2020 Major Rule Changes

[Tom Kessenich]

I'm trying to unclutter this forum a bit so I'm combining all the major Rules changes we've announced into one thread. If we make any new changes they'll have their own stickied thread and then after enough time has passed they'll be added to this thread.

Hopefully this helps keep the forum a bit cleaner.

TEAM KICKER IN HIGH DOLLAR LEAGUES
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
NFFC Live Auction 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.

SECOND FAAB DEADLINE IS SATURDAY
The second FAAB period for weekly FAAB leagues will now be each Saturday at 10 pm ET. All NFFC Rules pages have been updated to reflect that and the software is being adjusted as we speak.

This change DOES NOT include Cutline leagues.

Here's the updated Rules:

Bidding Time Frame:
The NFFC bidding process will start the week before the NFL Season Openers and run for the first time on Wednesday, September 9th and again on Saturday, September 12th for all leagues that drafted before those dates. FAAB will run every week from Week 1 through Week 13. Bids will be accepted on the league website from Sunday morning through the FAAB deadlines on Wednesday and Saturday. Rosters will be updated shortly after the 10 pm ET deadlines with the results of all successful bids.

Hope this makes your job easier. Thanks all and good luck.

[Tom Kessenich]

SET LINEUPS TO ALLOW ILLEGAL THURSDAY LINEUPS
We are tweaking the NFFC Set Lineup software to allow you to have an illegal lineup at anytime during the week. What that means is that if you have only one Tight End on your roster and he's playing on Thursday night, you can decide to bench him before Thursday's game and leave that Tight End spot open until you pick up a new Tight End during Saturday's FAAB run, or just start him. The decision is yours, not the software's. Then you can enter that new Tight End into your starting lineup or just take the 0 if you'd like.

In the past, our software always made you have a legal starting lineup and unfortunately that forced you to start that Tight End on Thursday if he was the only Tight End on your roster. The same was true for Kickers, Defense and any other position if you had only one option there on your roster and that option was playing on Thursday.

There is no benefit to taking a zero in fantasy football (unlike in baseball where some people would love to get nothing out of their second catcher), so we've agreed to make this change. We think it will help owners during their weekly decisions, especially this year with Covid-19.

Hope this makes your roster construction easier and more beneficial. Thanks all and enjoy.

[ChiTwn]

I would say the team kicker idea although implemented due to Covid was and is a great idea.

Hopefully, this becomes permanent. I cannot be the only high stakes player who doesn't mind not having to worry about whether the damn kicker is injured.

[Sandman62]

I would say the team kicker idea although implemented due to Covid was and is a great idea.

Hopefully, this becomes permanent. I cannot be the only high stakes player who doesn't mind not having to worry about whether the damn kicker is injured.

+1

[Greg Ambrosius]

I would say the team kicker idea although implemented due to Covid was and is a great idea.

Hopefully, this becomes permanent. I cannot be the only high stakes player who doesn't mind not having to worry about whether the damn kicker is injured.

You are NOT alone in that response. In fact, in Las Vegas several owners came up to us and said the exact same thing. As we've said originally, this is a one-year rule change, but we'll definitely look at this at season's end and make a call for 2021. At this point, we'd agree with you that this has been a good rule change for NFFC owners and it actually makes the contests fairer.

[kjduke]

How will covid-postponed games be accounted for?

1) if moved from Sunday to Monday
2) if moved from Sunday to Tuesday or later in the next week
3) if moved to a future bye week

[BLACKHAND]

agree with team kicker going forward. one less time consuming thing.

[Coltsfan]

Great question KJ! We really need an answer to this before waivers tomorrow.


Wayne

[Greg Ambrosius]

How will covid-postponed games be accounted for?

1) if moved from Sunday to Monday
2) if moved from Sunday to Tuesday or later in the next week
3) if moved to a future bye week

If moved from Sunday to Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday it would still be part of that week's games.

If moved to a future bye week, it would be played and counted during that week. It would not be included in the week it was originally scheduled for. Those weeks are closed and done.

Hope that helps.

[kjduke]

How will covid-postponed games be accounted for?

1) if moved from Sunday to Monday
2) if moved from Sunday to Tuesday or later in the next week
3) if moved to a future bye week

If moved from Sunday to Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday it would still be part of that week's games.

If moved to a future bye week, it would be played and counted during that week. It would not be included in the week it was originally scheduled for. Those weeks are closed and done.

Hope that helps.

yes, thanks