Just perused through the CBFL bylaws to make sure I understand how our first full offseason will work. Since this is the first dynasty league for most of us, I don't want anyone to be caught off-guard.

Commishes, please correct me if anything is wrong...


January 15 - All players under contract will lose (1) contract year. Players with (1) contract year remaining become RFAs

February 1 - First round of free agent waivers (no roster size limit in the offseason)

March 15 - Second round of free agent waivers (no roster size limit in the offseason)

April 1 - Franchise tags are due (1 per team, cost $10BB)

April 1 thru 30 - RFA bidding runs

May 15 - $100BB added for all franchises

May 16 (approx.) - Rookie draft

Seven days prior to 2007 season - Rosters cuts (35 or less) with contracts assigned plus 7 on DTS


A few questions:

1) What will be the divisons for next year (after re-alignment)? Can a commish go ahead and change them in CBFL now so we know?

2) Can we get the final rookie draft order posted? The bylaws state that rookie draft is serpentine? I was a little surprised to read that.

3) For players on our rosters that will have contract years remaining AFTER January 15, what date do we have to waive them by to get cap relief for next season? I can't tell if it's January 15, 7 days prior to the season (when contracts are due), or some other date.

1- Divisions
Division #1
Dbaxx
Hand of Bone
M&M
Playa Hata

Division#2
WWWarriors
godtomsatan
Pron
Running Aces

Division #3
SeaSide Cats
Clucking Birds
YGD
Huskies

2- I updated the post with draft order

3- Players must be waived by Jan 15 for avoiding the cap hit. (Whick is why Aces and Huskies have been waiving players.

Note also that any FAs signed after the 15th don't need years assigned until the final cut prior to the reg. season in Aug/Sept.

Is it the off season now? Do we need to have any roster limits?

I plan on dropping a few players but I dont want to be penalized for going below the roster limits.

Also, when is the deadline to sign people from DTS and give them contracts?

1. Yes, it is now the offseason

2. No, there is no longer a roster limit, from now until final cuts 1 week before the '07 season.

3. No deadline, you can promote players from the DTS anytime you like, however going forward, you have to assign a contract to all players immediately upon promoting them to your active roster.

I think only the first rookie draft was serpentine...no way it should be after year 1

Go ahead & propose it in the rule change thread, we can vote on it.

Rereading, I was wrong about the above.

3. No deadline, you can promote players from the DTS anytime you like, and have until final cuts to issue a contract (corrected).

so it is serpentine?

That's what the current bylaws state. I think this definitely need to be changed as well.

Nice try man. Can we vote on who gets to keep LT next year too?

I propose a new rule. The best player in the league moves to the team with the worst record.

Let's vote on it. I like parity.

A serpentine draft actually HELPS the better teams and HURTS the weaker teams

In serpentine, the 12th place team would have picks 1, 24, 25, and 48, etc.

In a non-serpentine draft, the 12th place team would have picks 1, 13, 25, and 37

Think about it...the NFL rookie draft is non-serpentine, obviously to help the weaker teams get better faster, which I would think is a good thing.

Im pretty much in the middle anyway but I aree with the above stattement.

I believe the closer to the real NFL the better.

Having the first pick, then 24 and 25 hurts weaker teams?

A serpentine draft is more fair to everyone. That's why it's used.

I picked last in the original draft, now last here and the only advantage I have you also want to take away.

I don't see why changing league rules now is fair. In the NFL it takes more than a majority to change rules.

You left out the part about getting the 1st pick in the rookie draft and winning the league therefore getting the last pick and you get to keep all of your players but that isn't my point.

I'm in 2 other dynasty leagues and neither is serpentine and from rules I've seen from other dynasty leagues its the same. Serpentine creates parity in redrafts and non-serp. creates "future" parity in dynasties (in theory at least)

Obviously I would also prefer serpentine (at least this year) but I think it should not be serpentine.

All that being said, it can't be changed for this year the way the rule change rules are written but we can put it to vote for next year.

I think in general a serpentine draft involving ROOKIES will be more or less negligible. HOWEVER, the whole point is to give the lesser teams first crack at new players, and frankly, it's only fair.

And let's be really really really honest about this, the 12th pick in the initial distribution of players is COMPLETELY different than the 12th pick of a rookie draft.



1.13 February 1-28 is officially the rule revision month where changes are to be brought up and voted on if at least 3 people show interest in the change. All rules changes will have a 1 yr waiting period before they are implemented. So if in Feb 2004 a rule is changed, the 2004-2005 season is the grace period season to give everyone a chance to get accustomed to the rule change, before it goes into effect during the next season 2005-2006. Rule Changes needs 10 votes to overrule a current rule.

Technically, we ought to have a serpentine draft for 2007, but it should be put to a vote for future seasons.

Keep in mind, the current rulebook is an amalgamation of the original Cheating Bastages Rules & those of Dynasty Wars 2, mashed together in great haste by myself last spring to get things rolling.

I think we need to discuss these items, & then make the changes needed to improve the league, & refining the rulebook falls into that category.

The one year grace period is ridiculous, & should be the first thing changed, as there are important issues that need to be refined this offseason, not for the 2008 season.

