League Rules Discussions

[Dave]

Drafting: Dynasty
Defense: I favor Defense/ST, but I don't mind going IDP.

[Mike]

I'm good with either going Dynasty or a full re-draft. I could even keep my team name, since we can run next level Iron Man shit.

[David Yun]

You'd just have to remember to draft a backup kicker next season

[David Yun]

Owners' Votes
We have all votes in regarding the structure of our league moving forward.

Dynasty is approved with 6/8 votes. Kang voted no only due to a desire to see a show of commitment from all players first. The bylaws will address the issue of potential defunct teams.

IDP is also approved with 7/8 votes from owners.

Rules and Regulations
Hereby follows an initial draft of the Dire Football League rules and regulations. I submit it to the Commissioner for approval. If he endorses it, these bylaws will become official. All owners are encouraged to suggest improvements, as I easily may have overlooked or misjudged potential problems.

Roster Lineups
Beginning next season (2013), lineups will add three new slots for IDP (Individual Defensive Players). They will be: Defensive Lineman, Linebacker, and Secondary. The Team D/ST slot will be retained, but altered to remove all standard defensive scoring options, and added all special teams scoring options, namely return yards. Note that this substantially changes the potential value of our current D/STs.

The bench will be increased to (7) seven slots to accommodate the larger teams. (I'm waiting for Kang to argue that six is more than sufficient.) The (2) two Injured Reserve slots will be retained in addition to these.

Expansion Teams
We will be adding at least two new teams to our league, necessitating an expansion draft. (Currently Gonz and Esther; feel free to nominate others.)

Each current team will have (1) one Franchise Tag. It must be used prior to the expansion draft, by submitting the name of the player you're applying it to, to the commissioner. Players designated in this manner are protected from selection in the expansion draft.

Each current team will have (2) two Restricted Free Agent designations. Players protected in this manner MAY BE TAKEN by an expansion team, but any lost RFA will be compensated by receiving the highest available draft pick (of the regular post expansion draft) from the expansion team that took the player.

(NOTE: Joel and I will run a mock expansion draft, to ensure that the one Franchise tag and the two RSA tags are adequate. The number may be changed if we find them insufficient to provide competitive balance.)

Prior to the expansion draft, all teams must have no more than 14 players (the current 9 game day slots + 5 bench slots.) This is to prevent IR shenanigans to stash extra players.

The expansion teams, in randomly assigned order, will then begin to draft players from existing rosters in reversing snake sequence. A second player cannot be selected from an existing team, until all existing teams have been targeted in the expansion draft. Likewise for a third player and so forth. The same player may not be selected more than once in the expansion draft.

The number of rounds in the expansion draft will be determined based on the number of expansion teams. If we expand to (10) ten teams, there will be (11) eleven rounds. This will result in all but two teams reduced to (11) eleven players on their rosters, with those other two at (12) twelve. If we expand even larger, the expansion draft will maintain the principle of numerically balanced rosters.

2013 Draft
Our regular draft will then commence. The expansion teams will select first (in reverse order they proceeded in the expansion draft). Then the current teams will select, in reverse order of final standings (Dire Bowl winner selecting last, loser of the consolation bracket selecting first, with seasonal Points For employed as tiebreakers). Then we snake around until our rosters are full, including our new Individual Defensive Players.

It is possible that a situation may arise in which a team is full before expending all of its draft picks. If so, a player must be dropped in order to make an additional selection. If a team in this situation declines to free up the necessary space, they will forfeit their draft pick.

Division Realignment
The divisions will then be realigned, in a manner to be determined by the total number of teams in our league. Although the idea of year over year divisional rivals has a certain romance to it, this is for the sake of competitive balance (a balanced schedule will no longer be possible) and to prevent us from getting SICK AS FUCK of each other. The principle I have in mind will be to separate the top teams into different divisions (in snaking distribution).

Orphaned Teams
Any teams abandoned by their owners (please do not do so) will be "owned by the league". They will draft in accordance to ESPN rankings, akin to the way I autodrafted for James this season. For game day decisions, ESPN projections will determine the rosters. In the event of an empty slot, whether due to injury or bye, the highest available ranked waiver player will be acquired and inserted. I think Mike's amply demonstrated that this can be competitive ("Iron Man"-ing it is even tougher than this). Expansion teams will not be awarded if any teams are currently orphaned; new owners will be given such teams.

Transactions
These options provide a wealth of tools for owners. All of the following are assets with potential trade value:

Players
Franchise Tag
Restricted Free Agent designation
Expansion Draft Pick
Draft Pick

Also note that delayed trades by announcing PTBNL (Player to be Named Later) are acceptable if run by the commissioner.

Our league trade deadline is fast approaching, but there is no restriction on offseason trades after the conclusion of our league championship.

