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Currently we use an auction-style free agent system and the waiver wire processes for the first time each week on Wednesday morning at 9am pacific. As a result, owners have approximately 36 hours to submit their bids.

The problem with that is there isn’t any opportunity to get a ‘deal’ on a highly coveted free agent because every owner has time to read the week’s ‘Top Add’ articles before submitting their own bid. I think it would be nice to reward owners who follow the games and are ready to submit their bids on Tuesday.

**Tuesday is currently the only day that wavier wire does not process. It technically processes on Monday, but only for players involved in the MNF matchup.

Just so there is no confusion come play-off time, the top six teams by record will make the play-offs, regardless of division. The first tie breaker will be head-to-head record, the second tie breaker will be ‘points for’ and the third tie breaker, if necessary, will be ‘points against.’

This accords with our past practice of not automatically awarding play-off spots to the division winners. Note that this may require that we override the ESPN default settings, which will automatically award the byes to the two division winners with the best records. While this works for the top seed, as a League we have decided that we would rather have the team with the second best record have the second bye, even if they didn’t win their division. Similarly, if all the teams from a single division have a better record than the winner of another division, we have decided that overall record should prevail over divisional performance.

These things usually work themselves out on their own, with no intervention required. But I just wanted to make sure that everyone was aware of the rules regarding play-off seeding well in advance of the play-offs.

If you remember a different procedure in the past, please let me know right away. And if any of you feel that divisions should come into play when determining playoff eligibility and seeding, please email me. If we need to have a league vote on this, I would like to do so right away before we can tell whether it will even matter. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

I was recently asked if there was any benefit to the scoring change. The only tangible benefit, to use NFL-speak, is the change in quarterback scoring. Previously we had valued passing yards at 0.5 pts per every 10 passing yards. The problem with that is illustrated by something that happened to a friend of mine in another league this week…

My friend had defeated his opponent by 0.9 pts. Now, because of a scoring adjustment, Andrew Luck’s passing yards were downgraded by 3 yards. Now, under identical scoring to ours, yards doesn’t get you shit. But the points are scored in tiers, and so the 3 yards dropped Luck into the lower tier, costing him 0.5 points! Now, the same thing happened in the opposite direction to his opponent’s QB, Tony Romo. And so ended up losing – this morning – by 0.1 points. By valuing passing at 0.5 pts per yard, he would have been up by 9 points and the two 3 yard adjustments (6 yards total) would have only netted 3 points total. He would have won by 6 points.

So, although rare, it can make a difference, and would have in this other league (which is prompting my friend to suggest a similar scoring adjustment). We couldn’t do it another way because we can only value points to a tenth, not the hundredth, due to limitations in the espn system.

So this actually a more accurate scoring system. Something to keep in mind when you are deciding whether you want to vote to keep it.

Okay, fellas, the time has come to make some decisions. I will keep this short and sweet…

The first order of business is the Draft. The Bad News Barristers have always had a high turnout on Draft Night, and we are aiming for perfect attendance this year. So please take a moment to select your available dates/times here:

Remember, you’re not choosing only your favorite time, but rather selecting all the options that you could attend. Don’t worry, you don’t have to sign in/up to/for this website to vote.

Once everyone has participated, we can easily and quickly select the best date/time for everyone. Please vote as soon as possible, so we can schedule the Draft soon, because I’m sure everyone’s August/September is rapidly filling up.

Next, we need to decide the three changes that have been proposed. Please respond to each of the following questions:

The voting will remain open through Wednesday, August 14th. A simply majority will decide each issue, which means 7 votes are needed for a proposal to pass (even if everyone does not vote). The K-System is outline here. If a third keeper is added and the K-System is adopted, the third keeper will be converted to a two-year contract extension (subject to tweaks by League vote). Regardless of whether the K-System is adopted, a third keeper will not be added until the 2014 season. If there is a fee increase, it will be effective immediately. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email me.

What’s wrong with the current keeper system? For starters, it doesn’t promote trading the same way our draft pick trading does. But worse then that, it allows players to be locked up in perpetuity (yes, like Aaron Rodgers). And it’s confusing–I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked if someone can trade a player in the off-season that they don’t intend to keep (for those who still don’t know the answer–no, you can’t). Despite these flaws, every year someone suggests adding keepers! Well, I’ve got a proposal that will change all of that: the K-System. Here’s how it works…

Every player drafted is automatically signed to a 1-year contract. This is nothing more than a change in terminology, it simply means that you have the rights to that player for the season in which you drafted him (unless you trade him before the deadline, or cut him).

