Team Kicker To Be Used In NFFC High-Dollar Leagues

[Greg Ambrosius]

Coronavirus has already made this drafting season unique and very different for everyone. And it goes without saying, that the upcoming season is going to be unique and very difficult for everyone.

So with that in mind, we are doing everything we can as game operators to keep the playing field as level as possible for everyone, while making sure our contests are as fair as possible.

That's why we've extended the second FAAB deadline from Friday night to Saturday night at 10 pm ET.

It's also why we've guaranteed the entire prize pool once the NFL season reaches 8 full weeks of play. And it's also why we have said we will refund everyone in full if the season shuts down at any point short of 8 full weeks of play. We refunded more than $3 million to NFBC ownesr when the MLB season was shortened and we will refund even more in the NFFC if it comes to that. Not ideal, but we need sports on the field to fulfill our commitment.

We certainly want this NFL season to start and finish on time, but the entire world is unpredictable right now and there are no guarantees that the NFL can pull this off. So let's make sure we have systems in place to guarantee your entry fee money and your prize money in case something happens.

And let's make sure the game is as fair as possible.

We can make it fairer with one more rule change for 2020 and that involves Kickers. Today we are announcing that we are replacing individual Kickers with Team Kickers for the following contests:

NFFC Primetime
NFFC Classic
NFFC Super Leagues
NFFC Ultimate Leagues
NFFC Diamond Leagues
NFFC Platinum League
NFFC Silver Bullet Leagues

The reason for this is simple: We are eliminating the luck factor of an individual Kicker possibly missing a game on Sunday after testing positive very late in the week and leaving owners with a 0 on Sunday. We also are freeing up one possible roster spot as owners can now comfortably go into every week with a known commodity at the Kicker position.

This really does eliminate bad luck resulting in 0 points from that position. Nothing is worse than getting a 0 due to a player missing a game last minute and you not having any options to replace him. Kicker really is the only position where that could happen if you don't have a backup there, and very few owners want to keep a second Kicker on their 20-man roster when other positions also need multiple backups. And it won't change where Justin Tucker and other top kickers are being drafted; Team Baltimore Kicker will go in the same spot anyway.

We made this decision rather than expand rosters to 21 or 22 players. And we made this decision on a one-year basis for these contests as today's circumstances warranted this move to keep these contests as fair as possible with Covid-19 being such a factor in play. We will evaluate this decision before announcing next year's plans for our contests, but we do think it's fair for 2020.

Obviously we can't make this change for the Rotowire Online Championship or the NFFC Cutline Championship since drafts are months in the making and several owners have already made selections with backup kickers in mind. Satellite Leagues also have already started and thus they will use individual kickers as well. We never would have envisioned the impact of coronavirus when we started those leagues in February and through July now, so we apologize for not having this in all NFFC leagues. The Draft Champions leagues already have Team Kicker, so they are accounted for.

We hope you understand the reasons behind this decision and we hope you are okay with getting points from your Team Kicker every week (as long as that team scores). Now make that 20-man roster count and best of luck with streaming Team Kickers this year. It just adds another strategy to roster construction and roster management during the season. Good luck all and enjoy.

[Coyote Streakers]

Great call and the right move for this year! Opens up roster to use for position players.

[Sabretooth]

Probably a good move for this year. I wouldn't mind seeing team K all around honesty. although I'm not one of those people that would like to see the position and laminate it all together.