Does that make my league a dictatorship? Maybe a little bit. However I have a guiding principal behind my league in that I like to simulate the NFL as much as possible within the framework of a fantasy football league. So when I decided I wanted to mimic the NFL policy of making the stronger teams from the prior season play a more difficult schedule, the league wasn’t too trilled about this. It would mean breaking up some divisions where friends got to play each other more often and also meant that all of last year’s playoff teams would be competing head to head for 8 of 13 games. I went against the league and put this rule in place because it fit with my vision for the league. After the first season with this rule, owners are happy with it for the most part (note – all your team owners will NEVER be happy all the time). My point with all this is that, while a league shouldn’t be at the mercy of a commissioner, it doesn’t have to be democracy for it to be enjoyable for all. Keep in mind your commissioner spends a lot of time reviewing all facets of your league and probably has a pretty good idea as to what rules will and won’t improve your league. As for commissioners, you may think have all the answers for running your league, but leaning on your league members and even looking at other leagues can give you great ideas on how to make your league better every season.

This week I received an excellent question regarding the “tanking” of games. This particular incident occurred in a dynasty league where the team with the worst record receives the top pick in the draft. This provided an incentive for owners with poor teams to lose intentionally. In this particular case, the owner in question validated his decision to bench his best players each week by claiming that he was not impacting the league as he lost every game he played.

So the question is how do you keep owners from intentionally losing games, especially in dynasty or even re-draft leagues where poor performance can result in a high draft pick for next season?

I. Create A Rule That Allows The Commissioner To Take Action For The Integrity Of The League

First and foremost you need a rule that prohibits intentional losing and penalties for doing so. This is a difficult rule to write because evaluating whether or not a team tanked is usually going to be subjective. However you can usually spot this over a number of weeks and as commissioner you’ll have to make that evaluation and take action. In the case above, a rule against tanking might state that if an owner is found to be tanking games, they would be relegated to the last pick of the draft for next season. This may prevent an owner from blatantly losing games throughout the course of the year. Of course I think that an owner who is willing to throw away an entire season to play for next year should be removed from your league. I’ve never had a case of intentionally losing games occur in my league but I have had an inactive owner to deal with which is a similar situation. I had to take control of that owner’s team and remove him from the league.

II. Provide Motivation For Weaker Teams To Compete To The End

In a re-draft league where the draft position isn’t as important, it’s still necessary to make sure owners with weaker teams have an incentive to play. First, a weekly prize will motivate most owners to set their best lineup. Even teams that don’t have much to play for have a shot at a weekly high score. Another way to keep owners involved though the end of the season is to have a post season tournament for the teams that don’t make the playoffs and attach a prize to the winner of this tournament. It will keep your owners of weaker teams from losing interest. If having all these rules in place does not keep owners from quitting or tanking, be prepared to step in and take control of team(s) to mitigate the damage to your league.

III. Explain To Owners The Impact Intentional Loses Has On The League

Intentional losses can destroy the integrity of your league. Why? Because when one team gets a give-me win from a "tanker" it creates bogus records and league friction. Maybe that give-me win changes who does or doesn't make the playoffs. As you can imagine, inactive or intentional losing has the potential to tear apart a league and the problem needs to be addressed as quickly as possible so league integrity remains intact.

That wraps up this session of the Commissioner’s Court. Next week begins the first week of the regular season and fantasy games begin for real. If anyone had any questions regarding scoring systems I think week one would be a good time to delve into those. Good luck to all in week one.