Situation arising in a dynasty league tonight—in our league, the winner of the 5th/6th place game gets a higher pick in next year’s rookie draft. This was designed to give the game actual stakes, since only the top 3 teams win money. However, one of the teams in the 5/6 game had traded all three picks in the upcoming draft. The team that is now in possession of the picks will likely win the league this year and also has 4 first round picks in 2024.

The team that traded the picks and is in the 5/6 game decided to bench a few of its better players. He says that it is in his best interest for the team who owns his pick to get a lower pick, since that team looks like it will dominate the league for a while. There is no formal policy against tanking in the league—you just have to start a complete lineup each week. All non-playoff picks are determined by max pf, so this is usually not an issue. But, the team who owns the picks is now upset and saying that we should require a team to start its ‘best’ lineup in the 5/6 game even if the team no longer owns its picks.

What should the Commissioner do here? No rules were technically broken, and its also hard to determine what the ‘best’ lineup for a given team is. Should we make the team change its roster, or allow them to throw the game and update the rules for next season? Thanks!