NFFC Rules Changes Proposed For 2021; Let's Discuss

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks to everyone who jumped into the Covid waters of fantasy football in 2020 because it took some courage and some faith to put your hard earned money on this unpredictable season. There definitely have been some bumps in the road during this NFL season, but kudos to the NFL for keeping players and fans as safe as possible and for pushing through the regular season. It's been a great diversion from the real world.

And congrats to all of our regular season winners as we gave away more than $1.3 million in prizes last Thursday. In two more weeks we look forward to giving away another $3 million or so to our playoff winners. Good luck tonight and good luck in Weeks 15 and 16.

At the end of every year, we reassess our contests' rules and look for feedback from all of you to make our games better. Two years ago, we added the Silver Bullet Championship, we added Team Kicker for the Draft Champions format and we added optimal scoring during the regular season of the Cutline Championship. We also changed our rule to allow players from the Thursday Night Games to be cut on Friday night if they weren't in your starting lineup. All of those changes are still with our games today.

Last year we altered the Defensive/Special Teams points slightly to give defenses a few more points for points allowed. And then because of Covid, we moved the Primetime, Classic and a couple of other contests to using Team Kicker this season, which may have freed up a roster spot during the regular season. We also changed the second FAAB deadline from Friday to Saturday at 10 pm ET, again due to Covid.

Now as we head toward the 2021 season -- which will be our 18th season -- we need to see if any of these temporary changes should be permanent. Should both of those changes stay for 2021 and beyond? Are there any other changes we should consider for next year?

Here's the starting point for the changes and we are open for other discussions as well. Thanks for any and all feedback everyone.

2021 Proposed Rules Changes:
1. Team Kicker For All NFFC Games: By having Team Kicker, nobody will ever lose a kicker just before Game Day and nobody will have to roster two kickers per week. There is still some skill in picking a kicker from the right NFL team and there is still some strategy on deciding whether you need to stream kickers each week or if you can just take Justin Tucker and roll with him each week. But this rules change has worked well for the contests which used it in 2020 and now we'd like to add it to the Rotowire Online Championship and the Cutline Championship right from the start in 2021. We are interested in your feedback here.

2. Saturday 10 pm ET FAAB Deadline: Before this year, our FAAB deadline had always been on Friday night, including our second FAAB deadline when the NFL started adding Thursday Night Games. We can talk about the right dates and times of the week for the two FAAB deadlines, but we are convinced that the second one shouldn't be any earlier than Saturday at 10 pm ET going forward. That extra day allows our owners to get the latest injury information and now Covid information before Game Day. So this change would remain permanent in 2021. Any thoughts here?

3. Is Wednesday & Saturday FAAB Deadlines The Correct Days?: This is a discussion point, not a rules proposal, so let's go at it. Is Wednesday at 10 pm ET the correct day and time of the week for the first FAAB period? We moved this first FAAB period because of the Thursday Night Game, but really that's an early deadline for a small portion of available players in that one game. I've wondered if moving this FAAB deadline to Thursday before the kickoff of that game -- maybe a 6 pm ET deadline on Thursday, or even 7 pm ET -- would make more sense. Would having 20-21 more hours to sift through injury/Covid information be more beneficial to our owners, or would it be too late to make starting lineup moves before the 8:20 ET kickoff? Personally, it seems like the later the better, unless it interferes with your starting lineup decisions, but I could be wrong. Please give us your feedback on the first FAAB deadline and what day/time would work best for everyone.

I think the Saturday 10 pm ET deadline makes the most sense for the second deadline. If we moved it to Sunday morning, our owners would HAVE to spend Sunday morning setting starting lineups and adjusting FAAB bids. Yes, some news could break overnight or on Sunday morning, but there's always going to be something that could come up. We are interested in your feedback on the second FAAB deadline, but right now we feel like Saturday at 10 pm ET is better than Friday night and much more convenient than Sunday morning. Thoughts?

If you have any other potential rules changes or additions, please let us know here. We will finalize everything before we launch the 2021 site in early February. Thanks again everyone for a very fun and successful 2020 campaign and let's hope the world and our country is back to "normal" when the 2021 NFL season kicks off. Stay safe, stay healthy and good luck in the playoffs.

[Coltsfan]

I always appreciate the fact that you are open to discussing the rules with you customers. My thoughts are pretty easy:

1. Team Kicker - I hated the idea last year but now that it's hear I actually like it. The impact on drafting was minimal. I would use team kickers for all NFFC events next year.

2. Saturday 10:00 pm waivers - I really liked moving the second FA period from Friday to Saturday night. Covid made it almost necessary but I don't know why I would want to move it back. I thought it worked out very well.

