you have to give it back after your bye week.").

Two-part trades. ("You give me LT this week and I'll give you LJ next week," or, "Here's a 3 player for 3 player trade, but I don't want to give you my RB until next week. Let's trade the other 2 for 2 now and agree to swap the remaining players next week")

-- The biggest problem here isn't whether you allow them or don't. It's that some owners may think they are fine while others consider them questionable at best or cheating at worst. The conflict is worse when both sides have a different expectation of whether it is allowed. Be explicit if you allow it, and what the consequences are for doing it if not allowed. Put it out there so your owners have to accept they chose to play in a league that allows/doesn't allow it, and that you resolved the situation exactly as the rules indicated you should.

 

 

12) For leagues with voting to veto trades, what constitutes grounds for vetoing a trade.

 

-- Another perception issue like #11. Some owners feel a veto should only be cast when there is a belief of collusion (and that it is viewed as an accusation of it). Some feel lopsided trades should be vetoed. Some owners will want to veto a trade that helps a rival (thus hurting their own team). I'd suggest you detail under what circumstances a veto should be used, if you have them at all.

 

 

 

That's all I can think of for now, though I imagine there's a few more useful ones that I've missed.

 

 

Edit to consolidate other good ones:

 

From Mungo Burrows:

13) You should always have established and documented tie-breaking procedures, whether for games if you don't allow ties, or for playoff spots. It should be clear how you handle multi-team ties (see following comments). And you should always end your tie-breakers with a method that will always work like a coin flip.

 

-- One common problem is the handling of multi-team ties. In the NFL, if they apply step 1 and it is still a tie, they go on to steps 2 and 3, etc. If after step 3 a team is eliminated, they do not continue to step 4, they go back to step 1 and start all over fresh with just the remaining teams. This can also be an issue with 3 teams tied for 2 wildcards. In the NFL, coming in "second" for the first wildcard does not mean you win the last wildcard slot. I saw this come up as a problem in a friend's league this year. If you are going to use the NFL's method or not, you should be explicit on how multi-team ties are resolved. And I would suggest using examples in your rules. Good catch Mungo!

 

From videoguy505

14) A rule that has an imperative (you must do this or you must NOT do that) should have stated what consequence results from violating it.

 

-- One type of problem that commissioners have is that a rule gets violated but the consequence is not stated in the rule, and then a commish has no guidance on how to deal with it. The result is his decision falls under more scrutiny and possibly objection. If you "must start a complete lineup" what happens when someone doesn't? Does the commish fill it with the lowest/highest scoring/drafted/rated player? Does the owner get 0 points?

 

 

From smcindoe:

15) Your rules should detail the decision making structure (commish/league vote/etc).

 

-- Who has the final say? Is it the commish? Is it a league vote? Is it the commish but a league vote can overrule, and if so by what percentage/majority/etc?

 

 

From ShadowMaster:

16) Your league rules should be in writing, and distributed to the league in advance.

 

-- A revision date, and a section listing changes made since the last revision can be helpful in making sure your owners are all up to speed on the rules.

Edited September 23, 2006 by theeohiostate

[Vet]

That is a long post.

[drbob]

That is a long post.

 

 

But well worth reading. This is my first year playing commissioner and I will need to update our rules for next year based on the post.

[The Wolf]

But well worth reading. This is my first year playing commissioner and I will need to update our rules for next year based on the post.

 

 

Ask around in here Doc...a lot of the guys in here are commishes and would be more than willing to provid you with their constitutions so you have a basis of comparison. I did that a while back and we're in pretty good shape now. But always looking to improve...

[loaf]

this needs to be pinned

[theeohiostate]

But well worth reading. This is my first year playing commissioner and I will need to update our rules for next year based on the post.

 

 

 

Even some vetern commishes need to take note. I have made my share of mistakes in the past and am always looking to better the understanding for our owners. This may be long and exhausting to read, but if applied in your rules, it would give clear direction for many issues some league rules are vague on.

[Dbaxx]

Great post! We started up a new league w/many "holes" that we didn't think we had...I'm going to put this to a vote and see if the owners want to update our Bylaws. Thanks TOS...!