In our league all business from the previous year must be settled before the new year begins. If there are debts, those must be paid before the new year can begin. As a league, where we fall short is in the collection of those debts. Ideally, the treasurer collects dues at the beginning of the season and disburses that money to the winners(s) at the end of the season. In actuality, the winner(s) own the responsibility for collecting their winnings. Worst case scenario, they must wait until the next year's draft to collect. But as far as I know, it never goes any farther than that. If you don't pay for last year, you shouldn't be allowed to play this year. Certainly, no one can argue with that logic.

If dues aren't collected at the beginning of the year, then ideally, the treasurer determines who pays who, and keeps tracks of those payments after the season is over. In actuality, when their are multiple winners, they have typically figured out who pays who amongst themselves. As far as I know, that has worked out for the most part. I haven't heard of anyone not paying. We're all friends, right?

Regardless of who is responsible for collecting debts, the key tenet is that all debts must be settled before a new year begins. If those debts are not settled, they cannot carry over to the next but instead MUST become null. It is unfair and unsustainable to saddle future winners with past debts. Not paying this year's dues because you weren't paid for last year is a violation of that rule.

To ensure this issue no longer occurs we have two options:

• Require that everyone pays in full for the upcoming year on or before the draft.
• Require that the treasurer assign and track payments after the season is over. The treasurer is responsible for the collection of those debts.

Asking winners to fend for themselves is not an option.

Your feedback is appreciated.

A couple of rule changes were enacted last night:

• Dues have been changed to $125 per person.
• Playoffs now start Week 15, and the trade deadline is just before Week 15 begins.
• Head to Head gets an extra game due to the lengthened season (18 games). Your Week 18 opponent will be the same as your Week 1 opponent.
• Waiver process is going back to pre-pandemic system with one difference: We're moving the first waiver from Week 4 to Week 3 and adding a 7th waiver. The waiver schedule for the upcoming season looks like this:
  1. Sep 20 (Week 3)
  2. Oct 4 (Week 5)
  3. Oct 18 (Week 7)
  4. Nov 1 (Week 9)
  5. Nov 15 (Week 11)
  6. Nov 29 (Week 13)
  7. Dec 13 (Week 15)

You can use PayPal or Venmo to pay Dave Hess.

The total pot was $1000. Remember, you can't draft this year until you settle all your business from last year.

Here are payment standings so far:

• Hunt: Owes $100 to Dave
• CNN: Paid $75 to Dave, paid $25 to Matt
• Claude: Paid $100 to Matt
• Dean: Paid $100 to Dave
• Adam: Paid $100 to Dave
• Edward: Paid $100 to Dave
• Jon: Paid $100 to Matt
• Gordy: Paid $100 to Dave
• Rob: Paid $100 to Dave
• George: Paid $75 to Dave, paid $25 to Matt

Congratulations to Dave Hess, this year's points champion.

Congratulations to Snowballers, this year's playoff champion.

Congratulations to Dave Hess, this year's head to head champion.

The points are in Google Sheets. Here's the link:

Fantasy Playoffs

1. Abusement Park 572 points: First two picks (Alvin Kamara, Tyreek Hill) were top 3 at their respective positions. Hits on DK Metcalf and David Montgomery in rounds 6 & 7 enabled position leading totals at RB and WR (1st in RB and WR points), overcoming middling QB production. Highest scoring season in league history.
   
   
2. Snowballers 528 points: Other than Dalvin Cook he had a terrible draft for offensive players (Chris Godwin in round 2, Le'Veon Bell in round 3, and Odell Beckham Jr. in round 4). Went from last place to third from weeks 7 to 13 by making shrewd trades (Aaron Rodgers for Kareem Hunt) and great waiver pickups (Justin Jefferson and Brandon Aiyuk) that turned the season around. Well played... comeback of the year.
   
   
3. US Americans 524 points: A rock solid team that could have won had Christian McCaffrey stayed healthy. Josh Allen was the waiver pickup of the year. Travis Kelce had the greatest season ever by a tight end. Probably should have traded Deshaun Watson to improve at RB and get the win.
   
   
4. Whiskey Rebellion 475 points: Waited on QB in the draft and it hurt him all year. Unloading Michael Thomas for Tom Brady helped a little (thanks, Claude). Calvin Ridley was awesome but had no compliment. James Robinson was runner-up waiver wire pick of the year, finishing 5th at RB. Nick Chubb missing 5 games didn't help.
   