3. Are Wednesday and Saturday's the right days - I think so. I like the ending time of 10 eastern. That allows the east coast folks to check the ww results and get lineups set Wednesday evening which is very important for those who may have restrictions that would keep them from doing this during the course of work on Thursdays. I wouldn't change a thing here.

A couple of things that are really minor. Personally I hate consolation prizes in non overall leagues. If we lose, can we not just put our tail between our legs and crawl off into the sunset??? Put the money into the league prizes for the winners..... Please.

The only other might be waivers in non overall leagues after week 13. There is not a competitive disadvantage since these leagues do not flow into something larger. It's not a huge deal but it seems to make sense.

That's all I have. Great job on the rules this year! I think you guys did a great job navigating 2020.


Wayne

[JohnP]

I agree with Wayne! Ditto on the consolation $ for non-overall leagues. Pay 4th (or more to 2nd and 3rd) instead of paying 5th. You guys made some great calls on the changes for this year!

[bald is beautiful]

I agree with Wayne! Ditto on the consolation $ for non-overall leagues. Pay 4th (or more to 2nd and 3rd) instead of paying 5th. You guys made some great calls on the changes for this year!

A thousand times "AGREE" on the useless "consolation" $ in the Super Auction. Move it to 4th place as its hard enough to get to the final 4 in a 14 team league.

[telestar]

Thanks as always for your willingness to discuss the rules:
Team Kicker - In favor - I would prefer that the NFFC had no kickers, but team kickers is a fine compromise...
Saturday 10:00 pm waivers - In favor - it allows for more reaction time from a late injury so I think it helps all owners
Are Wednesday and Saturday's the right days - yes

I have a couple of alternate suggestions - maybe others can react to these? Would love to hear all views...

1. Consider eliminating the tight end position and have 4 "receiver" spots (plus the flex). I think a few years ago there was a classic separate position of tight end - who was primarily a blocker but also caught passes. I think now the position is really much more muddled between a WR and a TE - there are some pass-catching tight ends and some that primarily block. Travis Kelce would rank highly even as a "receiver" - why do we elevate him further by making him such an anomaly in a sea of mediocre tight ends? (I admit there are a few other good TE pass-catchers - Hockenson, Waller, Andrews - but in my mind they are really big receivers, not a completely different position...)

2. Could we have a league where standings are based totally based on win-loss record - but each week teams get two decisions...first, teams (as usual) get a win or loss based on the individual matchup and second, teams get a decision based on whether it is in the top half of the league for points that week. So each team would get 26 decisions over the course of the season. A team that lost with the second-highest point total of the week would still go 1-1 and a team that won with the second-worst point total of the week would also be 1-1. It would be less capricious to me - I know some owners like just total points but to me that gives a big advantage to teams that generate a couple of monster point total weeks. Of course the NFFC could still run the big contests run with the current rules (Classic, Online, Primetime) - I'd just like to see if there was any interest in this all win/loss type of league if it was possible to offer it technically.

Thanks and great job handling this difficult season - appreciate all your hard work!!!

[TR]

Wednesday and Saturday are definitely the correct FAAB days.

For kicker, I'd probably lean towards non team kicker as the team defense and team kicker listings look almost identical. Also when trying to use a tool like fantasy pros to look at available kickers and their schedules...or the kicker rankings...it wouldn't work when importing team with team kicker as they only recognized individual kickers.

I'd like to see the 3rd WR position be a WR/TE option. I had 3 RBs I started this week...my WRs were very shaky...while I had 2 Tight Ends I felt better about using. So I started Hockenson and had to bench Gesicki for the likes of Allen Lazard or Ruggs. It would be nice to use a tight end in that position as most tight ends are basically receivers nowadays. Not to mention many teams use 2 TE sets, so why not have that option for fantasy lineup as well.

[packman527]

Greg's points:
1. Team Kicker - I'm good with the idea of Team Kicker. Not a strong lean either way for me. It does take away having to worry about certain issues that would otherwise drive you to carry a 2nd kicker.

2. Saturday FAAB - I absolutely very much want the 2nd FAAB period to remain on Saturday night. I think that works much better and gives everyone more time to digest all the injury reports and news than having it on Friday. And I definitely DO NOT want it on Sunday morning. Sunday morning is for monitoring the inactives and making tough lineup decisions. I don't want to have to do or worry about FAAB Sunday morning in addition to those.

3. Are Wednesday & Saturday the correct FAAB days? - I think this is the best combo. I really do not want to have FAAB run on Thursday prior to the TNF game. I, and I'm sure most people, work on Thursdays, and I definitely do not have time to be worrying about FAAB, then checking the FAAB results, then setting lineups accordingly, all prior to the TNF game. I wish the NFL would just quit with the TNF games all together. But that will never happen. So I think Wed/Sat is the best way to go with FAAB.

