NFFC Rules Changes Proposed For 2021; Let's Discuss

[TR]

Other thoughts:

14 weeks head to head with a 3 week championship. Who says you can only play another team once? Yes you might get lucky or unlucky with the schedule but it's still more fun than all play. And to be perfectly honest, the H2H means very little in the NFFC with the emphasis on total points. The main purpose of H2H is for the thrill of winning or losing each week while also giving some teams an additional way of winning. Most of the time the H2H is also the points winner.

Cutine variant - after 11 weeks the top 6 teams advance. After week 11, the top 4 teams move on with the winner of the bottom bracket having one move up. And so on.... It could keep everyone engaged but typically the harder it is to understand the less likely players are to embrace it. But it's a thought.

Victory Ponts - TR just mentioned it and it's a fun format. Personally I like VP leagues. I brought it up again so that his post didn't get lost.

The last idea is the Gase. We each play all year and at the end of the fantasy season we simply all lose. Nobody scores points and there is no path to victory.


Wayne

Thanks for bringing up my victory points post again Wayne. For some reason I've always had a problem using quotes on this message board. I will highlite the portion I want to specifically reply to and then it will just quote the entire post as u will see here. That's why I try to just copy and paste what I want to reply to ...but it's not as easy to see my reply

[Route C]

I like this idea a lot. Currently we're doing this the 1st 2 weeks when teams are at full strength ad competing the hardest. Since we know that dead teams tend to give up especially at the end of the season why not eliminate the luck of schedule factor as much as possible. It would seem the top teams vying for a playoff spot would be rewarded with this type of schedule. Dead teams will finish in the bottom half of an all play and have far less impact on the playoff race.

I don't believe having all play at the beginning, middle and end creates better game play for us as owners.

Also to echo others....Great job by the NFFC this year. Thanks for all the extra things you did to make this season happen. You guys are the best!

It's almost impossible to catch up with the H2H leaders when their odds of a W are enhanced the last few weeks. That's the downside I see to having All Play at the end.

How about we just get rid of H2H altogether?

I totally agree with you Glenn. If you think people are upset with All Play now, wait until you have All Play over the last three weeks when you're trying to make up one game on the h2h leader. If teams are really tanking in your league, that team then just has to finish in the Top 6 to get a win. It will be impossible to catch that team.

Why do we put All Play at the beginning of the season? Because every team is putting out their best lineups then and the best 6 teams each week will get a win. Yes, you may have a h2h matchup later in the season against an owner who is really trying, while your h2h leader may be going against someone who isn't trying as hard, but All Play isn't going to help that h2h leader fall any easier.

On the one hand, people are asking us to lower or eliminate Consolation prizes and then on the other hand they are complaining about owners quitting on their teams. The Consolation prizes are meant to keep everyone playing through Week 16 for a shot at some kind of prize, no matter how small it is. Yes, if private leagues want to eliminate that and give it to the 4th place teams, we'll do that upon request. But as a game operator, I'm trying to keep everyone playing for something throughout the league so that we don't have anyone quitting on their teams. You might think a $500 consolation round prize is nothing, but for some owners that is a worthy prize and maybe a down payment on next year's teams.

I think All Play works best when teams are at full strength, but maybe I'm wrong. I've been wrong before. Through the years I think we've done a good job of making sure the teams with the most points win the most money and get to the Championship Round, but h2h is still worthwhile in our contests and we'll do all we can to keep h2h play as fair as possible.

That's a good point Greg. I guess there's no perfect solution....however I'd rather get the best chance to play H2H at full strength so that's why I'd do all play at the end. Remember this isn't a factor in 14 team leagues......we only do it because of the extra weeks after everyone has played each other in 12 teamers. So in reality a true H2H is only 11 weeks long in a 12 team league ....we're just trying to figure out the best thing to do with the leftover weeks.

[Former-Army-Person]

On the 17-game format: I lean toward 14+3. A four-week championship/playoff round would tend to reduce luck in the playoffs but a longer regular season would reduce luck in MAKING the playoffs - plus an extra H2H W-L would reduce ties and the need for tiebreakers.

To me, anything the keeps the most owners interested the longest in the regular season is the right answer. I'm not sure if that's a 13 or 14 week regular season.

As for the timing of the last bye week, yes it hurts teams in the championship round to lose a starter to a bye - but it helped them get there in the first place. I would not make whether or not Week 14 includes byes a determining factor in the regular season length.

I'd keep rosters at 20 - but if you're going to expand them, expand them to 22 for the whole year. Expanding them once some owners have lost interest in waiver claims could introduce an unfair playing field.

Timing of all-play weeks: my initial thought was make week 14 an all-play week, but I see the point that this may favor the standings leaders and make it harder to catch up in H2H. Back when I bowled, many leagues used a "position week" at the end of the season: 1st place played 2nd place, 3rd vs. 4th, 5th vs. 6th etc. That might be a way to make the final regular season week more dramatic.

[Greg Ambrosius]

So internally we have decided on the following for 2021:

1) Team Kicker for all NFFC games. It frees up one roster spot per week and guarantees everyone a potential points total each week from the position.

2) The Wednesday and Saturday FAAB deadlines will be 10 pm ET in 2021. We will have a FAAB deadline before Week 1 and through Week 14. There will be no FAAB for the Championship Round in national contests.

3) We will allow fourth place prize money in private high-dollar leagues rather than Consolation Round prize money where requested. We will manage this league-by-league, but original rules for each contest will show a Consolation Round for playoffs.

4) The NFL will be moving to a 17-game, 18-week season in 2021. We have decided to have a 14-week regular season and 3 weeks of the Championship Round for all private leagues and national contests. Draft Champions leagues will score points through Week 17. For 12-team leagues, we'll have All Play in Weeks 1, 8 and 14. In 14-team leagues, we'll have All Play in Week 14.

5) No change in roster spots or the 20-man roster. No changes in scoring. We will look at adding a separate Super Flex private contest or small national contest in 2021. No details at this point, but I'm interested in feedback on a national contest with a reasonable entry fee and guaranteed prize pool. Nothing too big to start out, but a starting point to gauge interest.

Thanks for all the feedback and we are still interested in feedback on these decisions. Look for the 2021 draft room to open just after the Super Bowl and be ready for NFFC and BestBall10 drafts soon. Enjoy the Super Bowl and then be ready for the 2021 NFFC season.