   
5. Superbowl Bound 473 points: Receivers DeAndre Hopkins, Keenan Allen and Terry McLaurin were awesome and Kyler Murray was insane (though he faded a bit at the end). Austin Ekeler got hurt and he never found a replacement better than Ronald Jones, finishing second to last in RB points. Grabbed Younghoe Koo on the waiver wire, who scored 4 points a game, which was a nice bonus.
   
   
6. Mangina 463 points: Abysmal draft salvaged by pickup of Justin Herbert and trade for Derrick Henry and Antonio Gibson, helping him finish #2 in RB points. Terrible receivers headlined by bust Kenny Golladay, a third-round pick that scored just 18 points then disappeared with a mysterious injury. Made a lot of trades (surprise!), most of the negligible variety, but fleeced Adam for Henry and Gibson by giving up Aaron Jones (who promptly got hurt). There was a 40+ point differential in that trade.
   
   
7. Brighton Bruisers 451 points: Waited on a QB in the draft and never found one. Drafted Derrick Henry and Davante Adams to start the draft, an incredible one-two punch, and traded them away in an elusive search for a better QB. Started with Matthew Stafford and Ryan Tannehill, traded for and started Philip Rivers, Matt Ryan and Ben Roethlisberger. Finished 11th in QB points, 10th at RB and 6th at WR. Probably would have finished much higher if he hadn't made any trades at all, as his draft was solid.
   
   
8. Golden Shower 446 points: Patrick Mahomes was awesome and he finished 1st in QB points. Josh Jacobs was solid but middling. Leonard Fournette in round 3 was a bust. Tyler Lockett and Cooper Kupp were okay but inconsistent at WR and he finished 10th at the position. Gave up Aaron Rodgers for Kareem Hunt, which helped, but he might have gotten a better deal with a little salesmanship. There were a few teams looking for QB help this year that gave up more (see Brighton Bruisers, Glory Holes and Whiskey Rebellion).
   
   
9. Glory Holes 446 points: Injuries to Saquon Barkley and Dak Prescott killed the season. Started 8 different QBs this year and somehow finished 10th at the position, which is truly a miracle. Jonathan Taylor was a nice pick, but his next best RB was Curtis Samuel who got him 19 points. Stefon Diggs was the steal of the draft in round 7.
   
   
10. Sactown Shrimpers 443 points: Drafted Miles Sanders and Amari Cooper in rounds 2 and 3, and they were okay but not great. Lamar Jackson at pick 3 was brutal, as he only got 55 points out of him (out of 80 possible). Raheem Mostert started nicely but missed 7 games and then returned to a platoon, killing his value (at one point he owned 3 San Fran RBs). Darren Waller had an incedible season but he missed two of his best games, Bad picks in the middle rounds (T.Y. Hilton, Jarvis Landry) made recovery impossible.
    
    
11. Stumps 418 points: Injuries to Julio Jones, Joe Mixon and George Kittle sank the season. Todd Gurley II was a bust in round 3. Russell Wilson was an awesome pick in the 4th round and was the highest scoring player in the first half of the season, but faded in the second half. Cutting Younghoe Koo, the second best kicker with 59 points, was a mistake. Only 9 waiver pickups on the season and just one trade, and there was help out there on the waiver wire.
    
    
12. Team Smooth 373 points: First five draft picks were a mixed bag, but none were hits. Ezekiel Elliott went in the tank after Dak got hurt. Mike Evans was solid but mostly mediocre for a 2nd round pick. Chris Carson was doing great early but got hurt, missed 4 games and wasn't quite the same when he came back. JuJu Smith-Schuster was barely startable. He gave up Tom Brady for Michael Thomas which sank both positions, finishing 12th at QB and 11th at WR. Started Thomas 6 times, got 21 points, and he was still his 6th highest scoring player. Taking Carson Wentz and Zach Ertz in rounds 6 & 7 really hurt, as both were unproductive and unstartable. If you bust on your high draft picks, you gotta make it up later in the draft or you're sunk. He was. Can you say Human Centipede?

The playoffs begin in week 14. Due to Covid-19, we changed the seeding formula to be based on points scored rather than head to head record, making the seeding pretty straightforward:

The regular season tiebreaker for the waiver wire was total points scored last year. However, for the playoffs we going to use a coin flip instead. If we have any ties we're going to have a Zoom call where we'll flip a coin to determine the winner. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

1. Abusement Park: 429 points
2. US Americans: 400 points
3. Snowballers: 383 points
4. Whiskey Rebellion: 374 points
5. Superbowl Bound: 370 points
6. Mangina: 358 points
7. Brighton Bruisers: 343 points
8. Golden Shower: 342 points
9. Stumps: 329 points
10. Glory Holes: 315 points
11. Sactown Shrimpers: 307 points
12. Team Smooth: 295 points