NFFC Rules Changes Proposed For 2019; Let's Discuss

[Greg Ambrosius]

Agree with Mike on set lineup time. Looking through the game logs on NFL.com it shows the actual kickoff times and they range from 2 to 5 minutes after the top of the hour for the noon games. Is it possible to just lock at kickoff? Or lock at the scheduled start time?

I believe we've already set it up in 2019 for baseball, football and basketball to lock at the actual start time rather than 5 minutes before.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I knew I would be opening a can of worms with an open discussion, but that's okay sometimes!!

As for scoring, we certainly aren't afraid to tweak certain aspects of our scoring system if an area needs adjusting. We can definitely look at defensive scoring and the rest to make tweaks where needed, but I don't think a massive overhaul is needed or crazy scoring additions are needed which makes us completely different than everyone else. That wouldn't be helpful.

When I look at the competitive balance of our national contests I see so many close races and there are also so many close league races that something is obviously right. And I see different ways that owners are compiling those winning rosters. In fact, even with 6 points per passing touchdown, the teams that excelled this year were the ones who waited on QBs and hit big in Round 10 and later. Very interesting.

In our national contests, the winning margins were:
Classic - 4.54 points
Primetime - 5.30 points
Draft Champions - 21.65 points
Online Championship - 26.58 points
Cutline Championship - 35.87 points

We are different with 6 points per passing TD, and we were different in 2004 when we had only a half-point per RB reception (later changed to PPR). We aren't afraid to tweak the scoring where needed, so keep the suggestions coming. We want to make our game better, but wholesale changes aren't needed. We have a unique, very competitive game and we plan on keeping it that way for years to come.

[King of Queens]

We want to make our game better, but wholesale changes aren't needed.

So no 50-point bonus plays?

[Cocktails and Dreams]

The promotion is a better idea at first thought than it is after being thought through imo. Not only would they get promoted, but they would undoubtedly move near the top of the standings, as it would take quite a score to be leading that pack. I don’t think that would be right.

The other things aren’t that big of a deal to me but in no particular order things I would like to see

1. In contained leagues, everyone gets that makes the playoffs resets to one faab dollar to use in any of the last 3 weeks. Tb goes to high reg points on down. Use it on player to bolster team, save fir injury or whatever. Lot if money on the line to have absolutely no free agent rights, when it seems like that rule might be designed more fir the overall contests?

2. Would like to be able to drop guys not started Thursday. Yes it is a free peak. But is that free peak worth missing out on the better players available Wednesday? It is a decision that is not easy. More flexibility the better, and thanksgiving week can be a nightmare with this rule.

3. Always a proponent of devaluing the qb td passes even if only down to five. Understand wanting to keep this niche however.

4. Badly need to be able to bench a player even if only one at a position. See no reason you shouldn’t be able to take a zero if you want.

5. I am good letting a third online in or not.

6. I like how rt has a function where players declared out or on bye are removed for someone else on Sunday early in morning during regular season. Wonder if something similar can be put into place here. Even I’m a diamond league a guy quit setting lineups about halfway through. Made it rather unfair, even though I had benefit of playing him the last week.

Improvements. First off, kudos on improving the vast majority of things. Very easy in the eyes. Going from team to team was awesome.

1.Get leaderboard moving in real time or close to real time. It would be about twenty minutes between updates this postseason. Was very frustrating

2. Hated how bid groups jumped around the page while you were trying to edit the bids. Made it very confusing at times and led to mistakes at others.

3. Would be great if after copying a group you can change the top bid amount to a lower one and would automatically making the rest that number to start with. Instead that player would go down. To the bottom so actually had to start at the bottom to edit them. This was confusing and leads to mistakes and waste of time. Would be game changing feature and one that should not be hard to program.

[hammer]

Possible Rules Changes In 2019:
1. Thursday Night Players: The NFFC currently does not allow players in the Thursday Night Game to be cut or picked up during the Friday FAAB period. Our reasoning through the years is that it's not fair for a team to get a free look at a players' performance on Thursday and then decide to cut him on Friday in order to pick up another player who could actually start for them on Sunday. It would be like expanding that roster from 20 to 21 or more players for that week. Now, we aren't married to this reasoning and can be convinced otherwise, but I'd like to see discussion on the Thursday Night Game players and whether they should be allowed to be cut during Friday's FAAB period. Begin.

