fantasy league rules question

[janos_51]

How would you handle the following situation? This was posted in one of my leagues due to the yahoo site going down. I think it pretty much explains the situation pretty well. I think I'm on the side of the guy who wrote the message, but I'm not involved directly involved in the matchup. In our league, the standings are pretty tight with 2 guys clearly in the lead, and 7 guys all within one game of each other, battling over 4 other playoff spots:

A. One gentleman in our league says that he was unable to make a lineup change at the last minute that would have given him the win in his week 10 matchup. He left an injured player in who was a game time decision to play, and that player was ruled out at some point before game time and the guy tried to put in the backup but the site was down.
B. Wednesday after the email went out explaining what happened to the site, an email was sent to Paul explaining the lineup snafu that happened and a hopeful request to change his lineup after the fact to reflect the extra points and a change in the standings.

My thoughts: Because we are in a money league, I would have no problem making any of the changes requested due to the site being down...IF the guy had called/emailed right at the time of the problem, before game time started and locked out the rosters. Without that time stamp to show exactly when you were trying to have a problem with the site, it isn't fair to everyone else to change things.

Personally, I set my roster on Tuesday with all non injured guys, and make changes if I hear they will play. I don't wait until the last minute so I don't get into trouble if my computer goes down or something similar to what happened with the yahoo site.

Ultimately, this is XYZ's decision as the commish to make, and I am just weighing in. Anyone else is welcome to give their thoughts as well.

If you were the commish, how would you handle the situation and why?

[Jason]

I think this is kind of a discretionary call...this is why you get a high character trustworthy commish with very good judgement...

If it's a player who is active and always on top of things managing his team and it's believable that he tried to make the change before gametime, I think I'd act in good faith and make the swap. There was an injury game-time decision situation involved afterall...if it was just a "I was gonna bench this guy for this guy because he had a better matchup" then Idk that you could swap that out...maybe if there was a bye last week and the guy didn't reset his lineup to insert an obvious stud (Like AP), an obvious situation like that is probably ok to change, something wishy washy I'd probably not change.

Of course waiting until Wednesday to bring it up is sketchy, I'd have to have the guy explain that. Maybe he thought it was just his connection acting up that day? Maybe he didn't wanna go through the hassle if it ended up not affecting the outcome? Maybe he tried to set his lineup using yahoo's fantasy app on his phone and didn't have the commish's email handy (especially since the league page was down afterall).

So many variables here...that's why I think it's a discretionary judgement call, do what feels like the right thing to do. If it feels like the guy's explanation is full of BS and is just trying to take advantage of a situation, then I'd keep it as it is. So it depends on the character of the person and their explanation I guess. Then I'd announce the deliberations to the league and how I came to my decision.

[Underdog]

In the absence of some form of proof that he was trying to change the lineup, there's really nothing the commish can do...it just opens a huge can of worms for the commish if he allows it. The owner should've sent the commish and his opponent an e-mail as soon as he knew the site was down. I've always told the guys in the league I run ever since we switched to an online setup that they should set their lineups early in the week and that they should let me know right away if they have any problems making last-minute changes.

Sucks for the guy, but there's really nothing else the commish can do. Right now he's got one pissed off owner...if he changes it, he's probably going to have an entire league full of them.

[haircut100]

In my league, we warn owners to email their changes to everyone in the league (not just to the commish) if they are having technical difficulty (whether it's on their end or on the ff site). As you say, w/o a timestamp, there shouldn't be any retro-active changes made.

[MKHawk]

Yeah, he'd need to have emailed out his proposed changes at the time of the incident for the commish to even think about it.

[rjohmit]

In my league, we warn owners to email their changes to everyone in the league (not just to the commish) if they are having technical difficulty (whether it's on their end or on the ff site). As you say, w/o a timestamp, there shouldn't be any retro-active changes made.

This...and send the email at time it happens...not after all the games are over. There's no way I'm making a change when you email me after the fact.

Also, leave the game-time-decisions OUT of your lineup, and put them IN at the last minute, rather than the other way around.

[janos_51]

the decision from the commish was just handed out...if he had said something right away...no problem. But since he waited to ask until Wednesday, no change.

The team's owner also replied right away that he understood and is putting it on himself for the mistake.

Issue resolved!

[Hyped]

in the absence of some form of proof that he was trying to change the lineup, there's really nothing the commish can do...it just opens a huge can of worms for the commish if he allows it. The owner should've sent the commish and his opponent an e-mail as soon as he knew the site was down. I've always told the guys in the league i run ever since we switched to an online setup that they should set their lineups early in the week and that they should let me know right away if they have any problems making last-minute changes.

Sucks for the guy, but there's really nothing else the commish can do. Right now he's got one pissed off owner...if he changes it, he's probably going to have an entire league full of them.

this.

[Hyped]

Yeah, in my main league...we can retroactively change scoring BUT an owner needs to email the ENTIRE league before kick off.

[femurov]

Sorry I'm late, but I think your commish did the right thing. Everyone in both my leagues that I co-commish in knows what to do in this type of situation. Hell, I've even said that owners don't even need a computer excuse to call/text me (or the other commishes) to make a roster move. A simple call or text will do. This was put into place well before this season. Back when smart phones weren't around and wifi and such.