Our league has a rule where each team must roster a full starting lineup (can have IR or Bye players in lineup to satisfy requirement.) This rule was voted on at the draft but is not posted anywhere for players to see and I didn’t remember it was a rule in our league. And likely half the league didn’t know either as it happened 4 times and the opponents did bring it up when it happened. (One guy lost 2 times to players that didn’t roster a full roster).
Last week, I rostered a team and left a flex spot empty and simply didn’t put Foreman who was on bye in that spot to satisfy the roster requirement. I had already won the week and didn’t need any more pts. Essentially I had a player on bye on my bench that could have been put in the roster spot.
My opponent called me out on it and the penalty for the infraction is a 2nd round pick. As a result I have to forfeit my second round pick.
When reviewing the previous weeks in the season. There were 3 others teams that did the same thing many weeks ago. Left an empty roster spot because they had won already and didn’t need any points. These teams were also penalized after my infraction was announced.
In my opinion this rule is ridiculous. The spirit of the rule is to prevent tanking by a team not rostering a full lineup in order to lose to get #1 overall.
But in these instances the teams had already won their weeks game.
In your guys opinion should these teams of been penalized for not inputting a bye player in an empty roster spot (even though they already won). Essentially teams are being penalized for a clerical error that has no impact on the integrity of the league. Bye or empty is still get 0 pts.
You didn’t mention if this is redraft or dynasty, but I think the rule applies (or should apply) to both.
It is one thing to accidentally leave in a player on your starting roster who is ruled out, or even put on IR. I get that. But to leave a position without a player? That is serious oversight. That is not even paying attention. I credit your league for penalizing it. Think of it as tough love. It’s a wake-up call.
Look at it this way: If you REALLY wanted to tank, just bench all the players you can, drop the rest, and take your zero! In redraft, this is possible. In dynasty, it’s suicide. Regardless, it stinks either way. and no commissioner should ever put up with it.
It’s dynasty. In the 4 cases where guys are being penalized. The penalized team won the week and didn’t play a full roster because it was irrelevant. If you can beat a guy with 11 out of 12 players vs them with 12 out of 12. So putting a player injured or on bye in that empty slot has the same end result. Player being penalized winning.
The spirit of the rule is to prevent tanking but in the case of our league each team penalized one their week game with the empty slot. Which would be anti tanking.
In my particular case I had WR Landry in my flex playing Monday night and DB Chinn on a bye in my DB spot. I was trailing by 4 pts going into Monday night. As DB’s are more consistent with points than Landry. I dropped Landry and picked up DB Neal and won by 2 pts. My flex spot was empty but on my bench I had Foreman (on bye) who I could have put in the flex to satisfy the requirement (had I remembered the league rule). So based on the league rule everything I did was fine but put a player on bye (who earns 0pts) in my empty roster spot. The result would be irrelevant as I’d won with empty spot or bye player in spot.
The kicker is I am in 9th place (rebuild) and out of the playoffs heading into last week and only made the move for competition of the league because I could of done nothing and played Landry and let the other guy win but instead I made the move to win for competition in the league rather than just throwing away weeks (another anti tanking move).
To clarify, we are able to put injured or bye week players in the starting lineup and the reason I am being penalized is because I didn’t do that in a week where I won my match.
If I read this correctly, @elemonator1985, decided to bench a SNF or MNF player and leave the FLEX open, as the matchup had already been decided in his favor.
Ironically, I had a case in one of my dynasties where a MNF player put up negative points, resulting in his owner losing a matchup he had basically already won.
In that light, I think it would be only fair to require a full lineup from all teams every week.
Some leagues also use scored overall points as a tiebreaker, so there is another scenario in which this might have helped you, albeit an unlikely one.
Stripping you off a 2nd seems a bit harsh, though. As a commish, I would probably have issued a friendly warning, reminding you (and all others) of the rule in place, asking you to observe it in the future.
I am and have been a commissioner. You made a mistake and should have received a warning. I see the accusation and charging a 2nd as a petty and silly overreaction.
Similar situations happened 3 other times to 3 other managers this season but was not brought up to the league as an issue until last week by the guy I played.
Infractions happened. Week 5, 7 9 and mine at week 13. But was not brought forward until end of week 13.
All 4 managers including myself were stripped of our 2nd Round picks.
My argument was that there was no damage to the integrity of the league as a player on bye could have been placed in the empty slot and ended with the same result. The move I made was to win which is anti tanking. And made the move for the competition of the league as to not give another them the win because I didn’t make a roster move. It’s simply a clerical roster issue of having an empty roster spot versus a player on bye in said spot.
Plus based on the number of people who were involved in the infractions the majority of the league didn’t know anyone was breaking a rule. IE the 4 teams that were fined and the 3 other opponents in Week 5,7,9 that did not report the infraction. So 7/12 players in the league didn’t know a rule was broken.
The rule should either 1) only apply when a team has legitimate options on its bench (it shouldn’t matter if a bye/IR player is in the lineup or on the bench–they’re still taking a zero), or 2) the rule should require a team with NO legitimate options on its bench to either make a trade or an add/drop to acquire an active player to insert in the starting lineup.
Penalizing a team their 2nd round draft pick for not starting a bye/IR player who would have gotten a zero anyway is ridiculous.
I believe it is up to a commissioner to check starters, it takes no time. IF he did his job the problem is not one, does not take a month to see and there is no animosity.
