The Draft
This is the highlight of the fantasy football season. Owners live for the excitement and entertainment of the draft. It’s your job to ensure this event goes off without a hitch. Issues at the draft can snowball into bigger problems on into the season.

The first thing you need to do is set the date and location of the event. The challenge of this task increases with the number of team owners you are dealing with. Its important to understand you can’t please everyone and its highly unlikely you’ll find a date and time that’s convenient for all. I used to poll my owners each year and tried to set a date based on their input. This never really worked out and resulted in me changing the date and time which really didn’t help the situation. Now, I pick a date convenient for me and that’s what we go with. You’ll find that most owners will find a way to make the draft if you’ll just give them a date. I also offer alternatives to attending the draft. We have about 75% of our owners draft in person, the others participate via Internet chat if they aren’t local or can’t make the draft. Finally, I offer owners the chance to submit a list if they simply cant make the draft at all.

Once you set the time and date, be sure to remind your owners, as the date gets closer. Having an owner miss the draft throws of the dynamic of the event. As a matter of fact, you should have a plan in place in case an owner doesn’t show. Our plan is that if any owner is not present for the draft his team is selected by a pre-season player-rating list. This list is unlikely to draft a great team, but it’s usually good enough to field a decent team and not skew the draft and the league by having one team full of scrub players.

Another task you’ll need to undertake is setting your draft order. Our league bases draft order on last year’s performance, like the NFL. However many leagues simply have a random draft orders. This can be done many ways from drawing out of a deck of cards to picking numbers and comparing them to a pick-three lottery number, etc. I prefer to publish the draft order prior to the draft because it gives owners time to strategize their picks and even make trades if you allow that. Some leagues don’t select a draft order until just prior to the draft and while there is nothing wrong with that, it does take away the ability to forecast what players you may be able to draft in the earlier rounds.

During the draft you’ll need to have a system in place to track the picks. I’ve found the best way to do this is with a board and player stickers (color coded by position). This has several advantages. It helps all the owners keep track of what players have been picked. Next, it prevents you from accidentally allowing two teams to select the same player (yes I’ve had this happen). Finally, it adds to the owner’s ability to strategize their picks because they can see the picks of other teams and can guess at their needs in future rounds. Ideally its great if you can get a non-drafting volunteer to manage the board because you’ve got enough to do in managing the draft and selecting your own team without having to sort through stickers each pick.

That’s basically it for setting up and managing the draft. There are a couple of other rules you can implement to speed up the draft process. Setting a time limit similar to the NFL system gives each owner the same amount of time for a pick. We use a two-minute limit. As the commissioner, I’ll just monitor this with my watch and notify teams when they have 1 minute, 30 seconds, and 15 seconds. When I call time, if they don’t give a pick, the next team in order may select a player at any time. This helps prevent your draft from dragging out forever. Another rule we’ve put in is the “Darnay Scott Rule”. The rule derived its name because during one draft an owner selected former Bengal’s WR, Darnay Scott, who happed to be out for the season with a broken leg. He made the mistake of asking the room if Scott was healthy. Someone told him yes and he picked him. As a result, we put in a rule stating that if you have to ask a player’s status during the draft you deserve whatever answers you get. The idea of the draft is for owners to prepare and know their player information inside and out.

Transactions
Your next challenge will be to handle the weekly transactions. There is really no secret to this. The key is to have clearly defined rules and time deadlines to handle free agent claims and trades. Deadlines should never be altered or bent. It’s a slippery slope and if you do it once, owners in your league will see this as a precedent and use it against you if they ever miss deadlines. Many web-based league managers will handle transactions automatically so there is no question about how they are processed. However more complicated claim processes will likely require you to process them (i.e. bid systems). Be sure you are handling these transactions in a timely manner as your owners will be making roster decisions based on the outcome of your transaction processing.

Though trades are technically a transaction, they probably deserve a graduate study thesis to fully understand their impact on your league. Trading can dissolve a league if it’s not handled properly. Even when handled properly it can still be an explosive issue. There are two common ways to handle trades in a league. The first is owner approval. Under this format, if enough owners vote against the trade, it is rejected. I can’t endorse this system for a number of reasons. First, competitive nature takes over and teams will vote against trades because it helps their competition. Second, vengeance takes over and owners begin vetoing trades of teams that vetoed their trades. Third, its not really the owners job to manage any part of the league.

The method I prefer is commissioner approval. Just be ready to get blasted every time an owner disagrees with your opinion. As the commissioner, I’ve only rejected 1 trade in over 10 seasons of running leagues. Why did I reject it, it was an attempt (in my opinion) at collusion. This should be the only reason a trade is rejected. Bad trades happen in all sports, but if two owners can justify what they were trying to get out of a deal and I can see how it came together I’m going to approve the deal even if it helps one team more than the other. The only way I reject trades is if I feel one team isn’t trying to make itself better in the trade.

As the commissioner, you’ll have owner complaints about trades each year. Just stand your ground, explain that trades aren’t meant to be fair, and get a thick skin. Ultimately your league owners will respect you more if you explain your stance and stick with it than if you go back and forth on trades or any issues for that matter.

Commissioner Rules
You need to realize that as the commissioner and a team owner you’ll have a target for accusations of impropriety whether they are real or imagined. You’ll need to thoroughly review your rules and implement checks and balances that prevent you from using your position to any competitive advantage. First off you’ll need an assistant commissioner. He may not do much but you’ll at least need someone to review your trades. It’s best if this person isn’t a close friend or relative.

Another example of the need for checks and balances is in the free agent bid process. In my league, our bid rules don’t adapt well to the automated bid system, so I process them manually. Therefore I see all the bids when they come in. To resolve this, my bid is due to the assistant commissioner one day prior to the league deadline. That way my owners can submit their bids with the assurance that mine cannot be altered after theirs come in. Little nuances like these need to be examined and planned for. In 10+ years I’ve only had one owner accuse me of cheating and I still haven’t really figured out what his specific complaint was. But be prepared to deal with this because if you run leagues long enough, it’s bound to happen.

Realize that I glossed over so many issues, ways to play, and ways to handle situations. Ultimately there is no procedure manual for setting up and running a league. It takes years of playing to be exposed to all the different rules and setups and even then, the options are limitless. My advice to someone who is looking to run a league for the first time is to take the best pieces of your fantasy football experiences and put together a concept for your league. Take your time and write down your rules. I cannot emphasize that enough. Rules go way beyond the scoring system and they allow for maximum enjoyment of your league with minimum hassle. Finally, be prepared for conflict, its inevitable and you’ll be required to resolve it. Be fair and firm in your decisions and the majority of your owners will respect you and thank you for your effort.