SAFFL'25 The SCOOP --- #104 August 16, 2025 Funky Shopping ============== Literally funky ... getting out of the car at Horrocks Farm Market and walking in, the music gets louder and louder. A live band is playing funk! Get down and boogy! I guess that's the right sound for the shopping experience that awaits. If you've never been to Horrocks, what once-upon-a-time was just a tiny farm stand on the west side of Lansing has exploded into a mecca for food, drink, and pretty much all kinds of cool things to have around the home. Order a draft beer or glass of wine, grab a shopping cart and load up! We found a bit quieter spot on the north side of the pond (yes, a pond is part of Horrocks). POLISH REDSKINS (Ron & Jane), MAD DOGS (Bob), WARM MILK (Cindy), and COOL CATS (other Bob) were there in person. DISSEISORS (Julia) made it via the Zoom call-in feature. A giant, delicious pizza was the main course (thank you MAD DOG) and we were off and running with the annual Owners' Meeting. (Great call on the venue … thanks, Ron!) There's a few new ideas from this year's meeting (and some tinkering by the Mad Commissioner). A couple that got tentative approval at the Owners' Meeting, and a couple to further consider. A full explanation of these follows in this newsletter ... read on! Draft Lottery ============= The green dice made the trip, and they delivered the random answers to the big questions of the draft order. Jane saved us from endlessly debating which owner could possibly provide an honest roll by taking on the honors of tossing the dice for the first overall pick. Not a whole lot of movement from last years' order of finish. Here are the reults: Pick Team ---- ---------- #1 THE BARRACUDAS #2 MOOSE #3 MDQ MARAUDERS #4 BELLEVUE PSYCHO MAULERS #5 ROOKSTERS #6 MAD DOGS #7 WARM MILK As for the playoff teams, they'll be picking in reverse order-of-finish: Pick Team ---- ---------- #8 POLISH REDSKINS #9 WARREN WARRIORS #10 DISSEISORS #11 RICHMOND RIDGEBACKS #12 GOLDEN STATE CATFISH #13 REYNOLDS RANGERS #14 COOL CATS #15 FAIR HAVEN SUPER BEEZ Wait ... who are those 'MARAUDERS' picking #3? Well the CHICAGO DOGS have moved out ... and we've got a replacement owner with new team name moving in. More on this a bit later in this newsletter. Draft Day ========= The date, time, and place have been set: Sunday, August 31st, 1:00pm ET, Fair Haven, MI The DISSESORS stood ready host the draft again ... but they were significantly outbid by Pat Malburg and the FAIR HAVEN SUPER BEEZ. So this year we'll be heading to the far east side of the state ... less than a mile off the shore of Lake St. Clair. And yes ... for those who were there ... this is the site from many years ago where we reenacted the opening tornado drama of the Wizard of Oz. Pat's got a plan this year ... and a new pole barn. Whether we are in the barn, the patio, or the garage ... SAFFL will be well-protected from the elements. Once again, we'll be using the ESPN Fantasy Football service to host SAFFL and run the draft. Remote owners can join in from anywhere they can get an Internet connection. ESPN runs like clockwork... at 1:00pm on Sunday the 31st the draft will launch automatically. We'll be sticking with the usual 2-minutes per pick time limit setting on ESPN. It's been working out very well ... enough time to make decisions and easily keeping the draft under two hours. And whether you will be remote or on-site, just log-in to your team on the ESPN website in the hour before the draft. Enter the ESPN draft-room and join the action! We'll be broadcasting on Zoom from the draft site, so please feel free to join the action that way, too! Team Status =========== There are no more CHICAGO DOGS in SAFFL (only MAD ones). But stepping in to replace the C-DOGS will be the MDQ MARAUDERS and their owner Silvia Maciulaitis. Silvia is my cousin who grew up in San Diego and spent about 20 years there before moving to Argentina. A big-time San Diego Charger fan back then, Silvia is ready to re-engage with pro football via the fun and antics of SAFFL. Silvia and husband Gabriel had a chance to visit me and the MSU campus a couple years ago. And wouldn't you know it ... Sparty himself welcomed Silvia with open arms! (See the attached photo at the end of this newsletter.) All our other teams look to be back and ready. No changes to NFL affiliations as well ... the MARAUDERS have chosen to maintain the affiliation with the Cleveland Browns that the CHICAGO DOGS had. So once again we have 15 teams. With 15 