The "other" proposals:
1. Consolation Prizes - I agree with Wayne about not having consolation prizes. I would do away with all consolation prizes, but there must be a certain reason all these contests insist on having consolation and toilet bowl prizes, so I doubt they're going away in the overall contests. I'm sure it has to do with making sure more teams win money, and hopefully that means they'll return next year. But they can certainly go away in the private leagues. And I am with John on paying 4th place instead. I just barely missed the playoffs in the Super Auction, finishing 5th. And I plan on winning the $500 consolation prize. Nevertheless, I find it stupid that whomever does win that consolation $500 could end up winning more money than someone that made the playoffs (i.e. if whomever finishes 4th did not already finish with the regular season best record or most points, then they'd have made the playoffs, but won no money at all).

2. Lineup suggestions - I would definitely NOT want to get rid of the TE spot. So much draft strategy is tied to figuring out expected value/return, and that means determining the best strategies for drafting TE and QB, especially, or going zero-RB or doing the Kessenich method (shout out to Tom claiming he invented starting RB-RB), or any other strategy. If you want the "anomaly" that is Kelce, then you have to decide if you want to pay that 2nd round price or not, or if the opportunity cost of taking a TE in the 2nd round is too high. I'd be okay with the other suggestion of turning the 3rd WR spot into WR/TE, but prefer a full double flex to that (see below).

3. H2H/All-Play combo standings - While this isn't a bad idea, I like the way the NFFC does things. One team gets in on record, and everyone else gets in on points.

My suggestions:
1. Superflex/2 QB - I know Chris LIss agrees with me, but I really wish you guys had a 2 QB/Superflex national contest. I know you guys have a lot of different national contests, and probably worry about spreading it too thin if you were to add another one, but I would love to see it. I know the Fanball DFS contest Tom and Darik talk about every week on your show is superflex, so maybe you guys are warming to that format. In fact, it looks like all the Fanball DFS salary cap leagues are superflex. Even one sponsored by FantasyPoints.com. So maybe there would be some customer carry-over right there. The FantasyPoints Superflex Online Championship. I like the sound of that. I think it would work with either 10 or 12 team leagues, and I like the Fanball DFS rosters, just add K and Def for an 11-man roster, or if you're looking for an excuse to eliminate the K or Def as a roster spot, remove one or both.

2. NFL 17-game schedule - This isn't so much a suggestion, but a necessary talking point. I first brought this up in February after all the CBA talks, but there was not much discussion. There aren't many people looking at the NFFC boards in Feb/Mar I'm sure. But the 'Rules Changes' forum post seems like the right place to discuss the possibilities. The new CBA allows the NFL to move to a 17-game regular season with the 2021 season. Given the lost revenues from the COVID 2020 season, that seems like an absolute certainty that they will enact that now. The likely options would be to add an all-play week to all contests (14 fantasy regular season weeks 1-14 and 3 weeks of playoffs weeks 15-17) or to have an extra week of playoffs (keep 13 weeks of fantasy regular season weeks 1-13, then have fantasy playoffs weeks 14-17), with week 18 being what week 17 is now. Any decisions will have to wait until the NFL makes the 2021 schedule official, obviously. I’m not sure how I even feel yet, necessarily. Sometimes the 3-week playoff period seems so quick. But having 4 weeks of playoffs plus a dead week (week 18) makes a big chunk of the football season irrelevant to those that didn’t make the playoffs. But adding another regular season week isn’t ideal either. Every year teams that are out of it quit and affect H2H matchups. Adding another regular season week would just be another week having to deal with that. I guess a third option would be to just keep things the way they are and have 2 dead weeks at the end. I think I have a very slight lean toward 4 weeks of playoffs, but I'm curious as to what others are feeling with this ill-advised decision to (likely) add a 17th regular season game.

3. Double-Flex instead of 3 WR - This isn’t a big one for me either way. I’m good with 2RB/3WR/1TE/1Flex. But I like the double-flex more than either other lineup change suggested by others so far (do away with TE or add a WR/TE flex). Every year I have teams where I've drafted and FAAB'd well and have 4 RBs I'd rather be starting than a 3rd WR. Case in point, I sat Jonathan Taylor somewhere this week (Henry, J. Robinson, Montgomery), and would have very much liked to have played 4 RB rather than my 3rd WR.

