Pre-Season Rule Changes

Q:  Let me start by stating that there are a couple of things that lead to this problem, that has people already threatening to quit the league.  But let me give you some quick background first.  This is the second year for our 6 team league, it has a 1st place prize of $600 plus free agent money.  Since last year we have changed commissioner and the online service we used.  Through this change over some minor scoring changes occurred.  We all had the ability for 2 weeks prior to look at the league scoring setup and immediately before the draft we were all able to look over the scoring and required to sign off on it.  I for 1 noticed the change from 0 points per reception to 1 point per reception and drafted accordingly.  Now 2 days after the draft others have realized that this minor change means that WR’s  are now potentially much more valuable than RB’s.  So there is now a push to either go back to 0 points per reception or change RB’s from 1 point per 10 yards, to 2 points per 10 yards, or some other such scoring alteration to enable RB’s to get similar point totals to WR’s.  The problem that some of us have with this is that we picked our team based on this point setup, my draft strategy was based on the increased value of WR’s, so I ranked WR’s higher on my draft board.  As a last resort solution we have offered to redraft with the old scoring system in place, but the people on the other side of the issue aren’t interested/able to redraft on the upcoming holiday weekend.  So we are at an impasse and I am looking to you for an impartial opinion.

Thanks for the help,  The Silver Foxes

A:  Hi Scott.  This truly is a tough situation.  Changing to a PPR format is a major shift, as evident in the fact that most fantasy football experts/magazines make a point of mentioning how their player rankings vary substantially in PPR leagues.  Here are our thoughts.

First, you can’t redraft, that’s not even an option if you could make it work with your schedules.  It’s a money league and your owners have already showed their hands so to speak in revealing which players they value most.

Second, it is true that any owner could have checked the league rules, but this is not the first year of your league.   A major change, such as adding PPR, needs to be clearly explained to all owners prior to the draft, if not voted on through a democratic process.  If there were no message board posts citing this rule change than the fault of your dilemma rests on the shoulders of the commissioner, regardless of the fact that he/she is new to the role.

Finally, since the rule change obviously affected draft strategy, a common ground must be found.   You can’t go back to 0 points per reception, but increasing RB receptions to two points overvalues RB in this format (and is thus, almost the same thing as going back to 0 points).  We recommend you find a middle ground and give RBs 1.25-1.5 points per reception.   You should be able to assign partial points and if not you can just bump everything up a few decimal points (so 1 pt = 100 pts; and 1.25 pts = 125 pts).

Its not a great solution, but a great solution doesn’t exist in this scenario and we feel this will give you the best shot to appease all parties.

Good luck and obviously next year you need address these issues with all owners prior to the draft.