A question has come up in our league and I’m interested in getting input from other commissioners.
TL;DR: If a manager “forgets” about a deadline, in this case penalty-free cuts, do you “be cool” and allow them an extra day? After ~20 years being commissioner of various fantasy league, I’ve become very entrenched in believing fantasy sports are way more fun if we just stick to the rules and all act like adults and set an alarm/reminder/calendar and honor the deadlines we agreed to. If you miss a deadline, sorry, that sucks-- I’ve done it plenty-- but it’s a bad precedent to treat deadlines as flexible. I know some people look at this as “taking it too seriously,” but for me it’s the opposite…it’s supposed to be a fun game so let’s just play by the rules and keep it simple. Thoughts?
Here’s the details:
-The commissioner of our league just left the league a few days ago; no one wanted to take his place, so I volunteered.
-The PF cuts deadline came and went
-I get assigned as commissioner on Feb 1
-The same day, a manager posts to the message board saying he’s been busy so the deadline slipped his mind, and he wants to make cuts now. He’s been in the league for a few years so it wasn’t any confusion on how it works.
I feel pretty strongly that this is a slippery slope and sets a league up for a lot of unnecessary frustration and debating. What if he had been late for the draft? Do we reset? What if it had been arbitration? Setting aside the tactical advantage of doing cuts with a full picture of the free agent pool and other managers’ budgets… I just think that case-by-case debating is unnecessary and takes away from the actual fun parts of the league.
A couple of the other managers have come to his defense and said we should just let him do it, because the league’s just for fun. I agree that it’s just for fun— the difference is that I think it’s way more fun when we all follow the rules and don’t have to get into shit like this. I’m also a little underwhelmed by the “I was busy and forgot” justification… dude I was on a business trip to Utah this week, have grad school, 3 kids with 8 billion activities, the flu… we’re all busy.
Anyway. Look forward to hearing your takes and experiences…about 5-10 years ago I just decided no more accomodations; someone always gets pissed either way, and if you’re just following the rules then you at least can’t be accused of being inconsistent. The only exceptions I believe in are system errors, true emergencies, or brand new owner confusion.
I personally would allow the P-F cuts, because I think that not only makes the league a bit more fun, it makes your league economy a bit more sensible, which is good for league health. I understand wanting to take a hard stance here because it turns into having to deal with a lot more stuff on a case by case basis, but you currently have a team with a bunch of not-keepers that might be over limits, which isn’t good for the other teams in the league either.
You can go to Commish Tools and check a box giving that team one round of P-F cuts, which also makes this very simple to execute.
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I agree with Niv here. I understand the desire to have a set of rules and all abide by them, and the prior commish did you no favors by abdicating around the deadline, meaning you had no idea this was going to happen. But, as I’m sure your experience has also shown, part of having this role is being understanding, and choosing things like “the league” over rules set in stone. Usually, in most of the leagues I’m in, there are constant updates about the upcoming deadlines–even leagues full of ottoneu lifers. Assuming this is the only league this person is in, I can understand how it could slip their mind. Not to mention, the added issue of other fantasy sites, when I’ve played in non-ottoneu leagues, keeper deadlines were merely suggestions, which is a hard habit to break.
Anyway, Niv is absolutely right in that this is really a matter of league health. Having this team not able to participate in the auction is worse than allowing them to make these cuts. It’s also possible to lead to more work for you, replacing this manager if the rule is, in my opinion, harshly enforced and they’d rather move on. Also, can you imagine the post-auction cuts of stars this team might have to make? And the downstream effect of subsequent cuts from other teams who then want those players. You’d be affecting the market of the league–post-auction–for this year and possibly into the future.
The repercussions, for you in this role, just aren’t worth it. I might make a big deal of being magnanimous here, but I would definitely allow a round of penalty-free cuts (make this clear, since this person likely hasn’t had/used P-F cuts in some time, if ever).
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Thanks both for the thoughtful input, I’ll take your advice and open up the cuts for another week. As you said, better to protect the league health rather than make the point-- especially at a fragile time where two owners just quit, and there are a couple more that haven’t paid yet and are pretty inactive to begin with.
For future deadlines, I’ll have this commish role in advance enough to send reminders leading up to the date like I do in my other league; if they still ignore those then I don’t think there’s really a question.
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I’m in late here, but as a commish in a Dynasty league, I like to be pretty hard by the rules. But offseason is a bit different - people (other than me) aren’t logging in daily. Just my 2 cents. And I agree with Niv that it will make your auction better for the league overall.
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