[USML Announce] USML - FAAB bidding

Sat Mar 29 08:21:35 EDT 2008

I have a couple of questions. ?First, are we going to adopt a constitutional amendment or some kind of temporary rule to accommodate the differences between this process and our constitution? ?I think we should, if only to clarify how we're proceeding. ?Here's my proposal for an appropriate proviso: ?Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Commissioners shall be authorized to adopt a FAAB bidding process consistent with the system constraints of any statistical service used by the League, upon reasonable notice to the League.

Second, it appears this has a FAAB priority for breaking ties different from what's in or rules--based on prior purchases rather than standings. ?Is that what we're following? ?I think I got that impression from some earlier e-mails that are no longer in my box. ?I'd say that's no big deal since FAAB ties are relatively rare and not likely to be "outcome determinative" as Jeffrey would say.

Third, this seems to imply that a specific "drop" must be associated with any FAAB, rather than being able to drop a series of players in priority order. ?Seems like a dopey way to set up the system and one we should over-ride if we can do so without excessive pain to the commissioners, but if we're stuck with it, we're stuck with it.

Fourth, I'm assuming we are still using the "one dollar above the next highest bid" system. ?I didn't see any e-mails to the contrary, and that's a pretty major feature of our current system. ?It significantly affects bids. ?So, that remains per the constitution, right?

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Blocker, Mark B. <mblocker at Sidley.com>
To: announce at usml.net
Sent: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 9:35 am
Subject: [USML Announce] USML - FAAB bidding

This is straight from the website, which no one bothers to read:

What is FAAB (Free Agent Acquisition Budget)?

Answer 

FAAB stands for Free Agent Acquisition Budget. Every add/drop is granted via a blind, bidding system that is processed automatically. Each time an owner has an add/drop processed, they will be placed at the bottom of the FAAB order. If there is a tie for a player, the FAAB order is used; the owner that is higher in the list will receive the player and be moved to the bottom.

You can also select the Commissioner FAAB approval process. Free agents are still picked up via a blind, bidding system, but it is processed by the commissioner and not automatically. The Commissioner will go to the Transactions Request page to process the winning bids.

If you select to use either of the two available FAAB options, each owner will go to the My Team/Add-drop page and select the players to be added and dropped then a bid is entered. The team with the highest bid for that player will be awarded the player and the bid value subtracted from their budget.

Example #1

Team #1 as listed in the FAAB order inputs a request for three players:

Player "a" bid of $15

Player "c" bid of $10

Player "b" bid of $1

Team # 8 as listed in the FAAB order inputs a request for three players:

Player "a" bid of $25

Player "c" bid of $10

Player "b" bid of $1

The system looks for the player that has the highest overall bid placed on him. In this case, player A would be the first player auctioned. The system would then search through every bid submitted for Player A. The team with the highest bid for Player A would win that player. In this example, team 8 would be awarded Player A.

The FAAB process will continue in this manner. The system will seek out the player that has the highest overall bid for him. Player C will be the next player auctioned. If there are 2 equal bids for the same player (c), the system will award the player to the team that is highest on the FAAB order. For Example, player C will be auctioned second and awarded to Team #1 because they were ahead of Team #8 in the FAAB order (remember Team #8 would be at the bottom of the FAAB order because the won the previous auction.)

Finally, player (b) will be auctioned last and awarded to Team #8 because they are higher on the FAAB order (Team #1 was dropped to the bottom of the FAAB order because the won the previous auction).

Please note: If a team is dropping the same player for multiple bids and that team wins a bid all subsequent bids involving "same" dropped player become invalid.

Example #2

FAAB Budget is $100

The remaining budgets for the bidding teams are as follows:

John's Team $55

Sam's Team $80

Joe's Team $40

Larry's Team $65

John is listed #1 in the FAAB order and his FAAB bids are:

Player A bid of $30 dropping Player X

Player F bid of $30 dropping Player Y

Sam is listed #3 in the FAAB order and his FAAB bids are:

Player B bid of $20 dropping Player M

Player C bid of $15 dropping Player M

Player D bid of $5 dropping Player O

Joe is listed #4 in the FAAB order and his FAAB bids are:

Player C bid of $10 dropping Player R

Player E bid of $10 dropping Player R

Larry is listed #7 in the FAAB order and his FAAB bids are:

Player F bid of $5 dropping Player T

Player D bid of $5 dropping Player V

The first player to be auctioned is Player A for $30. Player A is auctioned first because $30 is the highest overall bid. John has Player A prioritized as his first bid. John wins the bid for Player A for $30. John drops to the bottom of the FAAB order and $30 is subtracted from his FAAB budget.

Player F would not be auctioned at this time because John's $30 bid would exceed his FAAB budget.

The second player to be auctioned is Player B. Sam wins the bid for Player B with a bid of $20. Sam drops to the bottom of the FAAB order and $20 is subtracted from his FAAB budget.

The third player to be auctioned is Player C for $10 (Sam's bid of $15 became invalid when Sam dropped Player M to claim Player B). Joe wins the bid for Player C with a bid of $10. Joe drops to the bottom of the FAAB order and $10 is subtracted from his FAAB budget.

The Fourth player to be auctioned is Player F for $5. Player F is auctioned next for 2 reasons:

1)Larry is higher in the FAAB order because Sam dropped below Larry with a successful bid earlier in the bidding process. Since Larry is higher in the FAAB order, his bid (Player F for $5) will be auctioned before Sam's bid (Player D for $5).

2)Larry has prioritized his bid of Player F over Player D.

Larry wins the bid for Player F for $5. As stated previously, John's $30 bid for Player F was invalid because his bid would have exceeded his FAAB budget.

The last player to be auctioned is Player D. Both Larry and Sam have equal bids of $5 for Player D. Sam wins the bid for Player D because he is higher in the FAAB order. John had dropped to the bottom of the FAAB order by winning his previous bid. Sam drops to the bottom of the FAAB order and $5 is subtracted from his FAAB budget.

Player E is not auctioned because Joe no longer has Player R to drop and there aren't any other bids for Player E. If Joe had a different player to drop Player E would have been auctioned.

Sidley Austin LLP mail server made the following annotations on 03/25/08, 09:31:12:
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