As part of the job of commissioner, it's my job to review all of the information before me at all times to identify trends and/or concerns.
The one thing I've noticed lately is a significant rise in invalid profiles. In saying that, every year following the trade deadline there is typically a drop-off in lineups sent and a rise with respect to invalid lineups; however this year there is a significant increase as we have been averaging three a day or more for the past week and a half.
Looking at our year-over-year participation numbers, there is a definite decline in lineups submitted this year as we are trending to be under 1000 for a whole season for the first time since 2016-17; and this is our fifth straight year of declining numbers.
There are still some strong teams as nine teams are over 40 lineups sent, with most of those being close to a lineup per game sent in. I pick 40 because that's roughly what the average is across all 22 CCHL franchises.
For the whole season, we are already at 114 invalid lineups which is already seven higher than last season's 107 for the entire season. Overall, our total number of invalid lineups is up 2.5% this season compared to last year.
We already have three teams that have forfeited the easiest bonus money you can get in the CCHL by keeping your lineup valid, with three more teams within three or fewer invalid lineups away from forfeiting the lineup bonus money. Last season we had four in total and are in danger of having over 25%| of our league potentially throwing away the bonus money.
By contrast, we still have seven teams that are on pace to receive all bonus money this season while last year there were only six teams that received the entire bonus payment.
Now one of the reasons for this might be that teams just don't care about the money because they are getting expansion money, but I'd hope that isn't it.
I think that there might be an appetite to discuss the potential of forfeiting all bonus money (across all categories) if teams are guilty of ten or more invalid lineups but that's something for the future. The argument being if you aren't icing a competitive team on a nightly basis, then the bare minimum has not been done to run the franchise. Again it's early but I think it's something to entertain however I would rather not penalize but five straight years of declining lineups and rising invalid lineups has me questioning whether or not this needs to be looked at.
All in all it's been a good year for trade participation though so it feels like the lineups are the true issue, with the post-deadline decline really contributing in a negative way.
I just wanted to point out some observations given where we are at with respect to the rising invalid lineups.
Look forward to announcing the new divisions in the next day or two!
-The Commish
good observations.
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