And if you are vaccinated no mask is required!!
Yup, it's about 128* Fahrenheit here in Houston and that means training camps are just around the corner (well, not for Aaron Rodgers but f him, he ain't a Flyer so I don't care). What I do care about is getting the good ol' Hughes League kick-started for another season of fun and frolic.
If you've been asleep since late last fall you are probably unaware that we are instigating some significant changes this year. I'm not going to rehash them totally here in this post. You can scroll back for the many details of what is in the works. I'll outline them here and provide links for further reading. 😏
In no particular order:
1) We are back to a 3x4 league structure and will play a balanced 14 game schedule. Teams are back in their pre-2020 divisions. You'll play each division opponent twice, every other team once. The season has divisional weeks scattered through the (roughly) first third of the season and we will close with three weeks of division games.
It's a good deal for us. We can play 14 weeks, keep our playoff structure, and still avoid the last week of the NFL season.
2) The draft order will have the six non-playoff teams from last year in front of the playoff teams. Slots will be assigned to both groups through a weighted lottery after the keeper date. Lottery tickets are assigned based on four criteria (actual Points Scored, Potential Points, MFL's Power Rank, and All Play record) and each group uses the same four criteria. The numbers are based on all games thru the final week of the regular season (edited for clarity) which has been Week 13 but will be Week 14 going forward.
BTW...All Play Record means your record of wins and losses if you played every other team every week. All these stats can be seen on the standings report each week as the season progresses. Also of note is the Defending Champs Adjustment which is a 25% deduction in lottery tickets.
The lottery ticket assignments for the upcoming 2021 draft can be seen here and by clicking the '2021 Lottery Data' link in the Links module on the league site.
3) There is a new playoff qualification system. As before, all division winners will qualify as will the next three best records. We now will have a possible seventh playoff team. If the highest-scoring otherwise not qualified 6+ win team has a higher PPG than two of the 'standard' wildcards, that team will become the seventh playoff team. All wildcards will now be ranked (seeded) in order of points scored during the regular season.
If there is a seventh playoff team only the #1 seeded team will get a bye.
4) The Dalvin Cook Rule has been tweaked for fairness and clarity.
5) Going forward players traded during the regular season will have a draft value equal to the previous season's value. That is still a 'bonus' of two rounds and equal for an extra year of keeper eligibility. Players traded during 2020 are not included in this change. It starts with the 2021 season and 2022 Draft Values.
6) Etc., Etc. I'm going to wait until the season gets closer before I decide on roster and IR limits. The rules show 17/2 at this point but a lot will depend on how things look later in the summer. My preference is to go with 16 player teams and I'm thinking that by next year we'll be there again. Meanwhile, I'm as optimistic this summer as I was pessimistic last summer. Time will tell.
On that note...I'm really hoping we can have a Houston 'live' draft get-together. That's still several months off and I'm not sure how it'll go but let's hope for one anyway. Speaking of which...there are dates on the league calendar for keepers deadlines, the Lottery and the draft itself. Those are, as always, tentative. I'd ideally like to run with them but as we all have seen recently, funny things happen in life. Stay flexible!
All of this (and more) is now part of the updated rules document which is available here or through the normal links in the Links module of at the bottom of the page at Reports-> Rules-> League Settings.
