So you want to play some fantasy football, do ya? Well, you've
come to the right place. We'll show you how to get your league
started, choose a commissioner, establish rules for your league,
and devise a scoring system. We will also give tell you how to
keep your league running smoothly during the season and give you
some ideas to spice up your fantasy football experience as the
years go on. But first things first; you can't play fantasy football
by yourself, so recruit 8, 10, or 12 of you closest buddies then
sit back, relax and watch as all of you become geeks, glued to
the TV set every Sunday during the fall. It's a wonderful thing!
The Commissioner
To get started, you need to choose a commissioner (head geek)
for your league. He will have the responsibility of conducting
the draft, setting up league rules, making out the schedule, settling
league disputes, keeping stats for the league, and sending out
a weekly report to league members. I have also found it beneficial
to have a commissioner's assistant to help with the draft and
score the games once the season begins. The assistant can also
fill in if the commissioner gets sick or has some other type of
emergency. The role of commissioner is an important one, so make
sure you choose someone who will put in the time and be able to
separate his own bias from his duties to the league. Nothing will
kill a league quicker than having a commissioner who is not up
to the task and realizes by Week 4 that he's in over his head.
That being said, being the Commissioner of your league can also
bring a lot of enjoyment and fun to the fantasy football experience.
The lifeblood of your league
will be your weekly newsletter. It should be sent out by the commissioner
on Tuesday morning to all the league members and should include
the latest standings, transactions from last week, free agent
pickup order, the schedule for upcoming games, and maybe even
a some top performers from the previous weekend. This sheet should
give every owner all the info he needs to get ready for the upcoming
week. There are tons of software packages (to numerous to mention
here) that will help you create reports, schedules, and make scoring
easier for your league. Your newsletter can be as simple or fancy
as you want, but make sure all the important information is there.
Formation
Next you will have to decide what kind of league you are going
to form and what size your league will be. In general, there are
two types of leagues. A Keeper League, in which each owner is
allowed to keep a predetermined amount of players from one season
to the next, or a Non-Keeper League, in which owners start with
a clean roster each season and every NFL player is available to
be selected. Both types of leagues have their merits, although
if you are just starting out, I would suggest not making your
league the keeper variety until you have established owners in
your league. Once you have a corps of owners that will be in it
for the long haul, the switch to a keeper league can be made very
easy.
Leagues vary in size from 8-20 owners so choose what's right for
your league. I am of the belief than 10 or 12 teams leagues offer
the best competition. Any league with fewer than ten owners will
diminish the importance of the draft while leagues with more than
twelve owners will dilute the talent of everyone's roster. This
is not to say that leagues with fewer than 10, or more than 12
owners can't be successful, because they can. However, I have
found leagues composed of ten or twelve teams are ideal. It's
also best if your league has an even number of teams... this will
help make scheduling easier. Another note about schedules... try
and conclude your league before Week 17 of the season so you can
avoid the problem of NFL teams resting their star players the
final week of the regular season before the playoffs begin. For
this reason, it's best if your league's Superbowl is on Week 16.
Rules of the League
Now that we have a commissioner and some owners, your new league
needs some rules. Rules should be spelled out as clearly as possible
to everyone before a single player is drafted. And yes, they should
be written down so everyone in your league can have a copy. I
know this seems like common sense, but there have been some horror
stories associated with leagues that did not have their rules
on paper. Shame on them! Changes to league rules should be made
during the off-season and not during the season. Adapt rules that
the majority of the owners in your league agree with and stick
to them. While you probably can't foresee every problem that will
arise in your league, it's best that you prepare ahead of time
and make the commissioner's job as easy as possible. Your rules
should address issues like league structure (keeper or non-keeper),
scoring method, roster size, free agent pickups, trades, and how/when
to submit lineups. All of these points will be discussed as we
go along.
Scoring Methods
There are basically three methods that are used for scoring with
the first method (basic) being the easiest. Adjustments can be
made as you wish.
1. Basic - The Basic method of scoring is probably the
easiest method for beginners. All you need to keep track of how
many TDs your team scored and how many field goals/extra points
were made by your kicker. The scoring system looks like this:
6 pts for a rushing TD
6 pts for a receiving
TD
3 or 4 pts for a passing
TD
6 points for D/ST TD
3 pts for a field goal
1 pt for an extra point
2 pts for a conversion
2. Performance -
This method ignores TDs and focuses in on the amount of yardage
a player gains. It rewards players who rack up the yards, even
though they don't get in the endzone. A typical performance based
league would give 1 pt for every 10 yards rushing, 1 pt for every
10 yards receiving, and 1 pt for every 25 yards passing. Bonuses
could be awarded for 100+ yards rushing or receiving, 300+ yards
passing, or any other yardage statistic that your league prefers.
3. Combination -
This method allows points for both TDs and yardage and as the
name implies is a combination of the Basic and Performance methods.
Most leagues will use a variation of this method and believe me,
the variations are endless. Here is a typical combination scoring
system that a league might use:
6 pts per rushing TD
6 pts per receiving TD
3 or 4 pts per passing
TD
6 pts per D/ST TD
3 pts per field goal
1 pt per extra point
2 pts per safety
2 pts per conversion
1 pt per 10 yards rushing
1 pt per 10 yards receiving
1 pt per 25 yards passing
Don't feel that you have
to use these exact numbers when scoring your league. There are
a number of variations that you can inlcude. Some leagues give
bonus points if your RB/WR gains over 100 yards or if your QB
passes for more than 300 yards. You can also give bonus points
for distance scoring. You could institute a rule that every rushing
TD over 40 yards gets a bonus or 2 pts, or give 4 pts to a kicker
who kicks a field goal longer than 50 yards. The possibilities
are endless, so have fun with these kind of extras, it makes fantasy
football that more enjoyable.