Looks like the co-commishes are in agreement to this. I don't see the point of waiting 16 months.

I'll third the vote to waive the one year thing.

+1

Randall, this is the way it is done in ALL dynasty leagues...to keep the leagues competitive you need to give better picks to the teams that finished last...serpentine drafts are only done in the first year...



By the way, this would HURT me as I pick 8th...this is not anything I propose to help out my own team, its for the future of the league to remain competitive...

And as said before, its how the NFL does it...

Couldn't agree more. I'm not aware of any dynasty leagues that do serpentine rookie drafts after the first year.

A dog a cat and a bird all in the same division?

Bird > dog > cat > YGD

The rules don't say that. I've been trying to follow them and make plans accordingly. In the NFL when there is a rule change it takes more than a majority. I believe it's 2/3.

In my other league it is spelled out. Here you would be changing the rules.



5.2 The rookie draft will be a serpentine style draft, & will proceed in reverse order based on the previous season's finish (total points as tie-breaker), with the following two exceptions: the CBFL Champion will draft last, (regardless of record) and the CBFL runner-up will draft second to last (regardless of record). The 6 playoff teams will automatically receive the last 6 draft spots. Teams eliminated the same week will be seeded in reverse order of record (total points as the tie-breaker).



Guess I'll just have to pilfer players through free agency then.

Obviously I'm not in favor of breaking pre-established rules. I realize, as I'm sure everyone else does, what the rules currently state. The serpentine/non-serpentine order needs to be put up for vote just like everything else. The bylaws state that 51% is required to pass rules changes during the offseason.

I'm picking 10th, so switching affects me almost as much as it does you.

We need a vote on this then...I think we all agree (with the exception of Randall) that this was a mistake and that only the first year of the league should have been serpentine...

Follow the rules and plan accordingly.

Why would the first year be serpentine and not any other? Why not be consistent?

I don't mind a rule change but think it should be done as the NFL does with a 2/3 vote. I would like to see the rules be consistent soon because many of us draft and play according to those rules.

If we change where there are separate defensive positions like CB's and DT's we should do that soon too because in this league safeties and DE's are more valuable.

I think what they are saying is that it's a difference of what you want the draft to accomplish. In year one The original draft was serpentine for the sake of fairness & parity. The rookie draft's picks were also serpentine to mirror that, and in reverse order to essentially "pay back" those who got the higher, less advantageous picks in the original draft.

But after year one, the goal of the rookie draft is no longer just to be fair & equitable, but to slant the advantage towards the teams with the worst records, in order to spur improvement amongst the cellar-dwellers & keep everyone competitive for the long term health of the league.



I believe that the rules state that inseason rule changes are 2/3 to pass, point being it needs to be more difficult to change rules in season than out, so as to not change too many things mid stream. If we changed out of season rule changes to 2/3's, how would you suggest we adjust in-season? Also timewise,
according to the current rulebook, the Rule change period runs throughout February.



I would agree if that were the case, but I haven't seen the 2 additional owners needed to nominate this for a rule change.

I agree with serpentine year 1 because we havnt established who is the strong candidate since we didnt have a season. I vote for non-serpentine going forward. Now please remember I draft #6 so this doesn't help or hurt me much.

I vote not to change to individual DT DE, CB, Safety. Its going to be to much chaos. In that case why dont we do OLB MLB MOLB? 3-4, 4-3 defenses...itll just get to nitty picky IMO.

I will 100% go with the league and none of this will make me leave. I would like to vote though.

I don't know. I said 2/3 because others said they wanted to do what the NFL does. That would be 8 owners. In season could be 3/4 and that be 9 owners.

I would say mimick the NFL as closely as possible. I think most would agree with that.

I wouldn't be totally against that. However, I do think that THIS offseason, since it is our first opportunity to fine tune things after having been through the fire, the process for ratifying changes needs to be quick & easy, as we have a lot of work to do in Feb, and I don't know that all the owners are checking in frequently.

What about 3 nominations for all rule changes, 60% to pass this offseason, to be changed to 2/3 next offseason? In season can go up to 3/4?

That sounds OK.

The NFL doesn't use a serpentine draft.

That's true but it's in the rules. I just want them to be consistent. After this off season they should be.

Randall, it sounds like this is your first experience with a dynasty league so it's all cool...but I think most owners would agree that helping the cellar dwellars is how dynasty leagues are usually run...let's just vote on it and make it official so we can move on...

I too am against changing anything with CB, S, DT, DE positions...its good how it is...

nevermind, I just read that there is a poll up...

I voted for it yesterday. I don't mind the rule, I just mind having them changed after kind of relying on them. So this off season I hope we can fix everything and kind of have them stay consistent for the most part. Changing an occassional one is fine.

My take exactly. Since this was our first season, and we started with a set of rules from another league without really knowing how it would work in real terms, it would behoove us to use our experience gleaned from this year to make the rulebook truly ours: treat it as a working document to serve the league & foster owner enjoyment, & not something that handcuffs us from managing the league as needed with unnecessary strictures.

There's plenty of time to set it in stone once we have refined the rulebook & made it as good as it can be.