Suggestions
I put some amount of thought into this document, but please point out any possible oversights. Changes may be forthcoming pending the mock draft in any case.

[Zeke]

I'm withholding judgement until I see the results of the mock drafts.

[David Yun]

Joel and I ran numerous mock drafts. Will be posting expansion draft procedure shortly.

[David Yun]

I apologize for the repost. Any edits to the original document will be in larger text for quick review. Note that several items have been deleted entirely, with no such indicator. The following is in immediate effect as the Dire Football League rules and regulations.

Roster Lineups
Beginning next season (2013), lineups will add three new slots for IDP (Individual Defensive Players). They will be: Defensive Lineman, Linebacker, and Secondary. The Team D/ST slot will be retained, but altered to remove all standard defensive scoring options, and added all special teams scoring options, namely return yards. Note that this substantially changes the potential value of our current D/STs.

The bench will be increased to (7) seven slots to accommodate the larger teams. The (2) two Injured Reserve slots will be retained in addition to these.

Expansion Teams
We will be adding two new teams to our league, necessitating an expansion draft.

Each current team will have (2) two Franchise Tags. They must be used prior to the expansion draft, by submitting the names of the players you're applying them to, to the commissioner. Players designated in this manner are protected from selection in the expansion draft.

Prior to the expansion draft, all teams must have no more than 14 players (the current 9 game day slots + 5 bench slots.) This is to prevent IR shenanigans to stash extra players. If a roster has extra players, and the owner fails to indicate which should be dropped, the commissioner will use his best judgment to remove the least valuable.

All D/STs will be dropped, as they will have completely different values moving forward.

The expansion teams, in randomly assigned order, will then begin to draft players from existing rosters in reversing snake sequence. Franchise Tagged players may not be selected. Once a current team has lost two players, it is exempt from the expansion draft and may not be targeted. The same player may not be selected more than once in the expansion draft. This will result in each expansion team gaining a foundation of (8) players.

A supplemental draft for the expansion teams will ensue, allowing them to select an additional (2) two position players (not IDP) plus a kicker each from the free agent pool, excluding rookies, to bring their roster into consistency with that of the existing teams.

2013 Draft
Our regular draft will then commence. The expansion teams will select first (in reverse order they proceeded in the expansion draft). Then the current teams will select, in reverse order of final standings (Dire Bowl winner selecting last, loser of the consolation bracket selecting first, with seasonal Points For employed as tiebreakers). Then we snake around until our rosters are full, including our new Individual Defensive Players.

It is possible that a situation may arise in which a team is full before expending all of its draft picks. If so, a player must be dropped in order to make an additional selection. If a team in this situation declines to free up the necessary space, they will forfeit their draft pick.

Division Realignment
Divisions will be realigned each season. Although the idea of year over year divisional rivals has a certain romance to it, this is for the sake of competitive balance (a balanced schedule will no longer be possible) and to prevent us from getting SICK AS FUCK of each other. The principle I have in mind will be to separate the top teams into different divisions (in snaking distribution).

Orphaned Teams
Any teams abandoned by their owners (please do not do so) will be "owned by the league". They will draft in accordance to ESPN rankings, akin to the way I autodrafted for James this season. For game day decisions, ESPN projections will determine the rosters. In the event of an empty slot, whether due to injury or bye, the highest available ranked waiver player will be acquired and inserted. I think Mike's amply demonstrated that this can be competitive ("Iron Man"-ing it is even tougher than this). Expansion teams will not be awarded if any teams are currently orphaned; new owners will be given such teams.

Transactions
These options provide a wealth of tools for owners. All of the following are assets with potential trade value:

Players
Franchise Tag
Expansion Draft Pick
Draft Pick

Also note that delayed trades by announcing PTBNL (Player to be Named Later) are acceptable if run by the commissioner.

Our league trade deadline is fast approaching, but there is no restriction on offseason trades after the conclusion of our league championship.

Suggestions
As always, suggestions are welcome.

[Zeke]

I approve this format for our league. If there are any concerns please post them here to begin a dialogue.

[David Yun]

An issue with my roster just occurred to me. After executing the two trades at the end of the season, my roster will be two players short. I don't know if the waivers system will still be active, but if not, I'd like the opportunity to acquire enough players to balance my roster up to regulation going into the offseason.

Alternatively, I'll ask James if he'd like our trade to execute earlier; this should offset half of the problem.

[David Yun]

NFL free agency is upon us, so we're doing some bookkeeping to prep for 2013.

The following players have been dropped from active rosters into the FA pool:

JOEL - Jonathan Dwyer
DAVE - Denarius Moore
JAMES - Needs to drop three by Monday night.

Then ALEX and MIKE each will have the opportunity to add a player, as their rosters are one short.