teams, it works out that every SAFFL teams plays every other team exactly once over the course of the NFL season. The odd number of teams has forced one SAFFL team to be on bye each week ... but the Mad Commissioner may have cooked up a solution to that. More on that a bit later ... Player Protection Rules ======================= Protected players (keepers) must be chosen by the end of the week: Saturday, August 23rd, 8:00pm ET, All teams must decide which players to keep and which to let go. Last year we began requiring that all protected players must fit into starter slots. The idea was it force a few more quality players into the draft pool ... and this appears to have happened. Feedback I've gotten from owners has been all positive. In short, the protection rule is: - A SAFFL team MUST protect exactly 20 players - At least 5 of those players must be from the NFL affiliate - All 20 player must fit into a starter's slot - A player who was picked up as an FA last year must have started for your team and played in an NFL game (no stashing). Protected players (keepers) can be designated in one of four ways: 1) Move the 20 players you wish to protect into starter slots and put everyone else on the bench. 2) Use the 'Keepers' link on your 'MyTeam' ESPN page to mark those players you wish to protect. Unmarked players will automatically disappear at the protection deadline. 3) Cut/drop players who do not want to protect. I will make sure the remaining ones on your roster do not disappear -- just let me know when you are done cutting. 4) Call/email/text me your list of 20 protected and I will lock them in as your keepers. I'd recommend moving players into starter slots before marking as keepers or cutting non-keepers ... helpful in avoiding oversights. Don't forget ... you can protect any current free agents and rookies from your NFL affiliate. Contact me and I'll put them on your roster ASAP. No More Bye Weeks ================= As you may have seen in emails the past week from the MAULERS and DISSEISORS, there has been a lingering annual dissatisfaction with having a bye week due to an uneven number of SAFFL teams. After consultation with several owners, and receiving a cautionary thumbs-up at the Owners' Meeting, the Mad Commissioner has cooked up a scheme to eliminate bye weeks. Instead of not playing one week, every SAFFL team will instead play one game against the ZOMBIES. The idea is instead of having no game, the ZOMBIES can provide the competition ... albeit weak competition. I dived into the statistics from the past year and found that the ZOMBIES never had a game score above the SAFFL average. The SAFFL average score was a little over 300 points per game ... the ZOMBIES averaged about 200. The best ZOMBIE score was 297 ... the worst was 139. Looking at ZOMBIE roster scores (including those from later in the season when the original ZOMBIES roster was filled instead with discarded ineligible players), I found this distribution of scores: 293 257 247 240 227 214 211 185 182 182 160 155 144 139 So there is a chance that a regular SAFFL team could lose to the ZOMBIES, but it is a pretty small chance. Games against the ZOMBIES would count in the standings ... and it would provide some interest and incentive during what would have been a SAFFL team's dull bye week. Now a few other things need to be addressed to make this work. Upon completion of the draft, the ZOMBIES have 34 players on their roster ... 22 starters and 12 on the bench. How will it be decided who will be the ZOMBIE starters each week? Unless someone suggests a preferable method, the Commissioner will see that the ZOMBIES with the highest average score are the starters, given that they are also healthy and not on bye. In some cases there may be ZOMBIES with 'Q' (questionable) ratings or just coming off IR ... they will be benched if a healthy & active alternative ZOMBIE is available. I do not want to make judgment calls ... and the ZOMBIES are expected to lose anyway! I'll plan to to set ZoMBIE lineups before the Thursday night game each week, and leave it alone through the weekend. As you are all familiar with now, the players the ZOMBIES acquire during the draft are released en-masse during Halloween Week to the FA pool. In order to replace those freed ZOMBIES, immediately after ZOMBIE-fest and the ZOMBIE bids are resolved, I will collect the top 22 remaining available free agents and make them "2nd-generation ZOMBIES". These 22 ... all will be starters ... will continue on with