August 23, 1998

Just because it's a problem doesn't mean it's bad.

The growth of and interest shown in the Online Authority of Fantasy Sports has created a renewed spirt in the league members as we enter our second full season. The waiting lists are growing by the day and participation levels are high among current members.

As you can see on our homepage, we're getting ready for a true experiment in the Ten States Fantasy Football League. We expanded to 16 teams for this season and while the spirit of competition should be raised to a new level, the overall opinion is that we've diluted the NFL talent pool a little too much.

It should certainly make for an interesting season and I for one am anxious to see how league members will deal with the increased level of competition. On the other hand, we're here to do what is best for the organization and its members.

The worst problem we've faced in football this year, though, may be that we've had to leave some prospective league members with no team to call their own.

But, alas, the answer appears.

Everyone I've talked to would be happy with a 12-team league, so that's likely where we're headed next year. And what to do with the four additional existing teams and possible expansion franchises?

Mike (Tennis 128) came up with an idea several weeks ago to deal with this problem. It was a little fuzzy at first, but the more we've talked about it, the clearer the picture has become. Basically, this is how it'll work:

We will set up a system to determine which four teams from this year's 16-team league will be given the heave-ho to leave us with a 12-team league. The most likely scenario for this is to take the four worst overall records from this year's league (using total points scored to break ties) and send those teams to our Rookie League. They will be joined there by any new franchises we get, up to a maximum of 12 total teams in the league.

Both leagues will use the same exact rules and scoring system but will run as a completely separate league. At the end of the first year with the new system, we'll drop the bottom four teams from the upper division (Pro League) into the Rookie League by using the system mentioned earlier. The top four teams (most likely the four playoff teams) in the Rookie League will replace those teams the next season in the Pro League.

Confused enough now?

There are still a few wrinkles to work out, but we have almost a year to work on it.

Because the same format could work it other sports where we're needing to expand because of increasing interest, it will solve the biggest problem our organization has: where to put all the new league members who are showing interest in joining the best fantasy sports organization on the internet.

More news on all this later.

Good luck in your league,

Rick

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