Preseason Issues

The Minutiae
The coming weeks the font office is going to have to make several critical decisions that will effect the upcoming 2009 season for Southern Charm Football. The creation of this blog is to create a more transparent process and more open discussion for the league.

We welcome back all of the ownerships from last year. As you might have already seen, there are going to be some structural changes for our league. We would like you to voice your opinion on any or all of the points. Your stance will be taken into careful consideration and then a final decision will be made by the front office. We can begin with the most obvious of changes ...

Divisions
The league will be split into two divisions. The split will be made on real geographical locations, East and West. Part of this will be like splitting hairs as a majority of the league lives in a very close proximity to each other.

The advantage of divisions is to create a better opportunity for teams to make the playoffs. Not to mention, the ability to function like a real league or conference.

Waiver Budgets
Each team will be allotted a budget to wager on Free Agents. I am considering slightly increasing waiver moves (there was a limit of 11 last year).

Essentially, each team will have the ability to wager on players floating on the waiver wire. The highest bidder wins.

From Yahoo...

If waivers are enabled, all players dropped from a team's roster are immediately placed on a waiting period from zero to seven days to give all managers a chance to claim those players. Choose the waiver processing option best suited for your league.

In a Free Agents Acquisition Budgets (FAAB) waivers system, each manager receives a dollar amount to place blind bids on waived players. The manager with the highest bid at the end of the waiver period claims that player and that bid amount is deducted from the team's acquisition budget. If multiple managers place an equal bid on a player, tiebreak options are available as described above.

• FAAB w/ Continual rolling list tiebreak
• FAAB w/ Reverse order of standings tiebreak
• FAAB w/ Weekly rolling list based on standings tiebreak

In addition, trades can include money (with approval by the league office). I don't believe you can add this on your trade offer sheets but both parties can notify the league to reflect on monetary transactions.

Another thing to consider is the addition of performance bonuses. The league office is considering awarding the Gloat of the Week a bounce in their budget.

The Gloat of the Week
Each week, team ownerships will vote on the Gloat of the Week. The rules are simple. You can not vote for yourself. If you are voted the Gloat of the Week and did not cast a vote, you will not be awarded the distinction.

As it was mentioned before, the Gloat of the Week will receive a Waiver Budget increase.

Keepers
It has not been decided what to do about this. Yahoo has just added the ability to notate keepers.

There was much discussion this past off-season on the number of keepers, the placement or acquisition logistics, and the ability to trade keepers.

As far as the league is concerned, this is still an open subject. Here are some options that are being considered ...

1. No keepers until after this season. Period.
2. One keeper. Essentially a "franchise player" designation. Players can elect to keep their player with their first draft pick. Each player "franchised" must be tagged two days before the draft.
3. Multiple keepers. Endless possibilities.

The league does suggest that this idea be tabled until the ’10 season but is open to an option that is agreeable to most parties.

Trades
Trades are now subject to league review instead of ownership referendum. No more league or ownership meddling. Pretty much, any trade that is agreed upon will go through (unless you're trading Wes Welker for DeAngelo Williams, of course).

Rivalry Week
Yahoo has added the ability to designate one week in the season as Rivalry Week. Thanks to custom schedules, the league will designate rivalry games for all teams. Unfortunately, the Commissioner can't play everyone at once, so rivalries will have to be achieved through other ways. For example ...

Burger King Chicken Fries Present the Brother Davis Backyard Brawl
Jar. Davis v. Jam. Davis

Dollar Tree Battle of the Brothers (In-Law)
Edfelt v. Kandler

The Charmin Jewish Hair Bowl
Trice v. Norfolk

League Dues
Yahoo has "graciously" lowered the League PLUS rate from a coll $100 to doable $30.

A portion of the league dues will go towards upgrading to a PLUS league where everyone gets the awesome features and tools.

The other portion of the dues will go towards the grand prize (I hope last year's winner didn't spend that all in one place).

Until everyone has paid their dues, the league will not update to PLUS.

In Closing ...
The league requests that you do a few things...

First, comment on this post and let me know what city and state (or city/state) you live in.

Second, voice your opinion. If you don't do it now, you won't get a chance later.