Rationale:
Non-QBs can earn up to 8 points via yardage bonuses. QBs deserve to get at least 7 points if they can gain 400-plus yards, which is as impressive in its own right as a non-QB getting 200-plus yards.

SUBJECT: Penalize Draft Dodgers
SUBMITTED BY: The Weathermen

COMMENTS:
Owners that do not show up for the draft in person must use their first-round and third-round picks on a kicker and a defense. The following excuses will be tolerated for not showing up: major family crisis, major job crisis.

Rationale:
The draft is the only event all year TFFL owners are asked to attend. It is scheduled at least a month in advance. Owners have driven from other states and even flown in from other states to make the draft. It is not too much to ask of an owner to attend if they really want to play. An absent owner slows down the draft process and forces conflict of interest problems for other owners. If an owner decides not to attend the draft, he should be "fined" and forcing him to use his first and third picks on a kicker and a defense seems a fair penalty.

COMMENTS FROM THE JAYHAWKS:
While I wish everyone would always show up for drafts, I can't agree on this point. What makes for a major family crisis? Take last year's situation with Wayne. If he doesn't follow his wife's orders and accompany her to wherever, that's hell to pay for him. ... At any rate, we shouldn't subject out-of-state owners to this rule if it does pass.

SUBJECT: Bonus Points for Defenses
SUBMITTED BY: Jellypop Fighters

COMMENTS:
I don't think we give defenses enough of a chance to make points. After all, if half the game is pitching and defense, and other 90 percent is mental, and it takes defense to win championships, or something like that, we should reward defenses more. So I propose that any team whose defense gives up 200 yards or fewer in a game gets an additional 2 bonus points. Also, any team that holds its opponent to 10 points or fewer also gets an additional 2 bonus points. Not enough to shake up the world, mind you, but another way to reward a solid defensive effort.

COMMENTS FROM THE JAYHAWKS:
Defense doesn't win championships in TFFL, offense does. Defenses already score enough in my opinion -- a really good one can place top 10 in the scoring leaders. What if your defense holds the Bengals under 200 yards? Do you really deserve two points for that? What if your defense gives up nine points, and loses? Is that deserving of two points?

SUBJECT: Increase Entry Fee to $20
SUBMITTED BY: Jellypop Fighters

COMMENTS:
I think it's time to up the ante to $20 a person. This league must keep up with inflation, or else the player's union (what little there is left of it) will sue us for conspiring to keep revenues down. As far as I can tell by searching through the league archives, we've had a $15 entry fee for at least the last five years.

COMMENTS FROM THE JAYHAWKS:
It's true, our entry fee has been $15 for every season except the first and is low compared to most leagues. However, the fact that we charge for free agent pickups, plus have weekly winners, tends to offset the low entry price tag and gives the kitty a respectable total for final awards payouts. Just something to consider.

SUBJECT: Monday Night Mulligans
SUBMITTED BY: Jellypop Fighters

COMMENTS:
How many times has it happened? One of your bench players goes nuts, and you spend the next six days kicking yourself. Then, of course, you put him in the starting lineup for the next game, and he drops every ball thrown his way. I propose that each team be allowed one Monday Night Mulligan. It would work like this: Say you have a bench player who goes nuts on Sunday. If you have a starter who is in the Monday night game and he plays the same position as the bench player who went nuts, you can swap the bench player for your Monday night starter as long as you notify the commissioner by noon on Monday.

Your roster would still have to meet the league requirements. In other words, you couldn't swap a TE for an RB. However, you could swap an RB for a WR (or vice versa) if that player was in your wild-card spot. You would also have to pay a $2 transaction fee. Each franchise would be allowed only one of these per season, and you could not use it in the playoffs.

COMMENTS FROM THE JAYHAWKS:
Yes, it's frustrating when a player you don't start has a great week, but you can't change your lineup after the fact. It's just wrong. Bad calls are part of the game, and you just have to live with it. If a quarterback throws an interception, he can't walk up to the ref, hand him $2, and request to have the ball back (unless it's a Tar Heels QB). This is TFFL's equivalent. ... Plus, the $2 is like paying for points. I don't like it. It's very George Steinbrennerish. It's also not fair to your head-2-head opponent. I could go on -- there are lots of reasons to vote against this change, and I implore everyone to do so when it appears on the ballot.

SUBJECT: Using Records for Playoff Seeding
SUBMITTED BY: The Berserkers

COMMENTS:
I propose that we use head-2-head records for playoff seeding, using total points as the tie-breaker instead of vice-versa -- the way it is now.

My record going into the playoffs was 7-5-1. There were only three other teams in the league that had seven wins, yet I missed the playoffs. Seems this might be one place where we could assign some meaning to the head-2-head matchups, as they don't seem to have much other meaning.

COMMENTS FROM THE JAYHAWKS:
Head-2-Head matchups aren't totally meaningless now -- the winner receives a five-point bonus. Still, this would give matchups a larger role, and give the division cellar-dwellars a better reason to stay interested.

SUBJECT: Keeper League
SUBMITTED BY: The Berserkers

COMMENTS:
Pasted from last year's page to save everyone time ...

We need TFFL to be a keeper league. We would have to redraft complete teams next year, just like we did this year, but after that we would keep 3 players before the draft in 2003. This would do a few things:
1) Reward guys who draft well (although, just because you've got a good team this year doesn't guarantee a good year next)
2) Allows, even encourages trading activity during the off-season. A team that doesn't feel that they have 3 people that they want to keep can trade a draft pick or beaver pelts for a keepable player
3) Gives your team a consistent feel. Now, I don't have to keep drafting Jake Plummer, I can just keep him until he sets the record for most career interceptions!
4) Shorten the draft tremendously. If we only had 15 rounds instead of 18 and had the shorter time limits that the later rounds have, we might only have time to order pizza once, instead of having to call Gumby's in the 14th round because they are the only place that's open.

SUBJECT: Trade Protest Process
SUBMITTED BY: The Jayhawks

COMMENTS:
As of now, we currently rely on our fellow owners to keep the trade scene honest. However, I recognize not everyone views all trades as fair, so I think we should have an official trade protest system in place.

How it would work: Once informed of a trade, the Commish would post the trade as pending on the Web site and send out an e-mail notification to all owners. Each owner would then have 24 hours to reply to the notification with a protest. If three or more owners protest the deal within the 24-hour window, the league office will reject it. If two or fewer protests are filed, the trade becomes official.

I think three protests are the right number (three of eight possible protests is a little more than 1/3 of the league). That should weed out lopsided deals, while allowing anything borderline to go through. If, by the unlikeliest of chances, three teams are involved in one single deal (what? a three-way?), the number of protests required would drop to two (since there is one less potential protest).