I have talked about this in the past, but in addition to pointing out that everyone in a given league has a chance to acquire Thursday players, it's not a "free" look; owners have to allocate both the FAAB money and the roster spot to accommodate such a Thursday night player... there is no unfair advantage, merely an owner making yet another value judgement in the cost/benefit analyses that we all employ every week

For the record, I think the NFFC would be better allowing owners to drop un-started players from that week's Thursday night game

[DrEvil1996]

Having kickers at all is one reason I do all my NFFC Draft Champions leagues right before the season starts and don't do the earlier drafts. I don't want to draft 2 kickers that get cut and put myself at a disadvantage for the big prizes up top. Obviously players at all positions get cut/hurt, but with 35 rounds we're also strategically drafting backups in a lot of places so that mitigates some of that risk. Kickers are unpredictable and replaceable throughout the league, and it's a waste of everyone's time to research this stuff before a draft.

Team kicker would be a way to encourage people to draft earlier, but getting rid of kickers altogether is even better - it's one of the reasons MFL10s became the go-to best ball format years ago. If NFFC wants to encourage people to draft earlier and more often and grow their entrants, getting rid of kickers (or at least doing a team kicker concept) is a way to help. If growing/evolving isn't an objective, that's fine - just keep everything the way it is.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, we are getting the NFFC site ready right now and will have rules finalized shortly. Thanks for all of the input here on the rules proposals and we should have answers shortly. We have some small tweaks to the contests and rules that I think you'll like, so nothing that will overwhelm anyone.

We also plan for the earliest launch in NFFC history, so let's get drafting earlier than ever this year. Stay tuned as we have some good announcements coming this year thanks to some feedback here. Thanks all.

[Greg Ambrosius]

I have a suggestion...What about a single entry main event separate from the Classic and primetime? Maybe something like a $1500 entry and the ability to compete for a big $75,000 prize for example. Obviously the league payouts would have to be a lot smaller than the the classic and primetime since I imagine the contest its self would be smaller. But it would give players a chance to compete for big money prize in a SINGLE entry tournament.

We will have news on this concept shortly. We introduced a limited-entry contest in baseball, the NFBC Dirty Dozens, which is limited to a max of 2 entries per owner and is limited to 180 teams. This is the first time we've ever offered this in the NFBC and it has a $1,000 entry fee and a $50,000 grand prize. We have since turned our attention to football and should have a fun announcement soon. Stay tuned.

[Greg Ambrosius]

Okay, our goal is to get the 2019 NFFC site up by the end of the Super Bowl and get Draft Champions leagues started in early February. We are working on that now and setting up the Rules as we speak. With that in mind, here's the takeaways from our Rules Proposals:

Possible Rules Changes In 2019:
1. Thursday Night Players: The NFFC currently does not allow players in the Thursday Night Game to be cut or picked up during the Friday FAAB period. Our reasoning through the years is that it's not fair for a team to get a free look at a players' performance on Thursday and then decide to cut him on Friday in order to pick up another player who could actually start for them on Sunday. It would be like expanding that roster from 20 to 21 or more players for that week. Now, we aren't married to this reasoning and can be convinced otherwise, but I'd like to see discussion on the Thursday Night Game players and whether they should be allowed to be cut during Friday's FAAB period. We are in favor of having more flexibility during the Friday FAAB period and allowing players who had a Thursday Night Game but WERE NOT in your starting lineup to be cut. We still have some work to do with IT to make this happen, so it's not official yet, but we are discussing. Give us some time to walk this through with IT, but as of now we are leaning toward more flexibility with the Thursday players during Friday FAAB.