But here’s the twist–each season every owner will have a single 1-year extension and a single 2-year extension to give to two players that remain on a team’s roster when the season ends. For instance, this off-season I would sign Aaron Rodgers to the 2-year extension and Jonathan Stewart to the 1-year extension (yes, my team is that bad–I just checked, and no joke, I have Titus Young on my roster).

Fast forward to this time next year: the Stewart contract will be up (thank God) and Stewart will re-enter the draft, for one of you lucky SOBs to nab. A player can’t be extended by the same owner twice (and I wouldn’t want to with Stewart), but that is how the K-System prevents controlling a player indefinitely. So I can’t sign Rodgers to the 2-year extension and then try to extend him again (with my 1 or 2-year extension) when that runs out. Still with me?

In the summer of 2014, Rodgers will be entering the final season of his 2-year extension and so I will have him “under contract” until the trade deadline in 2014–at which point he would become a free agent at the end of the season and re-enter the draft. Here is where the system really promotes trading–if I trade Rodgers at the beginning of 2014, the owner who acquires him can extend him for 2 more years, which means Rodgers’ new owner will have him for the 2014, ’15 and ’16 seasons (although that owner will face the same dilemma in the summer of 2016).

That makes Rodgers a lot more valuable at the beginning of 2014 then the end of it, because it means 13 more weeks of production from Rodgers. The same would have been true of Jonathan Stewart right after we inked his extension. The possibility of a sign-and-trade makes things much more interesting.

Now don’t forget that I also have two more extensions to hand out in 2014. Since I can’t extend Rodgers (who’s still under contract) or Stewart (who’s 1-year extension is up), I will give the 1-year extension to Jordy Nelson and the 2-year extension to Trent Richardson, both of whom I (hypothetically) drafted in 2013.

So, what does that mean for the 2015 season? Well, if I don’t trade Rodgers (or anyone else), I will have the rights to Rodgers, Richardson, and Nelson for the 2015 season. Without trading, I won’t have more than 3 active contracts at once, because the Rodgers and Nelson deals would expire after 2015 and I will only have two new extensions to hand out in 2014, plus the last year of the Richardson deal.

I say “without trading,” because there is nothing stopping an owner from acquiring multiple players with one or two years left on their deals and carrying over several players without drafting. But, I imagine that it would be difficult to do that because you only have so much to trade away–I think its a very exciting wrinkle, though.

How would draft pick compensation work then? Well, you don’t get any compensation for cutting (ie, dropping) a player to whom you have given an extension. Or if you acquired a player under contract from another team and cut him, again you get nothing. But if you choose not to use one your two annual extensions, then you will receive a compensatory draft pick in accordance with rules we already have for not using your keepers. This helps ensure parity because we don’t want teams to end up in an infini-loop of shitty players and shitty draft picks.

I think this would be a real improvement to our current system, but not really a significant departure from our current model. I would like to put the K-System on the ballot this off-season to be implemented immediately. I know that we traditionally wait one year before implementing a new rule, but if we do that, then I would have Rodger for 4 more years (thru 2016) because I wouldn’t have to burn my 2-year extension until 2014, which is too long, in my opinion. In this special case, I think it makes sense to institute the K-System right away, if the league votes it in.

As in previous year, the floor is now open for all owners to propose new rules (or rule changes) that would take effect beginning with the 2014 season. Note: There are three rule changes going into effect this season.

Since an open email chain gets confusing very quickly, however, please email me directly with your actual suggestion, so I can synthesize overlapping suggestions and submit all the proposals to the League for a one-time vote.

That doesn’t mean you can’t discuss ideas or suggestions with the rest of the League. You can always email the league–using the League contact page or at league@badnewsbarristers.com–or post on the Rules forum page. But if that seems like too much work, you can just email me and I will put the idea up for a straight up-or-down vote.

Please submit all suggestions no later than July 31. Please visit the Rules page for a refresher on current league practices.