Welcome back to The League – E.F.F.L. The 2017 fantasy season is rapidly approaching, so I hope everyone is preparing themselves accordingly and going nuts mock drafting… lol. This will be The League!’s 6th season and I have no intentions on shutting this thing down!
For the first time in league history, we will not be replacing multiple teams and only have one newcomer to speak of (Feeling Green’s Donavin Serras).
UPDATE (8/27/17): The above is no longer accurate…
I want to say welcome to The League!, where we strive to become your primary fantasy league year after year. I’m your league commissioner Theron K. Shavers Jr., aka The Commish, aka The Consul, aka Blackie Goodell, and I’m here to help you out or talk shit as much as needed… lol. We are happy to have you! There’s a lot of cool features that we have in this league that I’m sure will be new to you, so don’t ever hesitate to hit me up via text ( (813) 516-1978 ) or email (enviousstaff (at) gmail). I try to make myself available as much as possible to make things go as smoothly as possible for all league rookies.
So…, Let’s Get To It!
**New for the 2017 Season**
New Keeper’s Format
Note: New roster size of 25 players added for the 2017 season, with the ability to keep up to 20% of your roster (no more than 5 keepers). You no longer HAVE to keep 4 players, you could choose to keep only 1 player. All teams can protect up to five players, but no player can be kept more than three consecutive seasons in a row (starting this season).
After attracting attention from league commissioners of other fantasy leagues & coming to the realization that The League! is more of a hybrid dynasty league than a keeper league, we have decided that our keeper format needed to be updated! I have been reluctant in the past to require draft picks in exchange for players kept, however this seems to be the most common format for selecting keepers & bringing back the most talent as possible to the player draft pool year after year. It also seems to help keep the best parody between teams within the league. So here goes…
Teams will be required to relinquish a draft pick for players kept for the upcoming season. In example, if you drafted Ezekiel Elliott in the 1st Round, you will have to give up a 1st Round pick in order to keep him for the upcoming season.
Players selected as keepers can be kept by one team for a maximum of three consecutive seasons. After three consecutive season, the player MUST BE added back to the player pool to be redrafted. The team losing the player can redraft the player again and the player’s three year window for being kept consecutive seasons will restart.
Also, the round the player was drafted in will advance 1 round higher each consecutive season the player is kept. Players kept drafted after the 10th round will cost teams a 9th round pick and their round will advance 2 rounds higher each consecutive season the player is kept.
Note: This does not apply to players drafted in the 1st Round, this rule only applies to players drafted between rounds 2-18.
So if a 1st Round player is kept that team will have to sacrifice their 1st Round pick in the upcoming draft. If a 2nd Round player is kept then that team will have to sacrifice their 2nd Round pick in the upcoming draft. But keep in mind that a 2nd Round player kept for two consecutive seasons will cost a 1st Round pick the 2nd time around.
So for example, If I drafted DeMarco Murray in the 2nd Round of our league’s 2017 draft, he will cost me a 2nd Round pick to keep him for the 2018 season. However, for me to keep him for a 2nd consecutive season (the 2019 season), he will now cost a 1st Round pick since his round will advance +1 if kept on the same team for consecutive seasons.
This will become even more of a situation if let’s say I drafted Ezekiel Elliott in the 1st Round in our 2017 draft. I can keep him in 2018 and give up my 1st Round pick, but I would have to make a decision in 2019 since both Elliott and Murray would both cost me a 1st Round pick to keep. I’m sure your team will only have 1 first round pick to give away, unless you’re the Bill Belichick of our league and pick up a second first round pick… lol. In this example, you would have to choose who you wanted to keep.
