MoFo Fantasy Football 2011: Draft Time and Settings

Well, that was quick. We had about a dozen owners commit in the first 24 hours after the signup thread went up, and the rest followed shortly after. A whopping 13 of last year's 14 owners are returning, which is pretty remarkable.

Here's the owner list. We've also got a a few other MoFos standing by as alternates if anyone has to drop out or basically disappears in the middle of the season.

Owners in bold have yet to confirm that they're okay with the latest suggested draft time (Saturday, August 27th at 2:00 PM) or suggested rules.

• Big Damn Heroes (upStomp)
• Team Zissou (Fiscal)
• Beantown Champs (Piledriver)
• GWOW (Adam)
• The Mean Machine (rauldc14)
• Wyld Stallyns (Sleezy)
• PW's Odd Squad (Powdered Water)
• Dextruction (DexterRiley)
• Hired Badgers (WBadger)
• The Mean Machine (TONGO)
• Flash II (7thson)
• The Replicants (Sedai)
• Sookie's Suckers (LTIZZY)
• 11 Angry Men (Yoda)

I'll be renewing the league shortly and sending out invitations.

I was thinking it'd make sense to hold the draft a shade earlier this year, and would like to propose Saturday, August 27th at 2:00 PM. This'll give all the West Coast peoples plenty of time to sleep and all that, if they want.

So, first thing's first: does anyone have a serious problem with this draft time? Most owners seem very flexible about whether or not we draft on a Saturday or a Sunday, or a little earlier or later, so it's certainly not out of the question that we can move this around if people have serious conflicts.

It's very important that everybody weigh in, even if only to say that the time is okay with them, because as we found out with baseball last year, you can't necessarily change times last minute. Times get "reserved," presumably to avoid overloading Yahoo's server, so we need to set the draft date as quickly as possible. I'll be marking the owner list above to denote who's agreed to what time.

Okay, just sent the invitations. If any of you guys don't have your invitations, for example, because you're using a different email address than the one you signed up with last year, let me know ASAP via PM by sending me your new address and I'll get another invite out right away.

Regarding rules: I think last season was a really, really nice setup. 6 teams make the playoffs, with the top two seeds getting a bye. PPR, 6 points per TD pass. As tempting as it is to ditch the bye and make the championship two weeks, I think this is a pretty good setup.

One change, however, is playoff reseeding. This wasn't an option before, but Yahoo now gives us the power to reseed playoff teams after each round, so that the highest remaining seed always faces the lowest remaining seed. Up until now, the seeds have been arranged into brackets, but not reshuffled after each round. I think reseeding is better.

Another option is to "lock" eliminated rosters, so they don't pick up and drop players and effect the still-going playoffs. I'd favor this, as well. I realize it would somewhat limit what each team can do to win the consolation brackets, but that seems a small price to pay to avoid messing with the surviving playoff teams and their chances.

Anyone feel differently on either issue, or have any other suggested changes from last season?

Draft times fine. I wonder about locking teams while the playoffs take place, seems like its constricting the fun had at seasons end for losing owners (yeah thats me ), but it does protect from upsetting the playoff balance. As of now I can go either way on that one. How do they handle this in the real NFL? I assume teams can add players to their roster while in the playoffs

There are strict rules in the real NFL; I believe you have to set a "playoff roster" and can only deviate from it in the event of injury.

Basically, I'm worried about the nightmare scenario of some owner losing a championship because they missed out on some crucial pickup because someone playing in, like, the 7th place game nabbed him. That just feels all wrong, to me. The consolation brackets are there to have a little extra fun, but I feel like that sort of abuses that extra fun by interfering with the competition, which isn't over yet.

Well Ill agree to a locked playoff then. Trades can only be done till a certain date too so overall it makes sense.

Hey guys, just wanted to publicly thank voneil7 for letting me take his spot. He's a stand-up guy and I'm really thankful that he was good enough to do that.

I'm good with the draft time and all the currently set rules.

I think a Saturday will be fine. I'll just plan on taking the day off.

EDIT: Oh I did forget to mention that I think we should draft as late as humanly possible, there is going to be a LOT more injuries in this short preseason and we're going to be taking a lot of risks if we don't hold out until just before the season starts. I says.

As far as locking goes... does that mean that teams in their respective 3rd, 4th, and 5th place games won't be able to make moves essentially? I guess I'm OK with that. The obvious question of course (especially this year I think) is what to do if or when a guy gets hurt and a team doesn't have anyone to fill a spot. Is that manager just out of luck because he/she isn't in the championship round? The longer this response becomes the more I guess I'm OK with it, it is just a consolation round after all.

As far as re-seeding goes, I really don't care. Fantasy football can be so totally random sometimes that when we're down to the last 6 teams I don't think its really going to matter one bit if 1 is playing 6 in the second round or what have you. This is a seriously competitive league with member who know their players so I just don't think its an issue here.

So, I guess I'm basically saying I'm for both things but I don't think I'd like, vote for them or anything. Could I be a bit more nebulous perhaps?

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oi.....that's the worst day possible for me literally. I'll be Vegas-ing it up and come back the 21st (morning) But if I have to Autodraft, I guess that's what it will be.

Are Sundays generally not good then?

And I do think a later draft would actually fare better, due to free agency, uncertain situations, and pre-season injuries.

Ultimately, I believe I auto-drafted last year and it wasn't the worst, I just hate that they slot me for kickers and D's so early.

I am open to any date as long as I have a good weeks or so in advance. For some reason fate tends to play a part in me never attending a draft, mlb or nfl - anyway I am easy peasy lemon squezzy. Looking forward to another year.

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I'm okay with the 21st instead, if you're sure you can make it then. How about everyone else?

I can 100% do the 21st. But hopefully it works for all.

Ill change my leagues draft day again if necessary so theres no conflict. Also sent an invite to Voneil7 so he can still be in the mix plus he would be a returning owner from last year.

Who is KTE? Their team is San Dimas HSFB Rules.

I can do whenever for the draft, worst case scenario I auto-draft, so schedule it for what ever works for the majority. Chris I sent you a message with my new email address!

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"Vader...You Must Confront Vader..."

That's me.

Sunday is great by me. Are we sure we don't want to hold out a bit longer than the 21st?

I'm okay with it if it. I guess 2-3 people have mentioned it now, so that sounds like reason enough.

Since we have to "reserve" each time, I just reserved Saturday, August 27th at 2:00 PM. That work?

Sorry for all the changing everyone. There's no great way to do this. Though I will say, when confirming this new time, probably best to confirm whether or not you can do the next day, too, so we'll know that the entire weekend is good for most people.

I think that will really help, I just have this feeling that a bunch of guys are going to pull up lame and that will make drafting even more challenging than usual. Lots and lots of risk/reward picks out there this year.

Either day that weekend works! Yee haw!

Heh, Sleezy switches to Wyld Stallyns. Well done.

Oh crap, my new logo...almost forgot...

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