Here's some changes to the rules/league I'd like to make for 1999.  Some of these are simply wording changes, some are major rule changes so read carefully and weigh in on the issues...


The Schedule

Each team shall play a head to head 13 game regular season schedule. 

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Each team shall play a 13 game head to head regular season schedule. 


Week #14 is the Divisional Wilcard Playoffs. The third seed team of each division against the second seed team, with the divisional leader taking a bye. 

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Week #14 is the Divisional Wilcard Playoffs. The third seed team of each division against the second seed team, with the divisional leader receiving a bye. 



The Teams

Each team shall consist of 10 players: 
          2 - Quarterbacks 
          3 - Running Backs 
          3 - Receivers (WR's and/or TE's) 
          2 - Kickers 
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Each team shall consist of * players.  There shall be no restrictions on the number of players on a teams roster at any given position.  *[The number of players is subject to negotiation. I'd say 10-12, favoring 11.]


Fees: [No change, but we will be enforcing the November 1st deadline this season!]



Starting Line-Ups

"Scab Rule": In the case of bye weeks, any team without enough players to fill out their starting roster will be allowed to make a one week pickup of available players. This will be on a first come, first served basis after the weekly waiver period has expired. (See "The Waiver System" below.) 

[Possibly eliminate this if we agree on the open roster format above.]



The Waiver System

A major rewrite as agreed upon last season where you can select unrestricted moves during the restricted period so long as someone doesn't claim the same player as a restricted move.

ADD: Waivers are allowed up to noon on Friday of week #13. 



Player Trading

Trades are allowed through week #8. 

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Trades are allowed up to noon on Friday of week #13. 


All teams will maintain the league required personnel count and distribution when trades are completed. 

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All teams will maintain the league required personnel count when trades are completed. [Pending open roster ratification.]



The Scoring System
[You all know I am going to change this in some form...]

Drop:

Pass Reception		1 point
Pass Completions	1 point
[These are stupid and are just running up the scores.  They are HISTORY!]

Change:

Pass Interception	-2 points  to -2 points or -1 points
Lost Fumble		-1 point   to -2 points or -1 points
[A give away is a give away so shouldn't they be equal?  I favor -2 because I like to see suffering!]
Receiving Yardage	1 point per every 10 yards to 1 point per every 7 yards for WR's and 10 yards for RB's.

Here's my supporting documentation...

I've run the numbers for the first 13 weeks.

The top 20 RB's:
(rushing)
19,507 yrds Total
975.35 yrds each for 13wks
75.03 yrds/game
7.5 points/game average

(recv)
5,085 yrds Total
254.25 yrds each for 13wks
19.56 yrds/game
1.96 points/game average

This means the average top 20 RB scored an average of 9.46 points per game.

The top 20 WR's:
(recv)
17,003 yrds Total
850.15 yrds each for 13wks
65.40 yrds/game

6.54 points/game on average for a top 20 WR.
(I don't have any rushing data for WR's, but it has to be worth far less than 1 pt/game.)

Clearly a RB is "worth" more than a WR under this system. In an effort to level this discrepancy I would like to "lower the bar" for WR's to increase their value.  Using the above numbers I found that if WR's get 1pt/8yrd they would average 8.18pts/game.  Better but still not good enough.  So if you go to 1pt/7yds you get 9.34pts/game.  Now you are only 0.16pts/game less than the RB's are averaging. Throw in the minimal running points a WR gets and you are even.  But to keep the RB's from gaining more points receiving they have to stay at 10 points per game.  Otherwise they jump to 9.95pts/game (8yrd/pt) or 10.29pts/game (7yrd/pt).  You wind up right back where we are. I hope this makes sense to you guys.  It's 11:15PM here in my lovely hotel room in Rochester!  And I've got more...


Expansion:

Unless you guys really want to do this it's a dead issue.  I got the impression that you guys weren't thrilled with it and it creates more overhead for me.  Thus I'm opposing it at this point because I'm lazy and it might dilute the talent pool more than we would like.  I've found a new way to dilute the talent by increasing the roster to 11 or 12 players.  This would add a round or two on the draft and would place more of an emphasis on trades as opposed to diving into the marginal talent (waiver) pool.  There would still be those surprise rookies and resurgent old men available there. This would require you to...as Gabryslack always says: "draft better" as well as wheel and deal like "The Donald".


It's late and I'm tired so I will leave you for now.  We need to come up with a written "Ties Rule" as right now we've only seen it in the regular season (where it is fine and will remain that way), but in the playoff's that would be a big problem.  Also, there are big changes coming to the web site soon.  I'll keep you posted...

Hugs & Kisses,

The Lord Almighty Commish!