2. Online Championship Seeks Expansion: This one is a little more drastic, so let's discuss. In the NFFC Primetime, we pay the Top 3 finishers and allow the Top 3 finishers to reach the Championship Round. In the Rotowire Online Championship we pay the Top 2 finishers and allow the Top 2 finishers to reach the Championship Round. We have 563 Online Championship teams in the Championship Round right now, which is a lot. But my idea is to add ONE MORE team from each league into the Championship Round, without paying that team a league prize. So in other words, we would put 3 teams from each league into the Championship Round while still paying $1500 and $700 in each league, thus giving that third place team a chance to still win the big grand prize. We think that's a fair tradeoff as many third place teams are so very close to earning that Championship Round spot anyways, and with the new grand prize, having a 1 in 4 shot at the Championship Round really makes this contest more appealing. Thoughts? We will NOT expand the Rotowire Online Championship qualifiers in 2019.

3. Team Kicker for NFFC Draft Champions Leagues?: We debated this one at length last year for the Draft Champions leagues and there was no strong consensus to change this. But I'll put it here for discussion anyway. If we do allow Team Kicker JUST FOR DC LEAGUES, it would be safer for owners who draft earlier before teams cut individual kickers or before there are injuries to individual kickers. It also might allow us to reduce DC drafts by a round or two because owners feel safer about backing up Kickers with 1 or 2 backup Team Kickers rather than back up their first kicker with 3-4 "names of kickers". This would be a drastic change for the DCs, but let's see if anyone has changed their mind in the past year. If we start NFFC Draft Champions leagues in early February then it gives even more credence to easing the unpredictable kicker position. We have no intention of eliminating kickers in season-long games, but we feel FOR DRAFT CHAMPIONS CONTESTS ONLY it does make sense to allow Team Kicker without cutting the number of rounds we offer. This will allow NFFC owners to draft with more confidence earlier in the off-season and compete in more leagues. It also takes some of the luck factor out of this position. So for ONLY DRAFT CHAMPIONS LEAGUES, we will introduce Team Kicker (32 available) in 2019 while keeping the number of rounds at 35.

4. Could Someone From Consolation Round Reach The Championship Round?: This is extremely drastic and even Tom and Darik weren't sure about this one. But here it is: In the Cutline Championship, teams in the Wild Card Tier always have a shot at making it back into the Championship Round. It's not easy, but the hope is there. What would you think of allowing JUST ONE TEAM from the Consolation Round in Week 14 and then again in Week 15 to jump back into the Championship Round from the Consolation Round? It would be the highest scoring Consolation Round team for those two weeks in the NFFC Classic, NFFC Primetime and Rotowire Online Championship. It's drastic, but again it gives everyone hope to still win those great overall grand prizes and gives reason for every single team to NEVER give up during the regular season. It's also just TWO extra teams moving to the Championship Round. You never know what can happen in Weeks 14 and 15. We always want to figure out how we can keep owners trying every single week and this year we added Weekly Prizes to the three contests, so maybe this is just one added incentive to dangle out there for everyone. This proposal was defeated for 2019.

Start Time In 2019: Lineups will be locked at the SCHEDULED START TIME for each NFL player for that week, not 5 minutes before. We have already changed this programming for baseball, football and basketball.

We will talk to IT about the programming that FORCED your only Tight End into the starting lineup if that TE played on Thursday Night and you didn't have a second TE on your roster at that time. We have to work with IT, but we agree that the programming should be more flexible for football. Same with other restrictions through Wednesday FAAB that could be eased through a possible illegal lineup with one FAAB period still to go. Again, we have work to do but at this point it makes sense to ease those restrictions.

Chad's idea for one free agent pickup for only the Championship Round teams has some merit, but we haven't gotten into the discussion with IT on programming it. But we will keep that on the front-burner and discuss. For now, I just don't have an answer on it, but I like the idea as it rewards the regular season placing and involves just one pickup per team. Still more discussion on this though.

Thanks for all the feedback and I will start a separate thread on Rules Changes before we launch the site for 2019. But just a heads up that we are pushing hard to launch early, to have drafts early and to really kick off the 2019 season in a big way. Look for updates shortly on new prize payouts, entry fees, and even a new contest shortly. Thanks all.

[Coltsfan]

All looks good except for the team kicker Greg. I always felt like kicker meant MORE in a draft champions than a weekly contest as it's much more predictable in the scope of 16 games than it is any given week. For me this is completely backwards. But it will save those of us who spent a lot of time working on kicker stats, kicker salaries, and team salary caps so that we could make good decision, a lot of time this year. Now we just plug in any random team......


Wayne