Tentative Contraction Process

Here is my plan for contraction. We are at 14 teams and I think the league operates best with 11-12 teams. That means we will need to contract 2-3 teams at some point to reach that number. Here is what I'm thinking: We will draft. We will definitely contract at least 2 teams (one at a time), but it will not be scheduled.

I think this could play out two ways:

1. Someone always seems to contract themselves through missing the draft, not participating in discussion, not responding to trade offers, not seeking to make any moves, or just being a general disruption to everyone else in the league. If I feel or there is a general feeling that this is occuring, I will take a vote of the Veteran's Committee on whether to have a contraction. I will then take votes from the Veteran's Committee on who to contract if the committee has voted (at least 5 out of 9 votes) to contract.

2. If we reach December 1st and we are still over 12 teams, the Veteran's Committee will vote on whether to have a contraction and who to contract. I have a feeling a couple of teams will have weeded themselves out by December 1st, but we'll see.

If we get to December 1st and we have 12 teams, we will roll with what we have unless the league deems that someone else is worthy of being contracted for some grievous offense.

This is my plan, but I would like to do two things before we set that in stone.

1. I would like any feedback or suggestions any of you guys may have.

2. I will finalize this process after the draft. The draft may give us some further insight into how our newbie class may fare here.

For the newbies, you basically need to hit the ground running after the draft. Participate in discussions, be involved in trade activity and do whatever you can to improve your team. If you do that, you stand a decent chance of survival. Like I've said earlier, 2-3 newbies usually survive their first season in this league. We've all been there, and being a vet in this league is a lot of fun.