After hours of scratching my head, here are some thoughts to confuse you even more going into 2008...

Well, we have just about finished up our 3rd successful season for the FPT. Needless to say Big Dan brought home the championship trophy, beating DNice in a less than stellar Final.
All that being said we do have a number of issues that need attention and we will do our best to cover them all as best we can!

1. We are looking to expand our league to 12 teams...we believe we'll have Chad Garrafola from the Windy City and Charles Croom from Vero Beach, FL. Both should add a unique element to the league.

2. We have put a ton of thought into a way to integrate the new guys in fairly while keeping the competitive balance already established in the league. Here's what we're going to do....

First, all current owners may declare a total of 5 keepers – 2 offensive; 2 defensive; 1 additional offensive/defensive keeper. This will leave us with a pool of “unprotected players” from which our two new owners will have an opportunity to pick up possible keepers both offensively and defensively.

A new twist we’ve added is the additional keeper option…this 5th keeper affords current owners the opportunity to basically “franchise” an additional player and somewhat protect this player from being picked up. However, this 5th keeper provides an opportunity to potentially keep this player with the understanding it is going to cost you a 2nd round draft pick (with the exception of Randy Moss whose bump is a 1st) for a franchised offensive player and a 12th round pick for a franchised defensive player. If an owner decides to not keep an additional player then the player simply returns to the “draft pool” where he is untouchable until draft night.

For an offensive example…

UCB declares Parker, Marshall, and Colston. All other offensive players on the UCB roster go into the “unprotected pool.”

UCB decides to keep Parker, Marshall, and Colston at the cost of Parker’s bump (16), Colston’s bump (20) and Marshall would cost my 2nd round pick (but maintain his 15th round status for next year).
Or

UCB decides to keep Parker and Colston. Marshall would be dumped into the “draft pool” towards the end of August. Marshall would be untouchable until draft night.

All of the “unprotected players” are then back into a “keeper pool” from which EVERYONE has an opportunity to select from. In an effort to be fair to the new owners, they would be able to select their keepers prior to the rest of the league making selections. Once the new teams have made their selections, the rest of the league may select based on reversed draft order…12th pick in the regular draft would have the first pick in the “keeper draft.” The keeper draft picks can be traded!

Ultimately, this affords those who didn’t leave 2007 with great options an opportunity to redeem themselves by leaching off of “keeper rich” owners. This should also alleviate the need to give up draft picks in a trade…

3. As always, we learn from experience … we will again be making some simple adjustments to our defensive scoring system.

- We will be looking to move to a 1 point for all tackles (TK’s and ATK’s). (Some venues score TK/ATK very differently – this would help correct this)





- Tackle bonuses will be adjusted to reflect a fair number considering the change.



- We will be making sacks worth 4 pts. And interceptions worth 4 pts as well. (Many times a sack includes a tackle and an int includes a pass def – this will help balance the scoring impact in a more realistic way…plus, some venues don’t necessarily score these the same either)



- All other categories will remain the same.

4. Determining draft order – as usual, everyone will get one name in the hat. However, this year, the owner chooses his draft position as his name is pulled. Just another level of strategy…






What do you guys think?