1)       Playoff Rosters:           Currently teams are allowed to change their roster during the week leading up to the playoffs, and once the playoffs start are then frozen for the remainder of the playoffs. A proposal has been made to move the freeze date back to the final day of the regular season. Teams would not be allowed to make any free agent moves during the week preceding the first round of the playoffs. This proposal was made so teams would have to carry their roster into the playoffs that placed them there. Teams currently can pick up free agents based solely on match ups for the playoffs. The argument for keeping the rule is that teams should have the flexibility going into the playoffs to put their best team together for the potential 3 week run. If a team wants to sacrifice their chances by playing the one week matchups, it will most likely cost them anyway. By week 14 the free agent pickings are normally pretty slim, but teams should be able to make that final adjustment after seeing how the final week of the regular season played out. Another concern is some teams have a playoff spot clinched before the final week. These teams could make some changes a team fighting for a playoff spot that final week couldn’t afford.

Vote: Playoff Rosters
Option A:      Move roster freeze back to Sunday of week 13, the final week of the regular season.
Option B:      Keep current rule, rosters frozen once playoff games start.

2)       Playoff Injuries:          Currently during the playoffs we only allow an injured player to be replaced if they are a franchise player or the team has so many injured players that can not field a complete lineup. A proposal has been made to allow a player listed as out or doubtful to be replaced during the playoffs. This issue has come up multiple times the last few years. An example:

Team makes the playoffs. They win in the first round, but suffer multiple injuries. They have a RB and a WR both listed as out (and out for the year), but neither is their franchise player. Out of their remaining RB and WR’s, 2 are the dreaded GTD. Only one is a franchise player, so they have a real problem of being one or two players short as they will have no subs available if those players don’t play. Do they replace their franchise player as permitted and now hope he doesn’t play? This is a very tough situation to be in.

The playoff roster freeze was put into place so teams couldn’t keep dropping players each week based on matchups. But should it also limit a team so they have a realistic chance of being a player or two short? Even a team not having any subs available is a decided edge come playoff time. By playoff time there is not much available on the free agent wire. Teams would not be picking up star players, but rather a player that might give them a chance for some points as opposed to not having a player available. The argument against is that teams shouldn’t be able to keep adding players during the playoffs. We already allow teams to replace injured franchise players, which should protect them against losing their star players. Injuries are also part of the game and when a team gets hit with that many injuries letting them field a completely new time is not something that should happen in the playoffs.

Vote: Playoff Injuries
Option A:      Allow players listed as out or doubtful to be replaced during the playoffs.
Option B:      Keep current rule, only injured franchise players can be replaced in the playoffs.

3)       Game Tiebreaker:       Currently in the event of a tie game the team with home field gets the win. A proposal was made to do away with this. The elimination of home field has already been approved in the college and baseball leagues. The suggestion is to award both teams one point in the event of a tie game. The reason being it just doesn’t seem fair that if two teams tie, one team gets two points because of home field, while the other gets zero. Currently if two or more teams tie for the final 8^th position in the top 8, both teams get the bonus point. That rule was changed a few years ago because of the same philosophy. That rule would not be affected as to get a top 8 finish is difficult enough, and if you score in the top half of the league (tie or not) both teams should get the bonus point. The one additional issue is what about playoff games? You can’t have a tie in a playoff game. There were suggestions such as go to subs, most total TD’s and stuff like that. None of them really made sense. The most logical suggestion was playoff games that ended in a tie would still be decided by the higher seed getting the win. This would still reward the team that had a better regular season and got the higher seed. Yes, this is still “home field” in the playoffs, but you have to break a playoff game some way and this seems to be the best option as you are rewarding regular season performance to break the tie. The regular season tie game is the only change suggested to be made.

Vote: Game Tiebreaker
Option A:      Eliminate home field, both teams get 1 point in a tie game
Option B:      Keep current rule, home field gets the win
 

4)       Bonus Points:              A proposal was made to change how the weekly bonus points are awarded for league high scores. Currently the top 8 teams get one bonus point each week. The proposal is to award bonus points based on points scored each week as follows:

1^st-4^th Place 2 points                   5^th-8^th Place 1 Point                            9^th-16^th Place 0 Points

The reason is the difference from 1^st to 8^th place each week is normally pretty significant, and they both get one bonus point. This three tier system would reward the top scoring teams more. The rebuttal is that it may reward top teams to much. You now have a chance of a four point swing each week, i.e. you lose and finish 9^th, your division rival wins and finishes 4^th, you dropped four points back. This is also a reason for the proposal; you would now have a chance to make up 4 points potentially in a week. The last concern is that head to head matchups should still be the biggest factor in standings, not additional bonus points for scoring well.

Vote: Bonus Points
Option A: Use new bonus point system
Option B: Keep current bonus point system

One rule change for 2007 not to be voted on:

During any week that has a Thursday game, waivers will clear on Thursday at 6pm for that week. Players dropped on Tuesday will clear on Thursday, and players dropped Wednesday or later that week will clear the following Friday. Basically we are moving waivers up one day on weeks with a Thursday game. One exception will be Thanksgiving Day. Any players on waivers that play in an early game will clear once their game starts Thanksgiving Day. The remainder of players will clear at 6pm. Teams will need to indicate when placing a waiver claim on Thanksgiving Day whether the player claimed will be starting or not if they get him.