Fantasy Football Court is in session: Settling a league dispute

The following is an excerpt from the latest edition of Yahoo's fantasy football newsletter, Get to the Points! If you like what you see, you can subscribe for free here.

As a well-respected and impeccably attired arbiter of fantasy disputes, I'll periodically resolve conflicts for Yahoo managers in our newsletter. Let's call Fantasy Court into session and consider this thorny matter presented by a user on X:

"No rule against tanking in the guidelines — team tanked to 1.01. (It wasn't a great team tbh lol.)

Commish said the team had to forfeit their first rounder because tanking isn't fair. [The] team had proof it made zero difference on the playoff picture. No go. Owner left."

This league is clearly crying out for a last-place punishment, or some other disincentive to tank. If no one in the league wants to risk spending 24 hours in a sketchy chain restaurant, fine. Various other punishments and financial penalties are available. In several of my leagues, the last-place manager pays a larger buy-in.

If a commissioner’s rules actively encourage tanking by rewarding the last-place finisher with the following year’s 1.01, then it’s inevitable that any team with a 2-6 record is gonna try to get to 2-10. That’s just good fantasy business. If the commish is philosophically opposed to tanking, they can institute a draft lottery, or simply award the next season’s top pick to the non-playoff team with the best record, not the worst. Also, they should have rules in place requiring managers to set full lineups each week.

Incredibly enough, the group involved in this kerfuffle happens to be a dynasty league — these folks are playing a format in which different teams are operating on different timelines. For years, managers have surely been trading players for future picks. That’s how it’s supposed to work. In this particular case, the tanker was simply being pragmatic and operating well within league rules.

If this fake court was actually empowered to impose league changes, we would direct the commissioner of this group to do the following:

Reinvite the aggrieved tanker in 2025, with a preferred draft slot;

Immediately institute either a draft lottery for future seasons, or another procedure preventing last-place finishers from automatically earning the top pick;

Initiate a league-wide discussion on last-place punishments and/or financial penalties.

*Bangs gavel*

Have a league dispute? Email us the conflict and it could be the subject of the next session of Fantasy Court.