There are a few questions that I think need to be addressed before we get into contraction.

Do 20 team leagues only keep 35 players like 24 team leagues, or do they keep more? If its only 35, does this impact the value of the free agent picks that people have been trading already (they should become mare valuable, as more quality players are cut)? If it does, should the contraction draft occur after the typical Rookie and FA draft, or before, to make this fair to all? If a team to be contracted had traded its picks before being abandoned, those picks would have to be honored somehow - they couldn't just disappear?

How will it be handled if three un-owned teams are DH clubs and one is not? Obviously we need to have four, five-team leagues, so how would a team be moved from DH to non-DH or vice-versa?

At the same time as contraction should we have re-alignment, to balance out the quality in each division?

Given the above, I think the contraction draft would have to occur after the current rookie and FA draft, as those picks have been dealt under certain assumptions, including the teams that may be contracted having given the picks away.

After the rookie draft and FA draft, each team should cut down to 30 players, and the contraction draft contains the players from the 4 teams plus all the cuts just made. Then the teams should draft in order based on lowest current PB value, not past year's record, because that could be misleading if a team was rebuilding already.

Fred