[TR]

2. Could we have a league where standings are based totally based on win-loss record - but each week teams get two decisions...first, teams (as usual) get a win or loss based on the individual matchup and second, teams get a decision based on whether it is in the top half of the league for points that week. So each team would get 26 decisions over the course of the season. A team that lost with the second-highest point total of the week would still go 1-1 and a team that won with the second-worst point total of the week would also be 1-1. It would be less capricious to me - I know some owners like just total points but to me that gives a big advantage to teams that generate a couple of monster point total weeks. Of course the NFFC could still run the big contests run with the current rules (Classic, Online, Primetime) - I'd just like to see if there was any interest in this all win/loss type of league if it was possible to offer it technically.

Thanks and great job handling this difficult season - appreciate all your hard work!!!
[/quote]

I like this idea of having 2 decisions each week.

[TR]

[

3. Double-Flex instead of 3 WR - This isn’t a big one for me either way. I’m good with 2RB/3WR/1TE/1Flex. But I like the double-flex more than either other lineup change suggested by others so far (do away with TE or add a WR/TE flex). Every year I have teams where I've drafted and FAAB'd well and have 4 RBs I'd rather be starting than a 3rd WR. Case in point, I sat Jonathan Taylor somewhere this week (Henry, J. Robinson, Montgomery), and would have very much liked to have played 4 RB rather than my 3rd WR.
[/quote]


I like double flex or WR/TE flex instead of 3 WR...gives us alot more options and strategy in accordance to how we've assembled our rosters

[Greg Ambrosius]

Thanks for all the feedback on the Message Boards, on Twitter and via email/text. So far it seems like a vast majority of owners are cool with Team Kicker and want the Wednesday 10 pm ET and Saturday 10 pm ET FAAB deadlines to continue. I agree with the current feedback.

I'll address Consolation Prizes here as a game operator and we can discuss it further later. As a game operator, having Consolation Rounds in the national contests keeps everyone playing for something for 16 weeks. Without them, it's very possible that more teams would quit on their teams earlier than they even do now. There is always a discussion on how the NFFC can keep owners from quitting on their teams and at least having Consolation Rounds and some prize money available in Weeks 14-16 should be incentive enough to keep everyone fighting for their weekly scoring average in Weeks 1-13.

Again, we can discuss if certain private leagues should move the Consolation Prize to a 4th place prize, but as a game operator having some incentive for everyone to try hard every week makes a lot of sense. And again, having something available for all owners to set their starting lineups for 16 weeks rather than just 13 weeks makes a lot of sense, too. That's the game operator talking.

On Twitter, there was the suggestion that we should give $200 to third place in the Rotowire Online Championship. If we did that, it would take $60,000 out of the overall prize pool and it would lower the overall grand prize. We already give $1,500 to 1st place and $700 to second place, higher than another contest pays within the league. I'm not sure that contest grows more with a third place league prize over a big carrot for the overall prize, but it's a discussion we can have.

We have discussed FAAB in non-overall leagues before and I thought Chad's idea a few years ago was the best one. So for like the Diamond League, start FAAB over in Week 14 for the four Championship Round teams and maybe give $4 for most points, $3 to second place, $2 to third place and then $1 to the fourth team. That rewards the regular season leaders, but everyone gets only enough FAAB money for maybe one or two moves before Weeks 14, 15 and 16. It doesn't allow for a lot of free agent pickups, but it does give owners a little help in case of injuries during the Championship Round. Just a thought.

I don't see us getting rid of the TE spot or the K spot or combining the third WR spot. I also don't think we'd change any of our current contests to a SuperFlex contest. Could we ADD a SuperFlex contest? Of course we could and it's an easy addition in the programming for us that we could do right now. All of the Fanball contests are SuperFlex now. But is there enough demand for a national SuperFlex contest when we already have like six national contests? Maybe we could start out with private leagues next year and build from there, but it's an easy addition if we want it.

The 10 roster spots and 20 total spots are the right mix, we think. Drafting Tight Ends is like drafting Catchers in baseball; there's a lot of strategy in whether Kelce is worth a second round pick or if just waiting for Evan Engram to bust out makes more sense. I have been intrigued about a second Flex spot (not Super Flex involving QB, Double Flex) and whether there's a way to work that in as the third WR spot or as an additional spot (start 11 per week?). I wouldn't mind having that discussion.

As for the upcoming NFL schedule and whether we will see 18 weeks in 2021, we'll be ready for that if/when the NFL goes there. I don't think it will be in 2021, but yeah if the NFL expands the season to include 18 weeks of action, it likely makes sense to have 15 regular season games in the NFFC and stay with the 3-week playoffs. That would add another week to All-Play in all game formats (including the 14-team Classic). The concern, however, is that too many stars rest in Week 17 of the Championship Round, but eliminating the last two weeks of action doesn't feel right either. We can discuss that together when the time is right.

Keep the feedback coming and thanks for all the kind comments and insightful ideas. That's why this is such a good fantasy football community.