matching up against SAFFL teams through the rest of the regular season. Since there will be only 22 "2nd-Gen" ZOMBIES, there will be no need for me to adjust the ZOMBIE lineup after Halloween. As noted by the MAD DOGS at the Owners' Meeting, the ZOMBIES are most likely to be strongest immediately after the draft, before injuries and byes chip away at their roster. Thus teams that would play the ZOMBIES earlier might have a tougher match-up. I took a look at the data ... and this early-season bias does seem to be present. So what I'll do for this season at least is schedule teams on a semi-random basis to play the ZOMBIES. The first four weeks, before NFL byes kick-in, the Final Four from last years playoffs will face the ZOMBIES. Weeks 5 thru 8, before ZOMBIE-Fest, the remaining playoff teams will get their ZOMBIE games. And then the rest of the season, last years' non-playoff teams will get their shot at that collection of 2nd-Gen ZOMBIES. Note: I will ensure that no SAFFL team's ZOMBIE match-up occurs the same week that their NFL affiliate is on bye. Whew ... but that leaves one question ... what happens to those 22 2nd-generation ZOMBIES? Read on ... ZOMBIE-Fest Part 2 ... Santa's Elves are Coming to Town ======================================================= The 22 free agents that will have been immediately collected after the Halloween ZOMBIE-Fest (to serve as the competing ZOMBIES team) are done with their task once the regular season ends. With playoff teams now set ... those teams will get a shot at the 22 players. Those 22 players ... 2nd-Gen ZOMBIES... I'll call the Elves for now ... will be released to the free agent pool and available for bids and pickup by playoff teams on Tuesday of the first round of the playoffs. Just like the Halloween ZOMBIE-Fest, these 'Elves' can be bid on just like any other free agent. I suspect not quite as exciting as ZOMBIE-Fest ... but Elves need jobs after Christmas! Minimum Bid Going Up – Only Part-Time? ====================================== The minimum bid to pickup a free agent has been $0. We've discussed the possibility of raising it over the past couple seasons, but always ran into the question of what does a team do if it runs out of $$$? At the Owners' Meeting, the Mad Commissioner suggested trying out a split-scheme: a $10 minimum bid thru ZOMBIE-fest, and then back down to $0 for the rest of the season. This would potentially help balance the FA acquisition process, when teams that don't join the early-season and weekly Tuesday rushes might have better opportunities to make player pickups. There seemed to be general positive reaction at the Owners' Meeting to this idea. So ... I will plan to go forward with this adjustment unless I hear some significant opposition to this idea over the next week. NOTE: Why is something like this adjustment (or scheduling the ZOMBIES) not put to formal league vote? One reason is that in some cases some league rules were made intentionally broad leaving latitude for season-to-season adjustments (and experiments). The other reason is that it takes a good amount of time for formulate, disseminate, meditate, and collate formal proposals and vote tallies. So in cases where changes appear minor, broadly beneficial, and have support out of the Owners' Meeting, I'll plan to move ahead with them ... barring later unexpected negative feedback. Please note: if any owner feels strongly enough against an un-voted change, they may call for a formal vote. I will then dutifully (and gladly) manage a formal voting proposal on the matter. Consolation Games ... Playing for Ping-Pong Balls? ================================================== As originally suggested by the REYNOLDS RANGERS, finding a way to make consolation games a bit more meaningful for non-playoff teams would be nice. The idea of providing extra lottery chances ... "ping-pong balls" ... to consolation game winners the following season had some support, but also some concerns. Because the Rulebook is very specific about how lottery chances are distributed, and given there previously was some opposition about this idea, it would require a league-wide formal vote and passage to take effect. Such a vote would not necessarily have to take place before the draft and the beginning of the season. Plus the exact number and distribution of extra lottery chance needs to be worked out. Over the next few weeks I will poll owners about this ... see if a clear majority comes together on an approach. And if it does, then