Defense versus DST Scoring

Q: This year I am in a new fantasy football league with new people I have not played with before. The draft was setup online and almost all of the participants were there for the live online draft. The rules were in place for each team to have a defense, not D/ST where the defense gets scoring from kick returns and punt returns.

Now we are a couple weeks into the season and the people that have the Chicago Bears and othere defenses who have good return men are complaining saying that defensive scoring should include the return touchdowns.

The commisioner has decided that we have a vote and if the majority (7 out of the 12) vote for it we will be adding return touchdowns to the defensive scoring.

I find this unfair because obviously the teams that have good return men are going to vote for the change. And more importantly because at the time of the draft it was not desegnated D/ST like it is in most leagues where the return touchdowns count towards the defense.

A: Hi Jim. Thanks for the inquiry. I rarely recommend bringing any issue to a vote during the season for exactly this reason - there is simply no way for your league owners to vote objectively. Every single person that votes on this issue, will be voting based off what benefits them personally - and not what is best for the league. That’s not a very healthy environment to make permanent changes to your league structure, is it?

If you used a live online draft, then the league had to have been created prior to the draft, correct? That means all owners had the opportunity to login to the league and see exactly how a Defense can score, in your league specifically. If that knowledge was accessible during or before the draft, then there is absolutely no way your league should change the rule three weeks into the season.

Would you change QB TDs from 4 to 6 points or viceversa at this point? Its the same premise and I bet I could predict how a Peyton Manning owner would vote compared to how a Kyle Boller owner would vote in that scenario. You have to avoid changing rules midseason because of subjectivity. Once you change one rule, the door has been opened. The ruling on the field should stand in your case, leave the rule as it.