Best way to expand a keeper league?

[bcr 0]

our league currently consists of 10 teams with 3 offensive keepers and 2 defensive keepers without restrictions.

 

we are thinking about expanding the league to 12 teams. what is the best (most fair) way to get the expansion teams in on the action? if we add the two teams we are throwing around the idea of limiting the keepers to 2 offense and 1 defense.

 

any suggestions? much appreciated.

[Groundhog 24]

I've never played in a IDP league, so I don't know how much the guys on defense contribute, but if defensive players are more or less equivalent to offensive ones, then I would say let everyone select 2 keepers to drop regardless of position, and have the expansion franchises draft at 1.01 and 1.02 so that they get first dibs on the dropped keepers (or on the best rookies) to attract owners of the franchises. But if offensive players typically score a lot more points, I would say doing 1 offensive and 1 defensive drop is prolly a good way to go.

[TBayXXXVII 2,118]

Our league just converted over to a keeper league this past season and the topic of expansion/replacement came up... obviously. We decided that the best and easiest way to do it is to have an "expansion draft". In our league we have a salary cap for keepers so our system is a little more involved, but since you can only keep 2 & 1, there's no reason why the new teams couldn't come up with at least 1 offensive or defensive player from every team. I'd say that you have your 10 existing owners select their keepers and then have an expansion draft. I'm willing to bet that every team kept at least 1 great player, drafted another, and picked up another in free agency. For example, someone probably kept Stephen Jackson and Carnell Williams and drafted Frank Gore and picked up Colston... he can't keep all 4.

[Ace Matherton 0]

We started at 10 and have now expanded twice to 14 and its worked pretty well. Once all the keepers for the original owners have been determined, all the currently owned players (no FA's) go into an expantion draft, the two or four new owners then can draft any player not kept. That player taken keeps his original (cap/round price) and once the expantion draft is done those owners are placed at the back of the redraft. Its worked well.

[bcr 0]

sounds easy enough but i've already got a potential addition to the league saying he is at a disadvantage as most players kept are likely 1st and 2nd round picks. his argument is that he'd be picking up 3rd and 4th round talent as keepers. although there are sure to be 1st and 2nd round talent available in the expansion draft (due to some teams being stacked), its difficult to convince a guy that he should buck up $200+ when he's got no shot at getting a top tier guy.

 

if we reduce the number of keepers to 1 each offense/defense this might help but then its asking a lot of the guys who've been in the league for 5 years and made trades, pickups, etc. to get the guys they want.

 

any creative ways to keep everyone happy?

[Groundhog 24]

sounds easy enough but i've already got a potential addition to the league saying he is at a disadvantage as most players kept are likely 1st and 2nd round picks. his argument is that he'd be picking up 3rd and 4th round talent as keepers. although there are sure to be 1st and 2nd round talent available in the expansion draft (due to some teams being stacked), its difficult to convince a guy that he should buck up $200+ when he's got no shot at getting a top tier guy.

 

if we reduce the number of keepers to 1 each offense/defense this might help but then its asking a lot of the guys who've been in the league for 5 years and made trades, pickups, etc. to get the guys they want.

 

any creative ways to keep everyone happy?

 

if everyone agrees that an expansion team is at a structural disadvantage since the top 20 guys are going to be off-limits, how about reducing his entry fee. Instead of $200, offer him admission for $100 but with the same payoff at the end if he wins, and then in year 2, raise it up to the $200 level along with everyone else. You can argue that the discounted price reflects the fact that he's at an initial disadvantage, but without seriously tinkering with the keeper rules that you currently have or creating imbalances on past strategic moves made by other owners.

 

You'd probably have to get total agreement from all the other players, but if it means an extra $100 into the kitty and if the other owners really don't think an expansion franchise will win in year 1, that's $100 more to the winner than he'll otherwise get.

[Nelson Muntz 0]

10 existing teams protect 1 player

2 expansion teams each pick 1 player from the rest of the player pool

 

10 existing teams protect player #2

2 expansion teams each pick 1 more player from the rest of the player pool

 

and so forth, only caveat being that the 10 existing teams can only lose 1 player total

[Ras66not99 0]

We started at 10 and have now expanded twice to 14 and its worked pretty well. Once all the keepers for the original owners have been determined, all the currently owned players (no FA's) go into an expantion draft, the two or four new owners then can draft any player not kept. That player taken keeps his original (cap/round price) and once the expantion draft is done those owners are placed at the back of the redraft. Its worked well.

I'm an anti-keeper FFL'er and have been doing a Dynasty League for 10+ years, but if I did have a keeper league and were to expand this seems like a pretty solid way to do it...

[Ray_T 591]

our league currently consists of 10 teams with 3 offensive keepers and 2 defensive keepers without restrictions.

 

we are thinking about expanding the league to 12 teams. what is the best (most fair) way to get the expansion teams in on the action? if we add the two teams we are throwing around the idea of limiting the keepers to 2 offense and 1 defense.

 

any suggestions? much appreciated.

 

Well, I guess the best way to do this really depends on what the goals of the league are.

 

If you are going to do this format, you punish those teams who built up 5 solid keepers more than perhaps you should.

 

One suggestion I would make would be this:

 

You protect 2 offense and one defense to start (as you had suggested) but get to keep one additional player of your choice once one player has been selected from your team.

 

 

for example, you keep Tomlinson and Bulger and a top defender. Expansion team 1 takes last year's RB keeper Ronnie Brown. You happen to have a third string RB who was Cedric Benson, and once this pick is made, you elect to make him your extra keeper.

 

What this format does is it makes it more likely (although not impossible) that each team will lose the same number of players from their roster.

[CarlSpackler 0]

our league currently consists of 10 teams with 3 offensive keepers and 2 defensive keepers without restrictions.

 

we are thinking about expanding the league to 12 teams. what is the best (most fair) way to get the expansion teams in on the action? if we add the two teams we are throwing around the idea of limiting the keepers to 2 offense and 1 defense.

 

any suggestions? much appreciated.

 

Something we did in our dynasty league was allow a lesser number of protected players initially, then allowing additional players to be protected once a player was taken off the roster. It allowed more top shelf players to be available to the new owners, but kept individual rosters from being decimated in the expansion draft. You can set initial keepers and the number of players protected after one player is taken from the roster based on how many players you intend to populate the expansion rosters in the expansion draft.