Tanking Reform

NBA did it, now it’s our turn

Currently there is only one by-law in the Constitution that mentions tanking:

II-B-2. Must start a full lineup at all times. No tanking or sitting of a player/defense to prevent negative points will be allowed. Infractions will result in forfeiture of the owner’s next year’s second highest draft pick at time of infraction.

This was a rule aimed to specifically prevent sitting a player/defense who has a Sunday or Monday night game in order to to avoid the event of negative points scored when you have a small margin of victory. To be honest, I’m not sure why I put the word “tanking” in there, because I wasn’t actually thinking of the opposite situation when creating this rule, which would be sitting a player/defense in order to actively prevent a victory for yourself.

Now that we do have at least one team actively tanking with more to surely follow, it’s time to make the Constitution (and my stance) more clear on the matter. That stance, generally speaking, is:

Tank away!

Bad teams and tanking are a natural part of sports and that should be no different for Dynasty Football. The quickest way to the top is through the bottom (as Kurtis’ team can attest to) and if you want to suffer through a losing season for the future benefit of your team, have at it.

That said, my goal is still to keep match-ups as competitive as possible and there is a huge difference between tanking by trading players for draft picks and tanking by playing Brian Hoyer over Aaron Rodgers. Unfortunately, sit/start decisions are rarely that clear cut and it’s extremely hard to police them. I don’t even want to try to create a rule attempting to do so. Please just continue to play your most competitive line-up at all times so that I don’t have to revisit this.

Instead, my belief is that the key to preventing tanking is to create a reason to compete. Currently the obvious strategy for a bad team is to suck all season, get the 1st overall pick, and then try to get lucky in the Consolation Playoffs. Teams in the 9th–12th range have absolutely no incentive to compete if they’re out of the Championship playoff race. And the teams battling it out and missing the Championship Playoffs end up with the 7th/8th pick and a chance to still end up the Bunghole.

Solution

The Consolation/Bunghole Playoff structure needs to be altered in order to, again, create a reason to compete. The solution:

Consolation Playoffs

The top 4 non-Championship Playoff teams (Teams 7–10 in the standings) will be awarded entry into the Consolation Playoffs, played in Weeks 14 and 15. Winner of these Consolation Playoffs will be awarded the Consolation Prize of an additional 1st Round Pick (Pick #15).

Bunghole Reverse Playoffs

The bottom 4 teams (Teams 11–14 in the standings) will be entered into the Bunghole playoffs, played in Weeks 14 and 15. Playoffs are played out with losers “advancing” until the season’s Bunghole is crowned in Week 15.

Draft Picks

Draft picks for all 8 non-Championship Playoff teams will still be determined by regular season standings. Neither the Consolation Playoffs nor the Bunghole Playoffs will determine draft order for those 8 teams.

This structure change should foster a lot more competition among the bottom half of the standings. Now the consolation playoffs are truly a consolation prize to the teams that competed throughout the season but fell short of the Championship playoffs. It also creates another mini-playoff race for the teams in that 9th–12th range instead of those team owners feeling like the season is pointless in Weeks 11–13.

For the bottom 4 teams, a top 4 pick is a prize in itself. However, whether by design or bad luck, you are unfortunately one of the worst teams in the league and must be crowned accordingly. In order to keep the excitement (and anguish) of the Bunghole Playoffs, the 4 of you will compete to avoid the Bunghole title. So if you really did have terrible luck to end up with the worse record, you still have a chance to redeem yourself. And if you were hoping to lose all season and succeeded, congrats!, but you now have increased odds of becoming the Bunghole.

Because this is a drastic shift in the Consolation Playoff format, we will vote if this will take effect immediately, with 11 votes required for this season. Otherwise, the restructure will go in effect for the 2018 season.

TLDR

Consolation playoffs changed to:

• 4 teams 7th-10th enter Consolation Playoffs, winner gets Pick #15
• 4 teams 11th-14th enter Bunghole Reverse Playoffs, “winner” is crowned Bunghole
• 11 votes Yes required to pass this season, otherwise will take effect in 2018