New Fantasy Owner Keeper Rules

Q: Hi, we have a keeper league with 12 teams. This year, a couple of the owners dropped out so we had to find some replacements. Should these new, first-time owners have the option of taking over the vacated teams and keeping players from those teams that are eligible to be kept?

A: Thanks for the question. This particular fantasy league dispute is older than my mother and equally as impossible to comprehend. If your league has a personalized set of fantasy football rules, add some clarification around this dilemma immediately and take solace in the fact that this will be the last time the issue causes a problem.

In the short-term, there’s really only one fair resolution. Bring it to a vote - the newbie owners excluded, majority wins. Since a ‘No’ vote adds a few more top players to the draft pool, which benefits all the owners who are voting, most likely the new owners will not be allowed to retain keepers. Nothing you can do to deter someone from voting for whatever benefits them most personally. However, after the season ends, but before next season, when no one has anything to gain anymore, conduct a second vote, this time including all league members, to set a precedent for each new owner’s keeper rights.

As a reference, it is my experience that most leagues do NOT allow new owners to ‘inherit’ keepers from a previous franchise as it is undoubtedly an advantage to have that option. Most leagues prefer to force the rookies to ‘cut their teeth’ in the league by starting with a blank roster, a slight disadvantage, but completely acceptable as it puts the onus on the new owner to earn the respect of the senior league members. No free meals in fantasy football, I’d be voting to stick it to the noobs if this were my league.