This will ensure top talent is coming back to the draft year after year…
Free Agents:
Free Agents, or players that went undrafted that were picked up through the waiver wire, can ONLY be kept under the following two scenarios…
Restricted Free Agents:
You can designate up to two free agents (as long as you do not go over your teams 5 players kept limit) from your team as your team’s Restricted Free Agents. Once selected, that player’s round designation will be determined by the players fantasy point ranking for their position (but no lower than a 8th Round pick). *See Below*
Using a WR as an example, if the WR finished in the following ranges in total fantasy points scored at his position and the round it will correlate to…
- 1st-12th: Considered as a WR1, 4th Round Pick
- 13th-24th: Considered as a WR2, 6th Round Pick
- 25th and beyond: Considered as a WR3 at best, 8th Round Pick
Then any team from your conference can advance that round +1 to steal that player away. The original team must either match that offer, or lose that player to the opposing team.
Compensation for the Restricted Free Agent lost will come in the form of a draft pick in the following season. That pick will be determined by that player’s fantasy point ranking for their position for the upcoming season.
Un-Restricted Free Agent:
Any players not designated as a Keeper or a Restricted Free Agent by their current team are to be considered Un-Restricted Free Agents. Any team can select a player from any other team in their conference as long as they are willing to give up a draft pick determined by that player’s fantasy point ranking for their position (but no lower than a 8th Round pick) in the upcoming draft. No compensation will be given to the team losing that player in this case.
New Free Agency (10-Day Period)
We have added a Free Agency period to The League! where teams can make trades 10 days before the draft! Teams can trade away draft picks, keepers from last season or league perks won from the previous season. The Free Agency period starts August 24th, 4pm EST and will end on September 3rd at 3pm EST, 1 hour before the Origins Draft.
New Defensive Scoring Adjustments
We have made some minor adjustments to the defensive & return yards scoring in our scoring system using the 1 pt/2.5 pts tackle/sack ratio for balance. These scoring adjustments, or Big Play adjustments, focuses on the IDP players known for making splash plays instead of being heavy tacklers like the linebacker position. Defensive Lineman that are sack artist are now awarded 4 points for every sack plus 0.1 points for each yard lost! Defensive Backs are now awarded 6 points for every interception plus 0.1 points for each return yard!
Kickoff & Punt Return yardage has been modified to 1 point for every 25 return yards!
- Solo Tackles: 1.5 pts
- Assisted Tackles: 0.75 pts
- Tackles for Loss: 2 pts
- Sacks: 4 pts
- Assisted Sacks: 2 pts
- Interceptions: 6 pts
- Forced Fumbles: 3 pts
- Fumble Recoveries: 3 pts
- Passes Defended: 1 pt
- Kickoff & Punt Return Yards: 1pt/25 yards
New Draft Lottery System
This season our Draft Lottery will be going into a real draft lottery using the Draft Pick Lottery website! This will make our draft lottery exactly like the NBA’s Draft Lottery, where the worse teams have the best odds of obtaining the 1st Overall Pick! The worse team in both conferences (or the #8 seed in either conferences Draft Lottery’s) will start off with 30 balls. The next worse team in both conferences (or the #7 seed in either conferences Draft Lottery’s) will start off with 24 balls and so on. See below for the breakdown…
1st Overall Pick Chances..
- Worse record gets 25/100 chances
- 2nd-worse gets 20/100 chances
- 3rd-worse gets 15/100 chances
- 4th-worse gets 10/100 chances
- 5th-worse gets 5/100 chances
During each conference’s Draft Lottery Playoffs, a 1st Round win will add 2/100 chance to your team’s overall chances, a 2nd Round win will add 4/100 chance to your team’s overall chances, while becoming your conference’s Draft Lottery Champ will add 9/100 chance to your overall chances. In short, by winning the draft lottery you will add 15/100 to your overall chances.
So if your team finished with the 3rd worse record in your conference (your team is automatically awarded 15/100), you will have the chance to add 15/100 to your overall chances of winning the top spot in the draft (15 + 15 = 30, or 30/100 chances) by winning your conference’s Draft Lottery Playoffs. In that same example, you could have the best chance at obtaining the 1st overall pick if the teams with the 1st & 2nd-worse records lost their 1st Round matchups.
You can play with this system over at DraftLotteryPick.com. It’s kind of addictive!
