Last week, a commissioner in one of my fantasy leagues decided that enough was enough, and he decided instead of waiting for any resolution on the NHL and NBA seasons, he’d just give everyone their money back, despite eight of the 12 teams having already been eliminated from the season’s end goal — a first place finish.
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And I’m bitter. Of course I’m bitter! I was halfway through my semi-final matchup and I finished first in the regular season. Why should I go home with the same amount of money as the 12th-place finisher? And why did this commissioner decide to give everyone their money back? As it turns out, not everybody paid their entry fee. And now that the NHL season is on pause, those people decided they just don’t want to pay. So now we have a bigger problem, and integrity lines have been crossed.
I had this story idea on how to pay out fantasy sports leagues as soon as the NBA and NHL put their respective seasons on hold, but I thought the answer was pretty obvious — just wait it out until a final decision is made on the season. And then the entire idea kind of slipped my mind as we waited. And waited. I don’t know if I refused to believe that we would be without sports for the next nine weeks and counting, or if I thought it wouldn’t be an issue. It was simple: just keep everybody’s money until a final decision is made.
Well, as it turns out… it’s not that simple, as the refund method is a real thing. Check out this Twitter poll I ran — 20 percent who voted decided to give the money back to everyone in their league:
Fantasy commissioners…
How have you settled your NHL or NBA league payouts?
— Chris Meaney (@chrismeaney) May 11, 2020
I manage double-digit NHL and NBA fantasy teams (please don’t judge) and I wear the commissioner hat in about half of those leagues, and I can tell you I have not handed out any money yet. In fact, only one other league (outside of the refund one) I’m in decided to distribute money, and I feel it was done the correct way (more on that below).
I’m not looking for anybody to feel sorry for me and I’m not here to brag about how much I win at fantasy sports. Instead, I’m looking to use my platform to help commissioners, because it’s not always the easiest job and things sometimes get intense when they don’t really need to. Also, I’m starting to receive some questions on how commissioners should handle their leagues, because some people are starting to get understandably antsy.
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What do we know?
First off, I think it’s important to gather as much information as we can in regards to the sites we play on. I reached out to CBS, ESPN, Yahoo and Fantrax in regards to what plans they have should the NHL and NBA return with regular season games. Most of the answers I received involved waiting.
The CBS Sports Fantasy platform is highly customizable, and they said they’re looking at ways to give commissioners the flexibility to determine their champion based on their desired criteria. Tim Wagner, the business development leader at Fantrax, says the plan is to let the fantasy leagues play out, but it depends on what the actual leagues do for finishing the regular season. Yahoo released a statement in March which says they will be extending the “current” week (March 9th – March 16th) until the NHL and NBA resume their seasons. And final decisions for Pro, Public, or Private leagues won’t be made until the NBA and NHL communicate their plans. Yahoo also laid out details on how to lock a team on their site and how to delete a private cash league or cancel its contest.
It’s hard to imagine the NHL or NBA will resume their schedule as previously planned, should things start up again, but if major fantasy sites like Yahoo, CBS and Fantrax are waiting it out, I think you should, as well. If you play in a head-to-head league on Yahoo, you’ll see that your current matchup is still intact. The matchup has just been extended from March 9th until June 7th. This is an end date I feel will be extended even further as the days go on.
Talk to your league
As a commissioner it’s very important to be in contact with your league, and hopefully by now you’ve presented some sort of plan or a vote for your league to come to a conclusion.
If you’re dealing with the frustrations of people in your league not wanting to pay… well then that sucks. There’s really no way around that. You shouldn’t have to dig into your own pockets to cover those who haven’t paid, and all you can really do is explain to the rest of your league that those who have decided not to pay won’t be allowed back.
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If you happen to run into that problem in a keeper or dynasty league, you’ll be in desperate need of a replacement owner. If that’s the case, holla at me. I’m kidding! Just be sure that the players on those teams are locked and not available on the wire for others to pick up right now.
As a commissioner in a keeper league, I had to lock everyone’s teams, as I didn’t want owners grabbing players returning from injury (who otherwise wouldn’t have), like Steven Stamkos, Jake Guentzel, Mark Stone, Dougie Hamilton, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Do I think it’s a smart and savvy move to go after those players? Absolutely! This is just something we decided on as a league. In some of my other leagues, mostly redraft, the players mentioned above were grabbed immediately.