put forward a formal voting proposal. Stay tuned! SAFFL Scaled Architecture ========================= Over the years SAFFL has varied in size from a minimum 14 teams to a maximum 18 teams. Right now we are at 15 teams. Every so often, SAFFL has had to 'resize' to accommodate incoming or departing owners. Some years adjustments to roster size, structure, or rules has been straightforward. Some years it has been a bit more complicated and even a little bit contentious. I've put in some thinking on how we could adjust SAFFL when the number of teams change without having to reinvent the wheel (and re-vote) in years when necessary. I'm not looking to make an official proposal this year ... just want to get the ideas circulating and feedback for a possible vote and adoption next year. Ok ... here's a short-form version of a 'SAFFL Scaled Architecture' plan in table form: Tot Roster Min Max Draft Tot Tot Teams Size Start Bench IR Keepers Affils Flex/DP Rounds Zombies Kept Rostered 12 40 22 18 2 26 8 4 14 40 312 480 13 38 22 16 2 24 7 4 14 38 312 494 14 36 22 14 2 22 6 4 14 36 308 504 * 15 34 22 12 2 20 5 4 14 34 300 510 * 16 32 22 10 2 18 4 3 14 32 288 512 17 30 22 8 2 16 3 2 14 30 272 510 18 28 22 6 2 14 2 1 14 28 252 504 19 26 22 4 2 12 1 0 14 26 228 494 20 24 22 2 2 10 0 0 14 24 200 480 Each row represents the size of SAFFL (in number of teams). The starred line is where we are at now ... 15 teams. Some explanation of column headers: Tot Teams ..... Number of actively owned and managed SAFFL teams. Roster Size ... Number of starter and bench slots on a team. Starters ...... Number of players counted in game scores each week. Bench ......... Number of players controlled but not counted in game scores. IR ............ Number of slots to temporarily stash severely injured players. Keepers ....... Exact number of players to be protected prior to draft. Min Affils .... Minimum number of NFL affiliate players prior to draft. Max Flex/DP ... Maximum number of these slots for use in protecting players. Draft Rounds .. Number of players per team selected during the draft. Zombies ....... Number of players drafted for later free agency release. Tot Kept ...... Sum of all players on all teams protected prior to draft. Tot Rostered .. Sum of all players on all teams rosters during the season. Here's are some additional 'architectural constraints': For all SAFFL league sizes, keepers must fit into available starter slots (when more that 22 keepers, extra keepers may be on the bench). The 'Max Flex/DP' is a new constraint the would help push top-quality players off pre-draft protection and into the draft pool. ZOMBIES would be captured during the draft by automated drafting teams, or immediately afterwards by the commissioner according to well-defined criteria. Now the above table shows one possible architecture that emphasizes constant total players on rosters and constant number of draft rounds, but with varying roster and bench sizes. We could change the emphasis ... for instance: Tot Roster Min Max Draft Tot Tot Teams Size Start Bench IR Keepers Affils Flex/DP Rounds Zombies Kept Rostered 12 34 22 12 2 20 8 4 14 40 240 408 13 34 22 12 2 20 7 4 14 38 260 442 14 34 22 12 2 20 6 4 14 36 280 476 * 15 34 22 12 2 20 5 4 14 34 300 510 * 16 34 22 12 2 18 4 3 16 32 288 544 17 34 22 12 2 16 3 2 18 30 272 578 18 34 22 12 2 14 2 1 20 28 252 612 19 34 22 12 2 12 1 0 22 26 228 646 20 34 22 12 2 10 0 0 24 24 200 680 Here the emphasis is on constant roster/bench size, but resulting in varying number of draft rounds and total protected players. There are multiple other variations that could be considered, along with adjustments to the exact quantities at each column/row intersection. Anyway ... if you have the time and interest, take a look, think about it, and please give me your comments. I want to be prepared for SAFFL size changes no matter which way it goes. There's a good chance we may need to make room for some new teams in the coming years. Hopefully all existing teams are good for at least a few more decades! Other Discussions ================= There were no major issues on the table for the Owners' Meeting, but we did take time to discuss several topics. They follow by sub-heading: --- Draft Pool Depth There is general agreement that draft pool depth was improved by the rule requiring that only players in starter slots could be protected. Perhaps position restrictions, as originally suggested by the RANGERS, could be an avenue to further enhance the top end of