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Blind Bidding Waivers in Fantasy Football Leagues

What Is the Difference Between Waivers and Free Agency?

There are two types of "waivers" in DataForce Fantasy Football leagues:

1. Blind Bidding Waivers, usually just called "waivers", occurs each Wednesday at 9pm CST. You use bid money for these players.
2. First-come-first-served (FCFS) free agency after waivers finish each week. These players are free to add to your team at any time.

When players are dropped from a team, they immediately go on the waivers wire (with minor exceptions: a player picked up and dropped in the same week does not go on waivers but rather immediately goes to free agency, and after week 13 in most leagues, dropped players are permanently locked, no longer available in waivers). These waivered players are available for blind bidding at auction the next Wednesday at 9pm. DataForce uses blind bidding to resolve waivers rather than worst-to-first or other options because it seems the most fair.

In fact, before Wednesday evening each week, all unowned players may only be acquired through bidding. You'll find no players at all on free agency. This is because player evaluations can change rapidly over the weekend's games, and when a new prospect rises to the surface, everyone should have an equal chance at him. So, you must bid.

How to Place Blind Bids

Each team begins the year with $500 in play bidding money. It must last all season, so don't blow it all at once.

You may bid on as many players as you wish, and you may bid any amount you wish. Simply drag the desired players from the Players on Waivers box to the My Bids box, and then indicate how much you wish to bid. If you allocate more money to bids than you have available, the software will simply quit processing them for you when you run out of money.

Be aware that your higher bids will always be processed first. In fact, you'll see your bigger bids float to the top of the list as you enter them. If you bid the same amount on two or more players, you may order your bids by clicking on the arrow buttons to move them up or down the list. The bids on the top of the list will be processed first.

Now you must select players to waive (drop). If you don't make room on your roster for the players you bid on, the software will ignore your bids. Don't worry, when waivers are processed on Wednesday, the software will only drop as many players as necessary to make room for the players you win at auction. The rest of the drops on your list are ignored.

To select players you're willing to drop, just drag them from the My Team box to Players I'm Willing To Waive. If you wish, you may indicate who you are willing to drop each player for. Perhaps you are willing to drop your kicker, but only for a better kicker. Make that choice as you select players to drop.

How Much Should I Bid?

There's no hard-and-fast rules for this, but most owners seem to adhere to one of three basic rules as they prepare blind bids:

1. One line of thought says that you hope to select two difference-makers during the year, and that other waiver selections are relatively unimportant in comparison. Therefore, you'll want to save most of your money for two large purchases of between $200 and $300.
2. Another line of thought is that you must preserve your bidding money so as to cover the cost of a needed handcuff if one of your running backs goes down. Because it's often hard to predict who will become the starter when a regular starter gets injured, and because it requires more bench space than you may want to give up to roster handcuffs for all your running backs, you may decide that the best use for your bidding money is to hoard it for an emergency.
3. A third line of thought is that certain positions can most effectively be managed by rotating players in and out of waivers depending upon the match-up. It's common to do this with defenses, kickers, sometimes even quarterbacks if you didn't manage to secure a good quarterback in the draft. So, you just plan on paying $10-$20 or so for a new player each week, and budget your money to last all year.

Preseason Waivers

In the preseason, until the first week of the regular season, there is no Free Agency. Instead, all player pickups must be by bidding at the once-a-week auction on Wednesday.

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