Fantasy Football - COVID Changes

[Sam]

Anyone making changes to their league structures this year, given the uncertainty regarding COVID (potential positive cases, teams being shut down, etc.)? Is it making a difference if you're playing in a redraft vs. keeper league? Are you drafting soon?

[Erik]

It's a tough year to try to pull off a league.

I'm in two keeper leagues and a redraft. One of the keepers is on hold for the year and will try to resume next year. The redraft is going forward and will be doing a virtual draft on Sept. 11. The commish is convinced there will be a full season or something close to it (and he's a doctor, though not an infectious disease specialist or epidemiologist).

The other keeper league is an auction league that I was co-commish of and will be sole/lead commish of if it proceeds. We had dropped from 14 to 10 in recent years and 2 guys didn't want to play this year, but the other 8 say they do. But my co-commish doesn't want that role anymore, so if we proceed, it will be all on me. I've been trying to get the remaining guys to provide input on the unique rules and procedures we may have to adopt for this year, but few have stepped up. Finally yesterday, I presented a list of topics and asked for responses from all of them by Sunday (my job will get significantly busier starting around the end of the month). If most or all can't be bothered, I'm walking away for the year, and if it kills the league for good, so be it.

Here's what I asked them:

Given what we know right now, do you want to have a season this year?

If you do want to play:

Should we switch to the best ball format for this year?

How do you feel about extra IR spots? Have them regardless? Have them only if we don't do best ball? Don't have them? How many extra IR spots should we have if we go that route?

When should we have the auction? It would have to be virtual. I am not comfortable with an in-person gathering at this stage.

Should we keep the entry fee the same, or lower it due to the uncertainty?

How many games is enough to declare a champ and make payouts? (MFL is not applying fees to 2020 if 6 games or fewer are played.) How many games is enough to roll over contracts for 2021? How do we determine a champ if the season lasts longer than our threshold but is cut short and not restarted? How do we determine playoff qualification/seeding if the season is interrupted but resumes?

What other issues do you think we will need to decide on before the season starts?

[revo]

These are the rule changes in my keeper league:
-If the season is 7 weeks or less...full refund to everyone, season is null and void....every transaction made following the auction will be reversed (trades and waiver claims) all moves made before the auctions and the players you get in the auction will be eligible to be kept with one exception. If you draft a player in the auction that has already opted out of the season that player will not be keepable. Keep in mind any transactions made between now and the draft , including the activation of rookies, will stand.

If the season makes it to the 8 weeks point, then the season will count as will all transactions and all contracts will move along the same as other years....however, as discussed the payments will be different depending on how far past 8 weeks it goes....
-If the season 8-10 weeks...everyone gets $100 back...and the top 4 teams in the standings at that time...including tie-breakers....gets paid....1st...$800, 2nd...$450, 3rd...$250 and 4th....$150..(4th place team based on points)
-If the season goes 11 weeks (everyone will have played everyone at least once) or more normal payouts...even with no playoffs...tie-breakers used to determine results.....(6th place team based on points)

If the NFL season is cancelled before they complete at least 8 weeks but they play at least one game, the 2021 draft order will be determined by the amount of points your team has to that point in the season. The team with the most points will get the first pick and so on down the line....if there is somehow a point tie, the tiebreaker will be record, followed by head to head, followed by a coin flip. If the season is completely cancelled we will randomly select the draft order. Also, if this happens then the rookie squad (which is already going up to 5 after week one of this season, with no more than 1 non-rookies for 2020 and no more than 2 following the 2020 season) will be expanded to 7 from the day of the 2021 rookie draft through week 6 of the '21 season.


In my redraft league, we increased roster spots from 17 to 22.

We're also allowing Sunday morning pickups.

[Sam]

Appreciate the feedback and questions. They were helpful in forming what two of my leagues are planning on doing (the third league is just going with "if it doesn't make it all the way through, the season doesn't count").

In one league, this is what we decided:

Season Cancellation Scenarios:

9 or less weeks completed

Season is determined a wash, no payouts, keeper don't count and can be used again in 2021
League Vote: Hold the 2020 season buy-ins for 2021 draft party

10 - 14 weeks completed

Payout are determined by total points, with an additional payout for the team in 1st place
1st in Points: $280
2nd in Points: $160
3rd in Points: : $60
1st in Standings: $100

15 weeks completed (Week 16 is cancelled)

The 1st & 2nd place payouts will be split between the teams in the Championship. The 3rd place payout will be split between the teams playing for 3rd
Championship teams: $270 each
Runner-up teams: $30 each

16 weeks completed (full season)

Standard payout amounts, based on playoff results
1st place: $360
2nd place: $180
3rd place: $60

Covid Positive Players


Each team will have additional IR spots for players who test positive for Covid-19
In the event that a player tests positive on gameday and is started, the Team Manager can ask the Commish to remove the player from their lineup and substitute a replacement player who has not yet started play that week. The replacement player can come from the Team's bench or the waiver wire.
Be aware that if a Manager starts an inactive player for a Monday Night Football game, they will not be able to replace the player and will receive zero points for that position.