Realistic Scoring System
Well this is more of a idea concept that we will roll out as an experiment in 2017, although this will be polled out for permanent inclusion for the 2018 season later in the year. The idea of this is to have realistic game scores like in real NFL games (i.e., a final fantasy score of 31-27). Each week, each team submits their lineups exactly the same as now. The twist is that the IDP players will deduct points from the opposing offensive players. This now gives you 50% control over your offensive players, but gives the other 50% control over to the defense you are playing against making this work exactly like a real NFL game.
The IDP players would mirror the offensive players but their fantasy points would be counted as minus points. For example a TD scored for a defensive player would be -6 points, a sack -4 points, a safety -2 points and interception would be -6 points instead of adding points to your team’s point total. So as an example we will look at a week 10 game from our league last season below…
In this example, the Clam Diggers offensive starters would be going H2H against Da South’s defensive starters…, and vice versa. So the Clam Diggers offensive starters scored 112.16 and their defensive starters scored 66.20. Da South’s offensive starters scored 123.14 and their defensive starters scored 79.80.
So Da South’s defensive output of (79.80) would be deducted from the Clam Diggers offensive output of (112.16), leaving the Clam Diggers with a fantasy score of 32.36.
112.16 – 79.80 = 32.36
In turn, the Clam Diggers defensive output of (66.20) would be deducted from Da South’s offensive output of (123.14) leaving Da South with a fantasy score of 56.94.
123.14 – 66.20 = 56.94
So in a realistic scoring format, Da South outclassed the Clam Diggers 56 – 32 in an offensive shootout!
Each week during the 2017 season, we will have the regular fantasy score as well as show the Realistic Scoring system score for you to see. The fun thing about this system is that there can be a game where a team got shutout, a team scored only 3 points, or a defensive battle where the final score was 10-7. 🙂
The Realistic Scoring format is only a concept idea for the 2017 season & is NOT the scoring format for the season. This format will only be shown so all owners can get an idea of what this scoring format can & will look like. This format will be polled out to all owners later in the season for inclusion into the 2018 fantasy season. Of course with this format we would do away with the decimal point scoring system and use your team’s X-Factor player for that week as the tie-breaker if needed.
NOTE: Your team’s X-Factor is the player projected to have the best scoring output for your team that week and is determined by the Fantasy Sharks algorithm.
TheELSIE.com Website Redesign
TheELSIE.com got a much needed makeover after falling behind on our MFL.com league home page. Our website will host all weekly post in their entirety as an extension of our fantasy league on the MyFantasyLeague.com platform.
**Other League Notes**
Home Field Advantage
The Home Field Advantage Rule will once again be 7 points for the home team in 2017. The average fantasy points per game for the Top 25 Kickers in The League! is slightly down from a season ago, but not enough to warrant a change in our Home Field Advantage system. The average fantasy points per game for the Top 25 Kickers for the last three seasons is below…
- 2016 – 7.542 Avg fantasy pts/game
- 2015 – 7.747 Avg fantasy pts/game
- 2014 – 7.236 Avg fantasy pts/game
Home Page Log In
If you’ve had difficulty logging into our MFL.com league home page, please read further. You have never played on the MyFantasyLeague.com platform, you will need to create a MyFantasyLeague.com account before you will be able to log into our league. Here are step by step instructions below.
- Create a MyFantasyLeague.com profile. (click here)
- Once your profile has been created, you will need to go to our league home page on MyFantasyLeague.com. (click here)
- Once there, you will need to link your team/franchise to your MyFantasyLeague.com profile which you should be still logged into. (click here)
- Lastly, you will need to enter your team/franchise password so you can link that franchise to your MyFantasyLeague.com account.
Hopefully this helps, but if not please hit me up ASAP via text at (813) 516-1978 or by email at enviousstaff (AT) gmail. I will be hosting a Google Hangouts on The League’s Google+ page the following two Sunday’s (August 13th, 9pm EST & August 20th, 9pm EST) to handle any technical questions or logging in issues, etc.
