2016 King of the Shack Fantasy Football Brainstorming

2016 Fantasy Football Ideas

The 2015-2016 season saw league manger, Noah Ballweg lead his dominating Hernandez Hitmen team straight into the league playoffs and capture his first ever 'Shack Daddy' trophy. While the season saw many close match-ups and even welcomed in two new members, there still remained a disconnect amongst the owners within the league. This led to questionable trade scenarios and weekly lineups being untouched for multiple weeks at a time, creating an imbalance in the efforts being put forth into the 2015 season. This evidence calls for a change for the 2016 season, one which will create increased engagement between owners and their fellow competitors, and engagement between owners and their own teams.

This blog post is simply an opportunity for the league to brainstorm ideas and rules that they want to see implemented into the upcoming season. Once all rules and regulations have been voted on and approved later in the year, I will take the liberty upon myself to draft a league constitution that we will all sign in agreement to the 2016 changes.

Please comment on this post with your own ideas, what things have you seen work in the past? What would you like to see change in the King of the Shack league? What ideas do you like/dislike?

League Dues:

Prior to the 2016 season, league dues have been set at a measly $10, pocket change and a low risk, low reward investment for the owners in this league. Although this money has yet to be collected, I am suggesting a minimum of $25 dollars be set for the 2016 season, up to $50 depending on the league vote. This will drastically increase incentive for team owners to take the draft seriously, and stay updated with their team throughout the season. This will then increase the depth and competitiveness of the league overall. This money will be collected on the day of the draft, no money, no draft picks.  What are you thoughts??? I have also come across research suggesting that league dues should be paid in percentages  based on how well, or how poorly a team finishes in last years season. For instance, the team that finishes last would pay the leagues highest due, say $50, while the league champion would pay the least amount that year at a discounted rate of $20. This would provide incentive for owners to not give up on their teams half way through the season and continue to fight through the playoffs. 

Draft:

Since the beginning of the King of the Shack league, the draft order has been randomly selected each year, leaving teams who struggled the year prior, with little room for improvement, while the previous playoff teams have often been near the top of the draft order consistently. This needs to change. As stated during the 2015 season, since Luke won the loser's bracket, he will get the rights to choose his draft position, we will honor that opportunity for this year, while all the other draft positions are still up in the air. Here are a few "Draft Lottery" ideas that I have come across:

NBA Lottery Style (Ping-Pong Balls):

Based on a teams overall record in the previous season, each owner will receive a percentage of the lottery votes (Last place=75%, First place=10%, etc...) The lower you finish in the previous season will determine your percentage of receiving the first pick in the draft and so on. Now, dare I say this, but this idea could lead to the "tanking" of some individuals once they feel that their current season is a bust. This would create havoc amongst the league and would have to be dealt with to keep the competition steady.

"The League" Lottery Challenge:

 If any of you are like me, your dream is to someday be in a fantasy football league like the Fox hit series, "The League," if you haven't watched it, I highly suggest you mooch off of someones Netflix account and watch all 4 season. In this television show, each year, the champion of the league gets to decide how the draft order for the upcoming season will be set. This generally involves some sort of competition between the league members, which leads to comfort zones being shattered and the heat of competition coming out at an all time high. If this method is selected by the league, I am proposing that we allow Luke to have immunity to whatever challenge arises, and allow him to not only keep his choice of draft position, but allow him to pick what "challenge" will dictate this years draft positions. It could be as simple as each member choosing a horse the Kentucky Derby and whoever places highest earns a top pick, it could involve each member racing around a track for a mile, or it could involve seeing who can down the most Taco Bell tacos in 10 minutes.

Randomized:

This method, although the least fun, would also be the most simple, where each year, all of the teams are placed at random with equal chance of being pulled, out of a bowl or hat and the draft order is then picked from that group of names. This would keep things fairly even amongst all of the team owners, but could lend the league champion with the chance of gaining a high pick in the upcoming draft.

Draft Type:

One final thing to take into consideration concerning the upcoming 2016 draft, the the actual type of draft that we want to do. The past two year we have completed snake drafts, 1-8-8-1. Our other two options are to pick a set draft, or to draft with ESPN's virtual currency. The first option would involve picking draft positions, most likely with the NBA lottery style choice, and then keeping the draft picks in a set order, looking like this: 1-8 (1 Round) 1-8 (2 Round) etc...The third option is to use virtual currency to draft players in the NFL. Each team would be given a draft budget, of say $5000, players would then have to use skill and strategy to purchase their team based on the finances that they have. For instance, Cam Newton might cost $500, while Jay Cutler may only be $200. This causes each owner to take into consideration how much they want to pay for each position, or how little they want to pay. 

What are you thoughts on all of this?? 

Waiver Order:

The 2015 saw the King of the Shack Fantasy Football league switch to a currency format to determine which free agents would be acquired by each owner. While this format worked to some extent, it was a bit frustrating that owners were not able to see how much the other teams were bidding for certain players. Leaving owners in a position of either bidding way too much, or way too little. How would you like to see this changed? Another option is to base the waiver order, based on an individuals overall record, or performance from the past week. This would allow the worst teams to acquire the high value players more often while the leagues top teams would have to use more strategy and skill to add free agents to their team. 

Tiebreaker:

This is always a touchy subject in most leagues. For the past two years we have not had any tie breakers until the playoffs, and now twice we have seen ties in the regular season, leaving the records in disarray. How would you like to see this played out? It is my vision that we install tiebreakers into the regular season, as well as the playoffs and base the tiebreaker on either total bench points, or total TD's scored by each team. Any suggestions on any other measurement of points? This will solve the issue of having records such as 5-7-1 which simply throws off the league standings and can easily cost a team a playoff spot down the road.

Last Place Penalty:

Here is a solution for all of those fearing that if a draft lottery is installed, teams will begin to tank towards the end of the season in order to gain the top draft spot. At the seasons end, the team that sits in last place will have to face some type of penalty for their lack of activity, poor management skills or just pure bad luck. This could come in the form of a fee, where the last place owner would have to pay an extra $10, $15, or $20 to the league which would be distributed amongst the highest finishers. This would be a great way to stop teams from tanking, due to the fact that when you actually have to pay money for your lack of effort, that scheme quickly goes away and keeps the league competitive. One other alternative to this option, would be a penalty that the entire league agrees on to have the last place finisher accomplish. I'm sure you've all seen the ridiculous tattoos, music videos and public shaming that losers have had to endure after a hard fought season. These methods are often hilarious and really make the bottom-dwellers fight until the seasons end. What do you guys think???

Final Thoughts:

So what are your guy's reactions to all of this? What ideas to you like/dislike? What would you add/remove to the Fantasy Football league next year? This post is simply for the purpose of brainstorming ideas, nothing is being set in stone at this point. So please comment on this post and let me know what you guys want to do for the 2016 season. I am looking forward to another great season with all of you.