[Sam]

In another league:

Season Cancellation Scenarios:

8 or less weeks completed

Season is determined a wash, no payouts, keepers don't count and can be used again in 2021 (based on 2019 draft, can't keep a keeper based on the 2020 draft)

9 - 13 weeks completed

Payout are determined by total points (since not everyone would have played the same opponents, making standings less fair), with an additional payout for the team in 1st place
1st in Points: $560
2nd in Points: $320
3rd in Points: $120
1st in Standings: $200 (would likely get one of the top 3 payouts as well)
Keepers stand as normal for following year

14 or 15 weeks completed (interruption of playoffs)

If Week 15 and 16 are cancelled, the remaining 4 teams would split the postseason pot only ($1,000).
Top 2 highest seeds remaining would split 1st place money ($400 each)
2 lowest seeds remaining would split 2nd place money ($100 each)
If Week 16 is cancelled, postseason pot would be split between the two ($500 each)
Keepers stand as normal for following year

16 weeks completed (full season)

Standard payout amounts, based on playoff results
Regular Season First Place - $100
Regular Season Most Points - $100
Playoff Champ - $800
Playoff Runner Up - $200
Keepers stand as normal for following year

Covid Positive Players

Each team will have additional 2 IR spots (3 total) for players who test positive for Covid-19

[Judge Jude]

consider what we did with my baseball league.

4 owners out of 12 weren't interested in a Rotisserie season this year, so the official league is mothballed til 2021.

but we all agreed to spend the entire month of April in a slow "Parallel Universe" draft (you wouldn't be going so slow, obviously).

all NL players were up for grabs, league disappears come October, and no transactions.

the 4 holdouts didn't put up a modest $25 for the season, so they are not eligible for 1-2-3 prize money that goes to any of the 8 who put up money. with no moves to make, no disadvantage for them. the holdouts currently rank..... (checks standings).... 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 9th.

there's a vibe of continuity with this process, and it respects the disillusioned owners' wishes while the rest of us have something to amuse ourselves with in 2020.

[Erik]

The other keeper league is an auction league that I was co-commish of and will be sole/lead commish of if it proceeds. We had dropped from 14 to 10 in recent years and 2 guys didn't want to play this year, but the other 8 say they do. But my co-commish doesn't want that role anymore, so if we proceed, it will be all on me. I've been trying to get the remaining guys to provide input on the unique rules and procedures we may have to adopt for this year, but few have stepped up. Finally yesterday, I presented a list of topics and asked for responses from all of them by Sunday (my job will get significantly busier starting around the end of the month). If most or all can't be bothered, I'm walking away for the year, and if it kills the league for good, so be it.

That league isn't playing this year either. Luckily it didn't come to me issuing an ultimatum. A few guys from the remaining 8 last week came out and said they'd rather skip this year than play with 8 teams, and when it became apparent that we weren't going to be able to pull that off, someone suggested pulling the plug for 2020 and I agreed. Everyone seems to want to try to revive the league in 2021; we'll see how people feel in the spring.

[Andrewski]

That league isn't playing this year either. Luckily it didn't come to me issuing an ultimatum. A few guys from the remaining 8 last week came out and said they'd rather skip this year than play with 8 teams, and when it became apparent that we weren't going to be able to pull that off, someone suggested pulling the plug for 2020 and I agreed. Everyone seems to want to try to revive the league in 2021; we'll see how people feel in the spring.

So in one of my leagues, transactions stop at 1p on Sundays. We were concerned that there would be a covid announcement after that, and the fantasy team would be screwed because they could not pick up a player to replace that player. For this season only, we are allowing teams to make moves if there are covid-related announcements after 12:45p on Sunday, with the caveat that the picked-up player must be in a team's starting lineup.

[Erik]

So in one of my leagues, transactions stop at 1p on Sundays. We were concerned that there would be a covid announcement after that, and the fantasy team would be screwed because they could not pick up a player to replace that player. For this season only, we are allowing teams to make moves if there are covid-related announcements after 12:45p on Sunday, with the caveat that the picked-up player must be in a team's starting lineup.

Makes sense. We have no idea how far in advance we'll know who is out due to COVID.