This league will begin with a twelve round draft, no salary cap.

After the draft you designate three players as seniors, three players as juniors, three players as sophomores, and three players as freshmen.

For your three seniors you choose one season and use that season on your team. At the end of Season One these players go back into the draft pool and are eligible to be drafted as freshmen.

For your three juniors you will use two consecutive seasons for these players. After Season One they become seniors, after Season Two they graduate and go back into the draft pool.

For your three sophomores you will use three consecutive seasons. They will go from sophomores to juniors to seniors and then back into the eligible draft pool.

For your three freshmen you will be able to use them for four consecutive seasons. There is no cherry picking seasons for any player on your team. After Season Four is played these players will “graduate” and then go Back to School, becoming eligible to go back into the draft pool and do it all over again.

The initial draft will be ABBAABBAABBA, or what I like to call the triple ABBA format. The only trades allowed will be if you want to trade your whole draft position.

After the initial draft, the subsequent drafts will be a three round draft starting with the worst record, so if anyone has a bad season they will have the #1 pick and have a chance to turn their team around. The first 22 slots will go from worst record to best record. Slot 23 will be the league runner up. Slot 24 will be the league champion. Any ties will be broken using point differential, with the lower differential team drafting ahead of the higher differential team.

If I have left something out or if you have any questions please let me know or ask away.

In

I don’t call this the ABBA draft format.

THIS IS THE TAKE A CHANCE ON ME DRAFT FORMAT.

in!

I'll give it a shot.

So, other than the first season, once you draft a player you have to keep him for all 4 seasons, right?

So in every season after the first one you keep the 9 underclassmen and your 3 seniors leave and go back into the draft.

I assume that after the first season that teams can draft other available players aside from the 72 graduates from the prior season.

You say there is no cherry picking seasons, but actually in season 1 you'll be cherry picking seasons for your 3 seniors since you only have them for the one season.

Please explain what this means exactly:

The only trades allowed will be if you want to trade your whole draft position.

Does that mean just for the initial draft?

For the initial draft, when you draft a player, are you required to take their rookie season?

As a long time progressive player, you may find that some owners won't love your draft rules once the seasons start. Every progressive I've been in has a lottery of some kind with anti tanking. I'm fine with it as is, especially given the class structure should provide for an ample draft class. But something to consider if you have a hard time filling.

Posted by jcred5 on 7/21/2026 11:11:00 PM (view original):
As a long time progressive player, you may find that some owners won't love your draft rules once the seasons start. Every progressive I've been in has a lottery of some kind with anti tanking. I'm fine with it as is, especially given the class structure should provide for an ample draft class. But something to consider if you have a hard time filling.

I don't like the lottery thing because if you really are among the 3 worst teams and you end up with the 10th pick then you also pick 10th in the other rounds too. Why should teams who don't tank get penalized because of the chance that some other team might try to tank?

Posted by jcred5 on 7/21/2026 11:06:00 PM (view original):
For the initial draft, when you draft a player, are you required to take their rookie season?

Not as I read it. Looks like you get to pick the 4 consecutive seasons that you will use.

Posted by savoybg on 7/21/2026 10:39:00 PM (view original):
So, other than the first season, once you draft a player you have to keep him for all 4 seasons, right?

So in every season after the first one you keep the 9 underclassmen and your 3 seniors leave and go back into the draft.

I assume that after the first season that teams can draft other available players aside from the 72 graduates from the prior season.

You say there is no cherry picking seasons, but actually in season 1 you'll be cherry picking seasons for your 3 seniors since you only have them for the one season.

Please explain what this means exactly:

The only trades allowed will be if you want to trade your whole draft position.

Does that mean just for the initial draft?

Yes, after the first draft we will be drafting freshmen, who you will keep for four consecutive seasons.

Correct, you will keep nine players and replace your three graduating seniors with three freshmen.

Yes, anyone with four consecutive seasons will be eligible for the rookie draft. I would assume we will get a lot of new players in the first rookie draft since some of the seniors will be players who had one outstanding season.

True, we will be finding three players who have one very good season to be our seniors.

In the initial draft the slots will be determined at random. If you don’t like where you are you can trade all 12 picks to someone else for their 12 picks. There will be no trades allowed like my first and fourth for your second and third.

Trades (fair trades) will be allowed in rookie drafts, but everyone has to end up with three draft picks.

Posted by jcred5 on 7/21/2026 11:06:00 PM (view original):
For the initial draft, when you draft a player, are you required to take their rookie season?

Nope. If you want to draft Steph Curry and use 14-15 thru 17-18 go for it.

You can not do something like LeBron James 08-09, 12-13, 13-14 and 17-18. You must use four consecutive seasons.

Posted by jcred5 on 7/21/2026 11:11:00 PM (view original):
As a long time progressive player, you may find that some owners won't love your draft rules once the seasons start. Every progressive I've been in has a lottery of some kind with anti tanking. I'm fine with it as is, especially given the class structure should provide for an ample draft class. But something to consider if you have a hard time filling.

If tanking becomes a problem and we need to tweak the rules we will do so.

Posted by Midge on 7/22/2026 2:30:00 AM (view original):

Posted by savoybg on 7/21/2026 10:39:00 PM (view original):
So, other than the first season, once you draft a player you have to keep him for all 4 seasons, right?

So in every season after the first one you keep the 9 underclassmen and your 3 seniors leave and go back into the draft.

I assume that after the first season that teams can draft other available players aside from the 72 graduates from the prior season.

You say there is no cherry picking seasons, but actually in season 1 you'll be cherry picking seasons for your 3 seniors since you only have them for the one season.

Please explain what this means exactly:

The only trades allowed will be if you want to trade your whole draft position.

Does that mean just for the initial draft?

Yes, after the first draft we will be drafting freshmen, who you will keep for four consecutive seasons.

Correct, you will keep nine players and replace your three graduating seniors with three freshmen.

Yes, anyone with four consecutive seasons will be eligible for the rookie draft. I would assume we will get a lot of new players in the first rookie draft since some of the seniors will be players who had one outstanding season.

True, we will be finding three players who have one very good season to be our seniors.

In the initial draft the slots will be determined at random. If you don’t like where you are you can trade all 12 picks to someone else for their 12 picks. There will be no trades allowed like my first and fourth for your second and third.

Trades (fair trades) will be allowed in rookie drafts, but everyone has to end up with three draft picks.

Trading players along with the draft picks can be a problem. Suppose I trade a player who is gonna be a junior next season for a player who is gonna be a sophomore next season. Can a team end up with 4 juniors and just 2 sophs?

Or does every team have to have 3 players in each of the 4 classes at all times?

I assume that if players are traded that they must stay on the same 4 season path that they are on.