In-Draft Trading During the off-season, the League Office will be addressing the issue of trading during the draft. Former league member and finance officer, Las Vegas Mike, moved the league to a free-for-all daily trade system during the drafts. It was fun but not without its problems. As we move forward, the most pressing issue is that Mike's system depended upon Mike - an administrator who could continually monitor the draft and release daily updates to the draft board and salary spreadsheet. That system will have to change to take into account the limitations of a non-Mike front office. I will be convening a committee discussion that involves myself and the League Statistician, Finance Officer, Secretary, and the Trade Committee. Our goal will be to rework the system so that it retains some of benefits of in-draft trading while addressing the issues of practicality and the unanticipated loopholes that emerged last season. Because we need to have this reconfiguration in place before the upcoming season's drafts, the decisions made by this group will be applied for the upcoming season, bypassing the usual amendment process.
In the interest of full transparency this conversation will take place in an open forum. If you are not a member of the committee, you are welcome to observe but are not invited to participate. There will be a brief period of commentary that will be announced prior to any implementation.
firstly, as far as the TC; I always envisioned it as working as a review board; where if at least 2 league members questioned a trade; it would then be reviewed.... of course we would need to automatically review to be sure it was legal from a salary cap, do they own that pick?, etc type of fashion....we also need a moratorium on the trading of recently acquired players to allow for review; in other words, you can't trade somebody you just acquired until a certain timeframe has passed; so if we need to void a trade, it is only the original trade and not any subsequent ones....
on in-draft trading, I personally thought last year was a big clusterf****
to me, the only viable solution to your i-d trading, is to allow trading only between rounds, not during them.... deadline is an hour before draft is scheduled to start for the day so we can adjust thread if necessary.... people could still agree to deals and announce them after the round is complete.... posting during the day remains the responsibility of who is listed as the owner on the thread
I don't recall that it was quite the disaster that Jerry describes. In fact, I thought it was pretty successful and kind of fun. Nevertheless, I previously argued against "during the round in-draft trading" because it was unfair to those who lived in outer timezones and those who couldn't monitor the draft constantly. I still stand by that and think that Jerry has the proper solution for the rookie draft. (I'll address the FA Draft separately). I think a pause between the posting of a trade and its actuation is reasonable. Practically, that means that posted trades for rookie draft picks will only involve trades applying to the NEXT round. The day to day trade schedule would be:
Trades must be posted before the conclusion of the current round giving the league office time to vet the trade and update the trade board for the next day's picks.
I would limit Rookie Draft trading to the first three rounds (though trades can be made that involve later round picks).
Trade Committee I wrote extensively about this last year so I won't repeat myself unless it is necessary. The Trade Committee functionally is a nice idea without any real effect. There has never been a trade vetoed since I've been a member of the league. The posting of trades and the review of Trade Committee members has been nothing more than busy work. I suggest that we require a 48 hour commentary period open to the entire league. Only after a posted protest by ANY league member would the Trade Committee need to evaluate the proposed trade. Effectively, that means that all trade proposals will be held for two business days before being processed. This would NOT apply to the Rookie Draft. (ON EDIT- I'm not happy with this yet).
On a separate issue, here is my proposed schedule: (I plan on compressing the league business schedule by holding the amendment process simultaneously with the rookie draft. Comments invited).
