Monday, March 14, 2011

Labor Unrest

What's a commissioner to do when he doesn't know the future of the NFL?  This question is especially pertinent to those in dynasty or keeper leagues.

My suggestion is that you be prepared for three scenarios: 1) nothing abnormal hapens to the 2011 preseason and regular season, 2) the season is partially interrupted, but finishes on time; 3) the entire season is missed.

1. You continue as if nothing happened between players and owners.

2. This one gets tricky.  When do you draft?  How do you play an abbreviated schedule?  What teams make the playoffs?  Icky.  My suggestion: condense the schedule for your league to play only conference or division opponents, in order that teams who make the playoffs might have an equal strength of schedule to those that miss.  Maybe expand the playoffs.  Kind of depends on your league.  Especially in dynasty leagues, there can be a lot of implications for the future based on who finishes where.  Commissioners need to know their league-mates and determine how to proceed in a way that makes as many people happy as possible.

3.  This is perhaps a better outcome than #2.  If the entire season is missed, you have a lot of doors open. It seems to me that it's the perfect opportunity to change up traditions if there has been any resistance in the past.  After all, you'll go basically 18 months between "official" fantasy football activity.  Heck, why not even start over completely from scratch?  Who knows.  There's a lot that could be done in any league after missing a full season.

Any thoughts?