Hi,

I am a long time fantasy football owner/commish whose members want to try a keeper league. I personally don't want to, but I think I will be outvoted.

If you are reading this and are in a keeper league, I would value your suggestions on how to set it up.

We will have an auction league. ($200 imaginary dollars to spend)

Factors I guess would include:

-How many players do you keep?
-How many years?
-Salary increases?
-How do trades work for kept players?
-When do you declare your kept players?
-My impression is that a keeper league keeps the top teams on top and the bottom teams on the bottom (ie lack of movement, no parity from year to year...true?)

Thank you for your input, the more the merrier....

Jeff

If you are reading this and are in a keeper league, I would value your suggestions on how to set it up.

Keeper Rules
Roster size : 18 players. There are no roster restrictions except that you must draft enough players at each position to field a starting lineup on opening day. With a roster size of 18, it is expected that 1 or 2 young players will be included on each team's roster during the season to develop into keepers.

Each team can keep from 0 to 3 players. The first year, it's possibly that because of poor drafting or poor team management, a team may not have any players they wish to keep.

Any players drafted in rounds 1 - 3 of the previous year cannot be keepers.

Players can be kept a maximum of 3 times. For example, you can draft a player in 2001, and then keep them for the next 3 years: 2002, 2003, 2004. In 2005, this player must go back into the draft pool of players.

For each player you keep, you must give up a draft pick 2 rounds higher than the player's draft position the year before.
If you keep an undrafted players (UDP) from the previous year, you must give up your 12th round pick. Players that were drafted and then cut still maintain their draft status.

Example 1 : You draft Thomas Jones RB Arizona in round 9 in 2001. He becomes the starter and you decide he's one of your keepers. In 2002, you must give up your 7th round draft pick (he becomes effectively your 7th round pick) to keep him. In 2003, he becomes your 5th round choice, and if you keep him for a third year, you must give up your 3rd round pick in 2004.

Example 2 : You draft S. Morris, WR KCC in round 5 in 2001. You decide to keep him. In 2002, he becomes your 3rd round draft pick (you give up a 3rd rounder). In 2003, because his draft status was round 3 in the previous year, he is no longer eligible for keeper status and is returned to the draft pool.


If you do not have a draft pick for the correct round to give up to keep a player, you must give up the next higher draft pick. This can happened if you trade away a draft pick during pre-season or have 2 keepers that have the same draft status from the previous year.
Example 1 : You decide to keep your draft pick in round 14 from the previous year and you also want to keep an UnDrafted Player (UDP). Both require that you give up your 12th round draft pick. Since you only have one 12th round selection, to keep both players, you must give up picks for rounds 11 and 12.

Example 2 : You want to keep a player you drafted in the 5th round last year. You also traded away your 3rd round pick during pre-season. To keep last year's 5th round pick, you must give up your 3rd round pick this year. Since you have no 3rd round selection, to keep this player, you must give up your 2nd pick.


When the draft is complete, the draft position the player ends up at will determine next year's draft position status.
For Example : You have 2 undrafted players (UDPs) you want to keep. Based on the rule above, you will have to give up a 12th and an 11th round pick to keep each. If the draft completes with your 2nd keeper being your 11th round draft pick, and you decide to keep that same player next year, you will have to give up a 9th round pick to keep that player the following year.

Moral : Put your best keeper free agent in the 12th round slot or trade for an extra selection in that round.


Non-Returning Teams: The new owner will get the old teams current roster of players and their current draft position. Important Dates :
NFL Week (-6) : Returning Owners payment deadline.
Owners from the previous year must pay for the new season. This gives two weeks to find replacement owners.

Declare Keeper Deadline
Keepers can be declared at anytime. Three (3) days before the draft is the Declare Keeper Deadline. At that time, your keepers will be placed into their correction draft position and will be considered DRAFTED. Your draft pick for that spot is consumed (used).
After the keepers have been processed, you can trade non-used draft picks, or your keeper players, but the players draft position cannot be changed.



Draft Complete. After the draft is complete, free agency will be FCFS.


NFL Opening Day : Hooray, the NFL season begins.


NFL Week 1 - Season Begins

NFL Week 11 : Trading deadline is kickoff NFL Week 11.
After the 1st kickoff on NFL Week 11, no more trades are allowed.

Trading :
You may trade players and/or draft picks before the draft is complete.


During the regular season, draft picks may NOT be traded.
This rule is to avoid the problem where a teams trades away many their future selections and then does not return to the league the next year.

All trades must be approved by the commish.

Off Season trading is allowed. Trade will not auto-approve and teams have 5 days to protest a trade.


Keeper Status follows the traded player.
When trading players, the players draft status (position) and keeper status (years he can be kept) is traded with the player.
Example :In 2000, you drafted MIN QB Culpepper in the 7th round. His keeper status is as follows :


Year Draft Position Keeper Status
---- --------------- ------------------------
2000 7th round pick - Initial year drafted.
2001 5th round pick - 1st keeper year.
2002 3th round pick - 2nd keeper year.
2003 Cannot be kept, picks in round 1-3 are always returned.

Since his draft and keeper status follows him to whatever team he is traded to, he can only be kept for the 2001 and the 2002 season. 2003, he must go back into the draft because his draft position, which rises 2 rounds each year got too high. If this team could have drafted him in the 8th round, Culpepper could have been kept the full max of 3 years.


Draft Position Determination :
Keeper Leagues will use the previous year's finish to determine draft position. Note, I have not chosen the normal method where the last last place team gets first pick. Instead I have chosen a system that hopefully will make teams want to win at the end of the year instead of trying to lose.
I've set it up so the best teams get the last spots (normal so far), and the winner of the Consolation Bowl gets the number one pick. The better your teams does in the Consolation Bowl, the better your draft pick will be next year. Hopefully this will provide some interest in the games for the non- playoff teams.