Rosters & Lineups
Roster size varies from league to league so choose a number that
best fits your league. You want to have enough players on your
roster to cover bye weeks and any injuries that may occur to your
starters. Typical rosters usually include anywhere from 14-20
players. Rosters are made up of QBs, RBs, WRs, TEs, Defenses and
Kickers. Individual defensive players may be used but for the
beginner, it's easier to incorporate a team defense. This will
make scoring easier and be less time consuming for the commissioner.
Individual defensive and special team players can be added as
you become more familiar with the game. Special teams may be combined
with the defensive team if your league so desires.
Each week, every owner will submit a lineup of players to the
commissioner. If an owner fails to call in his lineup for that
week, his last weeks' lineup should be used. In your league rules,
you need to spell out what formation a lineup should take. A typical
lineup will include 1 QB, 2RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 K, and 1 D/ST.
You may want to give the owners an option to start any combination
of WRs, RBs, and TEs. If you choose this flexible method, you
should require that at least one RB and one WR be started but
the other three positions may be filled up by any combination
of RBs, WRs, or TEs. Again, this is up to you and your league.
Whatever the formation of you league, lineups need to be called
in every week by a certain time spelled out in your league rules.
If the commissioner does not want (or can't) to be around the
phone on the weekends then a Friday deadline for lineups may be
used. However, a noon deadline on Sunday will allow everyone to
hear late breaking injury news or "gametime decisions" that may
affect their team. An answering machine with a time recorder is
a great friend of the commissioner for the task of taking lineups.
This will settle all problems regarding what time a lineup was
actually called in and will not make the commissioner wait by
the phone Sunday mornings.
The Draft
By far, this is the best part of fantasy football so make it an
event. A twelve team league with an 16 round draft may take anywhere
between 2 hours to all day, depending on your owners and how much
beer is involved. I will note here, that it's wise for the commissioner
not to partake in alcohol so at least someone will have a clear
head throughout the proceedings. Make sure you choose a location
that has plenty of space for everyone to spread out and get comfortable.
Draw numbers out of a hat to determine the drafting order, and
away you go! You will want to "snake" the draft to give every
owner a fair shot at the best players. By "snake", we mean that
the draft order reverses every round. The owner who drafts last
in Round 1 will draft first in Round 2. You may want to impose
a time limit on picks if you have time constraints. If the owners
in your league are well prepared, a time limit might not be needed
although their will undoubtedly be a few instances where owners
mull over a pick for what seems like an eternity. If you're the
commissioner, have patience and try and speed things along as
best you can. Encourage every owner to come prepared for the draft
by having a cheat sheet sorted by position. This will help speed
up the process. The draft will conclude once everyone's roster
is filled and then your ready to begin the season.
Run It Smooth
Once the season begins, lineups will have to be taken, free agents
will be picked up, trades will be made and so on. It's the duty
of the commissioner to keep track of the transactions and post
them in the weekly newsletter. Free agents may be picked up each
week by the owners in a specified order. Usually the owner with
the worst record will get the first chance to pick up a free agent,
then the owner with the second worst record gets his chance, and
so on. For every free agent that an owner picks up, a player must
be cut from their roster. Players that are cut should not be available
to be picked up until the following week. This will give everyone
an opportunity to pickup the player. It's wise to have a deadline
for free agent pickups (Wednesday or Thursday night), so when
Sunday rolls around your commissioner is not trying to keep track
of free agent moves while taking everyone's lineup at the same
time.
Trading players is a highlight of fantasy football. Notice I said
trading players, not players for money or players to be named
later. This is where the commissioner needs to keep his eye out
for all of those shady friends of his who would like to undermine
the league rules by making bogus trades. Occasionally you may
get some collusion between owners and you'll end up with one friend
(who's usually out of the playoff picture) trying to help his
buddy win a championship. What usually follows is a lopsided trade
at the end of the season like, Brett Farve for Dave Brown and
Carlester Crumpler. For this reason, a trading deadline should
be used in your league. Some leagues will halt trading after Week
8 but I like to keep trading open as long as possible, so Week
10 is an acceptable deadline for most leagues. The more faith
you have in your owners, the later in the year the trading deadline
can be extended.
As years go on in your league you will surely want to make some
changes. Consider going to a keeper league, where every team can
keeps up to three players from the previous year. Use individual
defensive players instead of team defenses or add a coaching position
to your lineup, allowing three points if the coach is victorious.
Hand out weekly prizes for the highest point total or have a "toilet
bowl" at the end of season for the two worst teams in your league.
Consider turning your draft into an auction where every owner
can bid on any player he wants. All of these enhancements will
keep your league interesting as the years go on.
Keep it Fun
Remember that fantasy football is suppose to be fun so keep
it that way. Make draft day a party. Send out off-season reports
to your owners to keep them involved year round. Discuss rule
changes and different types of league formations, because the
options are endless. Throw a post-season party, so the Superbowl
winner can talk smack and you can make excuses for why you picked
Troy Davis in the second round. Create a league trophy that displays
the past and present winners of your Superbowl. Fantasy Football
is meant to be fun, so keep it fun. You'll be astonished at how
much you can learn about your favorite teams and how much you
can learn about the league in general. So get your league started...
you'll be glad you did!
