There are two kinds of transactions in Fantasy Football: Trades and Free Agent pickups. This page explains how that will work for 2011, but I'll also give you all a sneak peek at some cool features we have planned for the future.
Trades: Trades can be problematic in every league, but one advantage of the PFFL is that we have an unbiased Commissioner committed to making sure competition is maximized and preserved. So you can make trades with anyone you want all season long (no trade deadline) -- the only rule is that any trade must occur at least 24 hours prior to any player's game that is involved in the trade. If anyone in the league -- or even from another league, has any concerns that a trade is lopsided or anti-competitive, simply refer it to the Commissioner for review. It's really tough to evaluate the fairness of any trade, but the Commish will use the smell test -- if something stinks, we'll veto the trade. Collusion will absolutely not be tolerated -- egregious anti-competitive behavior will result in expulsion from the league and you will not be issued a refund. Trades in 2011 will be free (no transaction charge).
Free Agency: The PFFL uses a "Free Agent Auction Budget" system. You will get $200 "free agent auction credits" to spend on any free agent acquisitions you'd like to make throughout the year -- THIS IS NOT REAL MONEY...for now. In the future we may introduce real money at least for higher-tier leagues that will go into the prize pool for each league, but not for 2011. If you are a league commissioner and want to make that part of your league in 2011, go for it -- you'll just be responsible for managing the actual cash on the side.
The way it works is this: at kickoff of the first Sunday game, all un-owned players go on waivers until Tuesday at Midnight Pacific Time. During that time, you can submit a bid on any player you want out of your budget, and the highest bid will be awarded the player after Midnight on Tuesday. After that, all remaining unowned players become "Free Agents" and you can pick up a free agent anytime before their game at no cost. You must always drop a player in order to pick up another player.
THE FUTURE! Innovative ideas from the PFFL that we'll implement down the road: The PFFL is all about striking a balance between innovation and tradition -- we're constantly trying to push the envelope with new cool features that make Fantasy Football more fun and more competitive while always taking care not to fundamentally alter the way the game is played. We won't likely have any of this for 2011, but it's stuff we'll bring online down the road as the PFFL grows and as our technology develops. If you've got any feedback or ideas around this stuff, give us a shout.
Trade Innovations:
- Trade Experts: Every Trade will be posted to the league home page, and anyone can vote on every trade -- who got the better deal? You won't see the results of the voting until you vote, but after you vote you will see whether the masses agree with you or not. If you vote with the majority, you'll get a positive "trade rating score" and if you vote against the majority you'll get a negative score. Ultimately, the players with the best ranking can use that to make some money -- either as trade consultants ("should i make this trade?") or as trade arbitrators. When the league gets big enough, the Commish won't be able to review every trade, so we'll need proven trade experts to help us review trades, and they will get paid for each trade reviewed.
- Trade Brokers: Let's face it -- making a trade is hard. So many possibilities, and every owner over-values his or her own players. So the PFFL would offer a service to have someone do all the legwork for you -- for a fee, you can hire a trade broker who will review your lineup and the other lineups in your league. They will present you with a few options as to trades they think could be made and would be good for you. You pick the ones you'd be willing to make, and the broker will reach out to the other owners to try to make a trade. Anyone can become a trade broker, and you can select from all available trade brokers based on their trade voting score, user satisfaction score, etc. Just another way to make some cash.
- Here's how we'd like to do Free Agency -- much like it is now with two changes: first, during the "waiver" period, you can see all the bids on every player. If you want, you can set a "max bid" that will automatically one up any other bids made beneath your max bid. Second, in the last hour of the Waiver period, you can go into a live bidding application that will look much like the draft room. Any players that have been bid on will start randomly coming up for final bid once the free agent auction starts. If you have a max bid set, your team will just auto-bid up to that amount, or if you are there live you can decide in real-time how much you want to bid on a player. Winning bids get the player. This will continue until all players up for bids that week have been auctioned off, and then a short window will be available for additional bids. The point of all this is that it allows for maximum competitiveness, if you want to show up for the free agent auction each week.
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