nfl rookie draft April 25–27 Draft Order Announced (includes results of lotteries) Monday, April 8th Franchise Player Salary List is Released April 8th Draft Board Release of preliminary 2013 Draft Board Monday, April 15th Spreadsheet Release of Pre-Rookie Draft spreadsheet Monday, April 15th Team Name and Stadium Changes Due Monday, April 15th First Cutdown Date Pre-Rookie Draft Cutdown date (includes first year player's dropped contracts) Monday, April 15th Trading Period First Trading Period Opens Friday, April 19th Amendment Process Begins Monday, April 15th Amendment First Drafts Due Monday, April 22nd Amendment First Draft Commentary Ends Friday, May 3rd Amendment Revised Final Drafts Due Monday, May 6th Amendment Final Draft Nominations End Friday, May 10th Amendment Voting Monday, May 13th - Friday May 17th Required of All Members (2/3rds required to pass) Amendment Results Posted Monday, May 20th ROOKIE DRAFT Monday, May 6th - Friday, May 17th Trading Period First Trading Period Closes Friday, May 17th Spreadsheet Release of First Pre-Free Agent Draft spreadsheet Monday, May 20th Final Cutdown Date Deadline Friday, May 24th Franchise Player Deadline Friday, May 24th Spreadsheet Release of second Pre-Free Agent Draft spreadsheet Monday, May 27th League File Release of Pre-Free Agent Draft league file Monday, May 27th Trading Period Second Trading Period Opens Tuesday, May 28th FREE AGENT DRAFT Begins Monday, June 3rd Constitution Revised Constitution posted Monday, June 17th Trading Period Second Trading Period Closes Friday, July 12th Spreadsheet Post-FA Draft Spreadsheet Released Monday, July 22nd League File Post-FA Draft Spreadsheet Released Monday, July 22nd Trading Period Third Trading Period Opens Monday, August 12th Trading Period Third Trading Period Closes Monday, August 19th League File Pre-Season League File is Released Monday, August 26th Season Begins Trade and FA Deadline Thanksgiving Vacation Christmas Vacation
Free Agent Draft Schedule In response to commentary following last year's mostly successful free agent draft, we'll continue with a shortened draft schedule but with the following changes:
1) To accommodate West Coast members, we'll start the draft each day at 10am ET. 2) To accommodate European members, we'll eliminate the Late Pick periods so each day will close earlier. 3) After the first round, the draft schedule will be limited to two rounds per day. 4) We will eliminate the third round of three round salary tiers and the fifth round of five round salary tiers, BUT, 5) We will have a short additional first come/first served period at the conclusion of each salary tier to allow for needed third and fifth picks.
I just don't have time during my work day to devote to in-draft trading. We're all volunteers, but if we go in this direction then I can't commit to assist. I can work on contract spreadsheets and update draft boards on the weekend, but I won't have time for this during the week.
I completely understand Mark and Steve's responses that we should abandon trading during the draft(s). I also understand that neither of them have the time to monitor things during the week, and I would not ask them to. However, I'm not sure we can go from the free for all no holds barred trading we had last year to no trading at all without creating an insurrection. I think we must preserve some limited mechanism that allows some trading but doesn't require the constant oversight we had with Mike. My first rough draft of an idea builds on Jerry's post:
Trades are allowed during the first three rounds of the Rookie draft BUT they must be submitted on the website and confirmed by the second party BEFORE the conclusion of the current round giving the league office time to update the website for the next day's picks. If it were restricted in this way, I am confident that between Jerry and myself, we could keep up with the website process if Mark was willing to update the draft boards over the weekend after the first rookie draft week.
I'm still thinking about the FA draft and will post in the next day or two.
1) To accommodate West Coast members, we'll start the draft each day at 10am ET. 2) To accommodate European members, we'll eliminate the Late Pick periods so each day will close earlier.
I don't see #1 as essential.... if we close a round at a specified time(not allow the last pick to have unlimited time till the next day); we would be ending at 8pmPacific, allowing west coasters to post(or make a very short list) the night before instead of early morning.... regarding #2; I don't think it would really affect the Euros, since we are already talking 3-4am their time.... ................................................................ Trades are allowed during the first three rounds of the Rookie draft BUT they must be submitted on the website and confirmed by the second party BEFORE the conclusion of the current round giving the league office time to update the website for the next day's picks.
I would add that they also need to notify us by e-mail that they posted a trade.... ..................................................................... If we have in-draft trading as you discussed with postings, I would add that all trades for a round must be posted before the start of the whole round(this would specifically address 2-day rounds; so we could finalize the whole round before it started.... ........................................................................ I would like to see some type of rule where you can't trade late picks that you aren't going to use(for example, you have 1 roster spot open and you trade 2 $200k and 2 $100k for a $300k pick)....