NOTE: If you have forgotten your password from last season, please just email me. I will try to reset it on my end but worse case you will need to use the “Forgot Password” feature at the bottom of our MFL.com league home page (see pic below) and follow the instructions there.
League Fees
League fees are due in BEFORE your conferences draft! Both the Origins Conference & Legends Conference drafts are the same day (Sunday, Sept. 3rd), however the Origins draft is at 4pm EST and the Legends draft is at 6pm EST. Of course, league fees can be paid online through my PayPal account (click here). Our league finances can be found here to see what your team’s league fees are (click here).
The Draft
As mentioned above our league draft is scheduled for Labor Day weekend, Sunday, Sept. 3rd. The Origins draft starts at 4pm EST while the Legends draft starts at 6pm EST. We will once again be using the ClickyDraft.com platform for our online draft as last season’s draft went over very well with everyone after the draft day massacre of 2015… lol.
Available players in this years draft player pool for both conferences are listed in this special Commissioner’s Report!
League Apps
If needing an on the go app for managing your franchise, MFL Platinum 2017 is our league’s preferred choice. It’s free, easy to use and appealing on the eyes. There are other apps although this is the best one in my opinion.
UPDATE (8/27/17): MFL PLatinum has been removed from the Google Play store, to get the updated 2017 version you will need to get it from Amazon Underground. Check the link here and follow the instructions provided to download the latest version of the app. It is available for Apple, Kindle & Android devices and you can still use last season’s android version of the app if you do not want to go the Amazon Underground route. I have tested the 2016 version of the app and have not had any issues with our 2017 league.
League Polls
League Polls are nothing new to The League – E.F.F.L as we poll new ideas every year for inclusion or exclusion. This is where every franchise owner has a voice or say in what happens in The League! All polls will need a 80% vote from all league members for any changes to be included or excluded from The League! – E.F.F.L. If 80% of all league members (20 of 24 owner/coaches) vote to include the new changes, then those changes will take effect during next season. If 100% of all league members vote to include or exclude the changes then those changes can be poll voted again to be taken into effect immediately (the upcoming/following week).
NFL Confidence Pool
The NFL Confidence Pool picks are back for a third season! To make your weekly pool picks, go to Menu > For Owners > NFL Pool Picks or just (click here) if you’re currently logged into our home page at MyFantasyLeague.com. The Confidence Pool picks need to be in BEFORE the Thursday night game. So get into the habit of just submitting your lineup and then submitting your pool picks for that week. $50 back to the winner at seasons end…
E.L.S.I.E. Island
E.L.S.I.E. Island is also back for it’s third time around. There’s nothing for you to do here EXCEPT to not have the fewest fantasy points scored that week. Like the TV show Survivor, the franchise who has the fewest fantasy points scored that week will be voted off of E.L.S.I.E. Island. In some weeks, there will be more than one team voted off the island. To read more about E.L.S.I.E. Island and to find out what weeks there will be multiple teams voted off the island, go to the original The Path to the Draft | Day 11 – $50 E.L.S.I.E. Island Football Pool post from 2015. Another $50 awarded to the last man standing…
Bounties & Fines
The one feature that this league has that I think attracts the most attention from non-league members is our weekly Bounties & Fines system. Have the most fantasy points scored of any team that week, collect a $5.00 bounty. Lose by the largest margin of defeat in a single week, get fined $5.00. All Bounties are added to your End of the Year Balance where you can cash in and all fines come out of any money won during your End of the Year Balance.
NOTE: All Bounties & Fines are per conference. Fines are taken out of your End of the Year Balance. If you finish with a negative balance you owe nothing, only if you have money coming. (i.e., if you win the $50 E.L.S.I.E. Island prize and have a negative balance of $15.00 for your End of the Year Balance, you can only collect $35.00 for winning E.L.S.I.E. Island instead of the $50).
