A New Plan for Filling Leagues

Random musings:

First come first served means that Leagues 1-2 are filled with the same 24 guys time and again. They are usually veteran players who draft early and enthusiastically. As one of those 24, I found it completely discouraging to have to play against the same hard core veterans while watching other vets quietly shop for soft leagues filled with newer players.

Regarding league assignments, part of what has happened I think is that the "letter" of the law has slowly morphed into the "spirit" of the law. If you missed your league assignment, you should be out, period. Now it seems, things are a little more accommodating and the tough love aspect has been removed. The deadlines aren't taken seriously, because now you get put into another league (I recognize the leagues are often hard to fill as it is and so it's an easy fix).

One possible solution might be this:

Seven and only seven leagues open on Friday night. You can join any league you wish at any time until the leagues are full. So basically, the first 84 players to join are in and that's it. Doors are closed after. No "second chance league" the following week. No additional league for additional interest.

Hard deadline, ample opportunity, flexible league assignments. You might want to shop to close out a league last, but you risk getting beaten to the punch and missing out completely. It rewards the people who play enthusiastically and punishes the slow movers (although I concede that net will also gather a few well meaning players with legitimate one time issues).

IMO, we simply have to get away from this gentlemanly desire to make this work equally well for everyone. Game time is Friday at 7:30pm. But if we say 7:45pm is really not that much different, before long we get to Game time is Tuesday at 10:00am to accommodate a slew of personal preferences. That, to me, seems unreasonably unwieldy. Dropping one league is designed to accommodate those few one-time situations. We should use that and make people join leagues with at least a small sense of urgency. And when player 85 misses out, the answer should be "tough luck, player 85" and not "let's see if we can get another 11 together for you next week".

PS: I picked seven leagues randomly based on previous tour experience. I have no problem considering arguments for five, ten or 25 available leagues. Again, these are my random musings and nothing more.

J-Pav's solution is basically what I meant, and agree the key is the hard deadlines.

For Barnstormers, the commish creates half a dozen leagues to start, then adds more as needed, but only until the deadline. Also a single "late" league signup for those who need/want to start the following week. But, if you miss the deadline, you miss the event.

Has worked well for years, everybody knows (or quickly learns the hard way) it's their responsibility to load in time or miss out. As others have noted, seems like not too much to ask of anybody serious about participating.

The single late league, and dropping low score, also allow some flexibility for managers with legitimate one-time issues.