the draft pool. There is continued sentiment that additional ways to improve the draft pool quality be at the forefront as part of any structural changes in SAFFL. --- Playoff Handicaps The MAD DOGS registered there annual request (protest?) to eliminate any and all playoff handicaps. In the past, the REYNOLDS RANGERS were also staunch supporters of this position. In the original, pre-ESPN era of SAFFL, the high-variability of week-to-week scores made handicaps highly useful. But with the current reduced variability scoring system, handicaps have shown to have little effect, only changing the outcome of one playoff game over the past several seasons. As a compromise a few years ago, the Sparty Bowl championship was made a no handicap game. There is no plan for changes at this time to the handicap system, but it is something that will be continued to be monitored ... and acted upon if there is enough owner sentiment for change. --- NFL Evolution Noise continues to grow in NFL circles about moving to an 18-game, 20-week schedule in the not-too-distant future. SAFFL might be facing some adjustments as a result. Would the draft need to be before Labor Day? Could the Sparty Bowl avoid the last regular season week unpredictability of NFL teams resting players? There has been some concern over the past few seasons about how the NFL game has been changing and affects on positions. RBs being less valuable, LBs disappearing and turning into either DE 'edge-rushers' or CB 'nickle-backs'. At least for this past season, the trend seems to have stabilized. We'll see where things lead ... for now the roster structure we have in SAFFL seems to match up reasonably-well with the available player pool in the NFL. --- Proposal Process The Commissioner restated that if any owner wants to put a proposal up for league-wide vote, the Commissioner will manage and see the voting process through. At this time, no proposals are ready or in the works. Dealing with ESPN ================= NEW FEATURE ... upload your logo! ESPN now allows us to upload our team logos to our MyTeam pages. Simply hover your cursor over the current logo, click on 'Change', and you'll be prompted to upload from your own device (or pick a stock ESPN logo). To get the logo that SAFFL has stored for you, go to the affiliates page on our SAFFL web server: http://www.saffl.org/affiliates.htm Right-click, save your logo, and then go to your ESPN MyTeam page to upload it. If you'd like me to do it for you, I'm more than happy to, I would just have to momentarily make myself a co-owner of your team (there's no other way for me to have ESPN upload it on your behalf). And/or if you'd like some editing or updating of the SAFFL-stored logo ... I'm happy to assist. Just say the word ... Overall, The ESPN interface and setup look identical to previous years. In any case, please take the time early-on to log-in and make sure that your current browser version and/or ESPN app version are working smoothly with ESPN. Last year was a pretty good year using ESPN ... and we will do so once again. Final Results Rule (Reminder) ============================= It's the same as prior years ... I just want to restate it here so it's clear and to avoid any possible controversies: Game results are considered 'FINAL': - During the regular season weeks 1 thru 14, we will allow ESPN scoring corrections (they can run up thru the following Saturday) to affect SAFFL game results. So if you think you won a close one on Tuesday, it's possible you might find a sad surprise later in the week. - Beginning with week 15 and running through the Sparty Bowl (NFL week 18), SAFFL game results are considered final at 9:00am ET the day after the final NFL game of the weekend. That's scheduled to be Tuesdays weeks 15 thru 17, and Monday during week 18 (Sparty Bowl Weekend). FYI ... I've typically seen ESPN do scoring corrections on Thursdays, and they claim the right (!) to do corrections until Saturday. Scoring Model ============= I've been working thru the scoring model and taking a look at where adjustments are needed (and could be made). As mentioned previously, I am trying to limit game score inflation (due to a number of factors). For instance, it seems punters had an exceptionally high performance last year relative to other positions. Have punters gotten better? There will be some minor adjustment (punters for sure, possibly some other position). These adjustments will be reported in the upcoming SCOOP newsletter. Pre-draft Trading ================= Pre-draft trading of players AND draft picks may commence! I've got things setup now so you can easily make pre-draft trades that include picks, players, or both. Trades will be subject to the normal commissioner review (and league-wide review if needed to avoid controversy). There are some minor limitations: - No trading of future season (2026) picks until the draft is over. You can get around this by including 'future considerations' language in trades, but the future may only extend into next season. - For every pick traded away, one must be acquired. For instance, a team trading away its 1st rounder for 2nd and 3rd round picks, needs to 'throw-in' something like a 14th round pick to keep total picks equal for each team. ESPN won't enforce this, but if equal pick counts aren't traded, ESPN will randomly drop protected players from teams that have more than 14 picks. - Trades done during the draft must be done NBA-style. I have no way of making ESPN change pick ownership while the draft is executing. So teams will need to make an agreement that "Team A is picking here for Team B" and vice-versa. I can pause the live draft to log a trade (and remind owners if needed). And I can swap the appropriate players onto rosters immediately after the draft to close out the trade. - Trades can be made after players are protected and before the draft, but it may have to be done with manual intersession by me or NBA-style as above due to ESPN pick locking. Contact me if you wish to make a trade during this period an I will gladly assist. ESPN shows our first round draft picks in their first round, and so on. But you will see at the end of the draft ESPN showing all the protected players being 'drafted' after the 14th round. It's just the ESPN software way of keeping track of which players are on which team post-draft ... your protected players stay your protected players. The RIDGEBACKS and CATFISH have already swung a trade (see prior SCOOP) ... nothing else cooking in the rumor mill at the moment. Note: You will see massive pick-for-pick trades between teams coming this week... it's my workaround way of modifying ESPN's 'Snake Draft' style into our preferred round-robin style. ZOMBIES ======= The ZOMBIES -- players collected by the two special drafting-only teams -- and stashed by the league office to be bid on by all mid-season -- are still going strong. And now they'll have a new job as a semi-competitive team to keep us all on our toes! Halloween falls on a Friday this year ... a little bit of a twist for us. To help keep acquisition timing convenient for Thursday night football, we'll hold ZOMBIE-Fest a day early ... the day before Halloween. ZOMBIE players will be released to the free agent pool right after the Monday night game of Halloween week is completed (Oct. 27th). There will be no bidding or pickup of free agents on Tuesday or Wednesday of that week so that everyone has a chance to study and bid on ZOMBIES. Then at noon on Thursday (Oct. 30th) ZOMBIE bids (and all FA bids) will be resolved and we can collect our treats. FA Acquisitions =============== SAFFL teams will again start with $1000 in the ESPN controlled FA team budgets. Teams will be refunded 100% whatever they spend on FAs acquired from their NFL affiliate team. Teams also can receive 'Bonus Bucks' for making and/or completing trade proposals (see the Rulebook for details). All refunds & bonuses will be posted to team accounts on following Mondays. Remember, you can bid on any free agent six days a week (Mondays are off). Bids can be anywhere from a minimum of $10 pre-ZOMBIE-Fest, minimum of $0 thereafter... or up to your full team budget. Mad Commissioner ================ Looks like the Mad Commissioner made up this year for taking last year off. (Maybe last year was a good thing?) Well, let's see how these new ideas work out. Unless enshrined via a formal vote, scheduling ZOMBIE games, upping minimum bids, are all temporary ... they can easily be rescinded the following season. Remember the Arnolds? Nice concept ... but not much of a useful difference-maker. And, of course, if you have any 'Mad' ideas ... please pass them along! Wrap-Up ======= Draft is coming fast this year ... just two weeks to go .... Protected lists are due this coming Saturday ... NFL training camps are busy ... and we are getting ready! The Commissioner (Attached photo from center going counter-clockwise shows Sparty, new owner Silvia, husband Gabriel, Mr. MAD DOG, and the Commissioner).