Here is the list of Bounties & Fines for the 2017 fantasy season…
Bounties – $5.00
“The Snickers Award” – The Most Satisfying Player of the Week (Fantasy Gem)
“The Buddy Ryan Award” – The Highest Defensive Scoring Player of the Week
“The Gold Standard Award” – Team with the Highest Score in a Single Week
“The World Beater Award” – Largest Margin of Victory in a Single Week
“The Joe Montana Award” – The Most Satisfying QB of the Week (Voided if the Fantasy Gem)
“The Jim Brown Award” – The Most Satisfying RB of the Week (Voided if the Fantasy Gem)
“The Jerry Rice Award” – The Most Satisfying WR of the Week (Voided if the Fantasy Gem)
“The Kellen Winslow Award” – The Most Satisfying TE of the Week (Voided if the Fantasy Gem)
“The Lou Groza Award” – The Most Satisfying K of the Week (Voided if the Fantasy Gem)
“The Reggie White Award” – The Most Satisfying DL of the Week (Voided if the Fantasy Gem)
“The Lawrence Taylor Award” – The Most Satisfying LB of the Week (Voided if the Fantasy Gem)
“The Deion Sanders Award” – The Most Satisfying DB of the Week (Voided if the Fantasy Gem)
Bounties – $10.00
“The Prophet Award” – Having Five Starters Score 20 Points or More in a Single Week
Fines – (-$5.00)
“The Bridesmaid Award” – Closest Loss of the Week
“The Doormat Award” – Largest Margin of Defeat in a Single Week
“The Just Not Enough Award” – Team with the Lowest Score in a Single Week
Fines – (-$10.00)
“The Dunce Award” – Biggest Roster Mistake of the Week
“The Bench Warmer’s Award” – Having All of Your Starters Score 15 Points or Less in a Single Week
Fines – (-$15.00)
“The Hindsight Award” aka Poor Coaching Decisions – The Losing Team with the Most Points Left on the Bench
League Perks
League perks took over for E.L.S.I.E. University a couple season ago and have been an exciting addition. These milestones add an extra bonus to those lucky franchises who obtain them during The E.L.S.I.E’s to help increase their chances of winning it all and taking home The E.L.S.I.E. Award. This will definitely make obtaining one of The League’s Yearly Awards that much more important and will keep every owner engaged for the long haul. The perks (and unused perks from 2015) are below…
All Unused Perks going into the 2017 Season
Surprise Scorpians have not used their immunity League Perk from 2015 as of yet. No Award Abilities Can Be Used on Perk Holder’s Franchise. The Lombardi Award, Air Coryell Award, the Fearsome Foursome Award and the Phoenix Award have no effect when applied against this franchise. The Draftologist Award cannot move in front or behind this franchise during the draft.
Beer, Cheese, & Brats have one undisclosed perk as of writing this.
Beer, Cheese, & Brats can substitute a bench player for a starter AFTER match-up is over twice during the regular season ONLY.
Hyde Yo Wife has a 14-pt Home Field Advantage for the first four home games of the regular season ONLY.
The House of Cards has no Home Field Advantage Against Their Team for the first four away games of the regular season ONLY.
I Got Sacks On Sacks On Sacks can move up or down up to three spots in this years fantasy draft.
The NC Titans hold any conference/divisional tiebreakers for the entire 2017 season.
The Barbaric Milk Jousters have Immunity. No Award Abilities Can Be Used on Perk Holder’s Franchise. The Lombardi Award, Air Coryell Award, the Fearsome Foursome Award and the Phoenix Award have no effect when applied against this franchise. The Draftologist Award cannot move in front or behind this franchise during the draft.
Keeper’s Deadline
The Keeper’s Deadline has a set deadline every season for those that were not aware, all keeper’s must be in before the start of week 10 of the NFL season. This season, the deadline is Wednesday, November 8th, by 11:59pm EST. Owner/Coaches that do not establish their keeper’s by the deadline will face a franchise penalty, lose their chance of possible earnings at season end, may face league expulsion next season or all of the above. When needing to establish your keepers, simply email me, text/call me or set them yourself from the system.
Trade Deadline
The Trade Deadline also has a set deadline every season, which is before the start of week 12 of the NFL season. This season, the deadline is Wednesday, November 22nd, by 11:59pm EST.