Plenty of savvy fantasy owners out there today…
Most added NBA
1. Kevin Durant (3508 adds in Y!)
2. Kelly Oubre Jr.
3. Klay Thompson
4. Jonathan Isaac
5. Ben SimmonsNHL
1. Steven Stamkos (1618)
2. Jake Guentzel
3. Dougie Hamilton
4. Chris Kreider
5. Vladimir Tarasenko— Chris Meaney (@chrismeaney) March 14, 2020
If you want these players back in your league as it concludes, you can set it up so there’s a waiver wire process where owners can grab players depending on where they rank on waivers.
Payment options
The way I see things, there are three options — and giving money back to everyone isn’t one of them (except for a very shallow league scenario).
1. Hold tight
If you can do this, and everyone is on board, I think you just wait it out until we find out what exactly happens with the NHL and NBA. The break has been so long it’s hard to imagine going directly into the playoffs, should they decide to begin playing again. It’s also hard to imagine that things will resume as previously planned. We could see a 24-team playoff in the NHL, as our very own Pierre LeBrun stated earlier this week, and if that’s the case the bottom seven teams may not be needed when things resume. Waiting it out will clear up any confusion.
2. Pay remaining playoff teams
If your leaguemates are looking to be paid out and you’ve decided to take that route, then things should be pretty simple. For most playing fantasy hockey, there’s a real chance you were either in the quarterfinals or the semifinals in your head-to-head leagues. If that’s the case, I believe you have to distribute the prize pool evenly with every team left in the playoffs. This is how I was paid out in one of my leagues and I believe that’s the fairest way.
Yes, it stinks if you had a first or second place bye and you were waiting to play in the semi finals. You were headed for a Top 4 finish and instead the prize pool getting split by four teams it’ll be split by six teams. That’s unfortunate, but there’s no way to determine a fair winner in the quarterfinal matchup as the NHL and NBA seasons stopped mid week. Anything could have happened in those remaining days and I don’t think you should decide a winner based on what the matchup was at before the pause. It’s also not a lock you win your semi final matchup. At least this way, you’re getting some of the prize pool.
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It’s possible the regular season in your fantasy basketball head-to-head format hadn’t started yet. If that’s the case, I think you definitely wait it out, but if enough is enough and you’re tied of waiting — or you’re getting nasty messages in your WhatsApp group and you can’t take it anymore — the best possible solution would be to distribute the money evenly with the teams that were headed for the playoffs. If you’re in a shallow eight team league and not all the playoff teams were clinched, then this is a scenario where I could see everyone getting their entry fee back. I would set up a vote for the league on what they want to do. I would NOT give money back to teams eliminated. That money would go to whoever was in first at the time or distributed to two teams who were scheduled for a bye. Again, things you can vote on.
3. Pay out the top Roto finishers
If you’re playing in a Rotisserie league, act as if the season is over and pay out your winners as you agreed on before the season began. If you planned on paying out the top three teams in the league, pay them out as if the season ended in March. First place gets the first place prize, second gets theirs, followed by third if you had that in the plans.
There is a second option, but this is where things could get dicey with frustrated owners. You could split the prize pool equally with the top three teams. I could see a second place team that was starting to gain on a first place team due to injuries (or whatever) getting upset. I think it’s silly of the second place team to kick up a fuss, but it wouldn’t shock me.
Do not give money back
As stated above, I think this is an awful decision and I’m shocked so many have decided to take this amateur route. Even if you can only muster half of your entry fees, I think you should split up whatever you have with the remaining playoff teams, or those who were in first in Rotisserie leagues.
Do the right thing
There is another option and that’s to donate the money to a local charity or food bank. I can’t even take credit for this option as one of my followers under my Twitter poll said that’s what his league did. I applaud him for that move, but it’s something that may not fly with everyone in your league. Maybe you can agree on handing out money to playoff teams and the extra bit can go to a local food bank. It’s at least something you should consider in these tough times.
(Top photo: Eric VANDEVILLE / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
