I have some ideas for potential changes to the league. Let me know what you think or if you have any other ideas.
1.) Collect 2 years of fees. I want to collect 2018 and 2019 fees this year. This will help with continuity for the league. If someone was to leave, a new person would start in the lowest league but have one year already paid for. If you wanted to leave after the 2018 season, you could always sell your spot for the 2019 fees by finding a new player. Either way we should easily be able to keep the league full with this change.
2.) Playoff for People Outside the Top 4. This will be used to determine the draft order for the next year. For example teams 5-8 will have a playoff just like the people playing for the championship. Only the person who gets first will have the ability to choose their draft position first. Teams 9-12 will also have a playoff. This will extend the season for everyone since 11 weeks is a bit short. ESPN won't allow us to set this up so it will probably be tracked on the website.
3.) Add a fourth league. I want to add a second middle league. The league will be filled with all new people and operate as an identical middle league. Here are the changes to the relegation scheme.
Champions League - Bottom 6 are relegated. 3 to each Minor League.
Minor Leagues - Top 3 from each league will be promoted to Champions League. Top 3 are determined in the playoffs. The bottom 4 from each league are relegated to Amateur Hour League.
Amateur Hour League - Top 8 are promoted to Minor Leagues. 4 to each Minor League.
Why?
-It will be harder to stay in the Champions League and more people will have a shot at winning the Champions League.
-More people will be in the minor leagues which has the most fair payout and most excitement from a relegation/promotion standpoint.
-Two thirds of the people will not be promoted from the Amateur Hour League which reduces the chances of spending a lot of time at the bottom. Currently with only 4 being promoted, it could be easy to get stuck there.
As THE preeminent dumpster fire of a team this year I am ok with these changes. I could not have made worse decisions in the draft and will suffer my fate in the lowest league.
I think collection of two years of fees makes sense to prevent dropping out when you suck like i do.
One thought I had was that agree the playoffs for the teams out if it should mean something but can we make them mean even more. If we accept that the top 3 teams deserve to move on or stay in the top league then can we somehow use week 16 for the team in the top 4 who has lost 2 to have to face the top team from the middle tier below. If the team who was in top 4 loses then that middle tier team should get to move on up. The same could be done with the bottom 4 top team vs the lowest middle tier team. Functionally not sure how you will administer it if the ESPN software goes into off-season. Probably could do it by email to the league commissioner before kick off time.
Other thoughts. Do we want to go to full PPR. Should the defense be able to score 20 point or more or use the standard 10. Bonuses for performance are not additive. Should they be changed so they are worth more for those 200yd rush and receiving games and 400yd passing. Right now a 300 yd passer get a 2pt bonus and no more bonus once past 400. Should we take away QB points for incompletions and add for completions (0.25 per plus or minus) which adds to the value of the Tom Brady QB and detracts form others.