Getting Stuff Done

Been working on some adjustments since the new MFL sites were made available right after the Super Bowl. 

If you haven't seen the 2021 league site you should take a peek and let me know what you think. Here's our 2021 home! 

The schedule is updated for this year. Last year's schedule had some back-to-back games and rematches and I have fixed that. I moved some weeks around to get as many division games as posible packed into the front and end of the season. With odd-numbers of teams in each division it's not possible to have them set up as we had for many years. The closest 'rematch' has a two game stretch in the middle and that only occurs once. There are a few unavoidable quirks but overall, I'm happy with it.  Then again, the schedule could be completely redone if the NFL make a long rumored change (see below, the elephant in the room).

I like the color scheme, it's based on the Rams' St. Louis-era colors. Looks better on us than it did on them for sure. You'll note the new 'ticker' that runs under the helmet display. I have it set up for minimal displays here in the off season but during the year it'll carry stats, scores, schedules, news items, and much more. 

The banner is now 'mobile device friendly' in that it shrinks to fit your phone screen and makes the league page easier to navigate. Even better is the new 'mobile menu' that will appear on your phone screen when you access the site. Much better than having to use the regular drop-downs when you are doing league stuff on the run. You'll see it by tapping the 'sandwich menu' on the upper right of your phone screen. Like so:

 

That shot also illustrates how the banner now fits the screen. You can still tap or click it to get back to the home page both on computers and devices. I made a few other tweaks here and there but nothing big. The Historical Data module that used to be on the Numbers tab was slowing the site down so it's now hosted offsite. It can be found via a link in the "Links' module on the right side column of the front page. Records back through 2003, our first year on MFL, are available with that module. That change and few others have sped up page-loading, at least for me.

I've updated the 2021 League Calendar.  None of it is absolutely written in stone as we found out last year but you can check the site for the tentative dates. Basically the Keeper deadline is August 24, I'll run the lotteries for draft positions the next night, and the draft is Tuesday, August 31. Open waivers will begin two days after the draft and will close before the kickoff of the NFL Thursday night openers on September 9.

Here's something that could have a big impact on the league... the NFL is considering adding likely to add a 17th regular season game for 2021. If that occurs we will have to decide how we handle it. We could just continue as we are with 13 regular season games and have our playoffs finish with the NFL teams' 15th game. Or we could go back to three divisions of four teams and play a 14 game schedule (nobody misses any league opponent) and still be done before the dreaded last NFL regular season game. I can't think of a single reason why we wouldn't go that way. But we'll cross that bridge when it shows up. Meanwhile...

There are changes coming in how we function as a league. Some bigger than others and several are significant. Looking at them one at a time:

Playoff Qualifiers...There is going to be a new wrinkle in qualifying teams. The 'Most Points Among Non-Qualifiers' is now part of the system BUT there is a big caveat. The six team playoffs will continue as they did this year (four division champs, two wildcards on record, byes to top two seeds) but there will be a seventh team in the mix ONLY if that team outscored one of the two 'standard' wildcard playoff qualifiers. 

Note that only the top scoring 'non-standard' qualifying team will be considered. This means that even if more than one team outscores either/both of the 'standard wildcard qualifiers', only the top scoring team gets a playoff slot. Ties for high-scoring, though unlikely, are possible and will be broken by head-to-head record first.

The second part of this is that all wildcard qualifiers, no matter how they have qualified, will be seeded by PPG. 

Again, the NFL's decision on a 17th game and our changes in response to that will have an effect on this. If we go back to three divisions and three wildcards I'd likely implement the possible 7th playoff slot but it might be contingent on that team outscoring two of the 'standard' wildcards. That's another decision I'll make once we hear from the NFL.

Draft Order... Some significant changes here as well. The 12 teams will be put in two groups, playoff teams and non-playoff teams as they finished the previous season. Based on the above qualifying changes that could be a 5/7 or 6/6 split. The non-playoff teams will be assigned 'tix' (my shorthand for 'lottery balls') based on regular season (weeks 1 thru 13) W/L, potential points and All-Play Record. 6 tix going to the lowest ranked team in each category, then 5,4,3,2,1. Ties are broken with our standard tiebreaks. See the December 31st blog post for how this will work, the example there is based on a different lottery ball assignment but the idea is the same. If there are seven playoff teams then there will obviously be five teams in this lottery and I'll adjust the lottery balls accordingly.

Then the teams will be assigned draft slots #1 thru #5 (or #6) via an online lottery that is weighted with the 'tix' as outlined above. The playoff teams, either 6 or 7, will also go through a separate weighted lottery. They will fill the Round One slots after the non-playoff teams. Trust me, it's much easier to do than to explain. Both lotteries, playoff and non-playoff, will work the same other than possibly having a different number of teams.

I ran tests on the draft lottery site recently. I assigned the lottery balls using four regular season  parameters... Points Scored, Potential Points, Power Ranking, and All-Play W-L-T Percentage. Then I ran 12 'test runs' of the lottery for each group of teams. The results can be seen here. That .pdf shows the lottery balls assigned, how teams were ranked in each category, results of the lottery trial runs and distribution of the slots 'assigned' across those trials. The rankings may or may not change depending on how I assign 'lottery tix' in those categories. But it gives a good idea of how the process works.

Note: Once I officially settle on how the playoff teams will be assigned tix I will post the assigned 'tix' totals for both lotteries even though they will not run until later in the year. I will run the lotteries after keepers are declared. The Draft Lottery site is linked in that previous blog post. If for some reason that site disappears and another one that fits our needs can't be found I will do the lotteries manually during a Zoom or similar meeting.

The Cook Rule: I'm going to make a few tweaks to this as I mentioned previously. To qualify as a 'Cook Keeper' the player must be a 1st or 2nd round keeper or pick in his first year with that team. The rules previously allowed for players in their second season with a club to qualify.  He must have played in five or fewer games for his NFL team(s) that year between Weeks 1 and 16 (or Week 17 should we go to a 14 game schedule) which covers our playoffs. That is true whether the EHFL team makes the playoffs or not. The player will always be placed in the #1 round of the draft if he's kept under this rule. A player is not eligible in consecutive seasons for any one EHFL team. In other words, if you decline to 'keep' a player eligible under the Cook Rule and draft him again in the first or second round the next year, he will not be qualify should he be injured.

'Traded For' Bonus: The rule has been that a player that is traded for is given a 'bump' in Draft Values of two rounds. For example: Player XYZ, who had been drafted in Round Seven and then traded during the season, would have a Draft Value of Round Nine in the following season's draft for the team that received him. That amounted to two extra seasons of keeper eligibility. Beginning with in-season trades in 2021 a traded player will be given a draft value equal to the value he had the previous year. In the above scenario Player XYZ would get a Draft Value of Round Seven, the same as he had the season he was traded. This amounts to one extra season of keeper eligibility. Again, this applies to trades made starting in the upcoming season. Trades made during 2020 are not affected. This had really been my original intent but I had talked myself into making it two extra years. I let it go for a few years because I don't like making a ton of 'adjustments' but I've never liked the way it worked. 

That's all for now. Things can (and will) change as is mentioned several times above. It's a lot to digest and I do realize that almost nobody besides me cares about any of this at this point in the year, what with baseball about to start, etc. But I'm always thinking about this stuff. That's how life is when you're retired and locked down.

Stay Safe!