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Originally Posted by Philadelphia Freedom
I gotta be honest I think this is totally opposite what would happen. In order to be part of the toilet bowl series you have to qualify as a bad team (ie less competitive). If my team is 5-5 after ten weeks and I still have a shot at the playoffs (for winners not the toilet bowl) I am trying hard to get into the mix. If my team is 4-6 I might be more tempted (which seems to the issue we are trying to counter) to get less competitive to increase my chance at a better draft pick.
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Let me toss out an idea that would deal with that. If we had a 6 team playoff, then put the other 6 teams in the toilet playoffs. Anyone on the edge will always try to make the real playoffs; no one would tank just to make it into the toilet playoffs.
Then, to increase the odds of the worst teams getting the best picks (the intent of draft picks), give the bottom two teams a bye week. So for 2007, the two 3-10 teams would get a bye. The three 5-8 teams and the 6-7 team would battle it out the first week and the two winners face the two worst teams. The better teams would have to win 3 times to get the top pick, the worse teams would only have to win twice.
Of course, the 3rd worst team could always tank to try and become the 2nd worst team. Maybe there's a "tanking" incentive in any system we come up with that awards draft picks (which is why the "win-back" weeks in a pay league work so well, whether in a draft pick league or not). Even in a lottery, there's incentive to tank to increase your number of "balls in the hopper".
With 12 teams playing into the final weeks of the season, that means everyone is still trying to forge a better team and will be in the hunt for free agents (which is the higher standard Brian is trying to make incentives for). As it is now, at 5-8, even though I'm trying to win each week and I'd make a free agent acquistion if a real prime one was out there, I'm unlikely to make a move, because there's little upside (win a meaningless game), but plenty of downside (I'd have to cut someone I intend to hold for next year or for the RFA period; I'd have to pay on my next year's cap when I cut someone to make room).