Looking to start a new league...Would Love Some Advice.

[dpbuddha 9]

Hey guys...been playing forever, but never started/ran/commish'd a league before. I'm curious what you guys have learned from running leagues or just playing in them that you wish you had implemented from the start (or adjusted at some point to include) in your league.

- Best website to host a new league?

- 10 team teams are too loaded. I like 12-team leagues. Any arguments?

- I'm a strong believer in FAAB, so I think that's going to be included no matter what. $0 bids allowed? re-up your FAAB account for $$?

- I have never done a dynasty league but I like the sound of it...I feel like that would really keep people engaged year-round...is this just a big headache?

- Trade player for draft picks ok (if we do snake draft)? Trade player for future year auction $ (if we do auction league)?

- I also very much like the auction style draft, but not sure how you go about running a dynasty or multi-keeper league in that format...keepers retain their cost? Go up $x? Don't do dynasty and auction?

- If I do dynasty, can people retain their entire roster or is there a cap? Does that just become an x-player keeper league?

- I feel like dynasty drafts starting in year 2 may be a little lackluster...does this make dynasty leagues less fun/desirable? If dynasty is snake draft, how do you determine order in year 2? Reverse standings?

- Keep or get rid of Def/ST? K? I prefer not to use IDP. How many at each position? 2 WR? 3 WR? Flex? Bench Size?

- Any punishment or way to ensure participation/enjoyment for the teams that start 0-6 so they don't give up? Weekly payouts? (in my dreams the league picks a tattoo for the loser, loser picks the location...$ for tattoo comes from entry fees)

- Any fun payout ideas? Bonus for total points @ year's end? Just based on playoff results? Weekly contests?

- Anything else I didn't mention here? Please let me know. Unlikely to get this together for this season, but for some reason I got a wild hair up my a$$ and want to see if this can happen.

[Brutal Brutus 182]

To be honest, most of these questions can't be asked until you figure what type of player is going to be in your league. I run my family league a lot different than my other league because I have to. If you have a handful of people you know will be in the league, collaborating with them will be best. The more complex the league is, the harder it is to commish because there are more opportunities for things to pop up.  

Here are a few things my league does that are not standard. 

Two wins system. One win for H2H and one for being in the top half of scores.

FAAB with waivers that run every night and allow $0 bids.

Weekly payout for a random category that is picked

 

[polecatt 401]

I like playing dynasty. That's mostly what I play the past few years.

There's all sorts of ways to do it, and they all seem to go okay. I would say set a range, a minimum to keep, which I think should be no less than 5, no more than 8. Set a maximum too, that I say 10-12. That tends to give people a little wiggle room, they don't have to keep defenses and kickers, etc.

The way to do the draft, make the first draft a snake draft but then just normal after that. Worst record gets first pick each round. Though, the round you start in, is the round you run out of keepers. Example, one team only keeps the minimum, which we'll say is 5. They will start picking in the first round. Another team that keeps 6, will start in the 2nd round, the team that keeps 7 starts in the 3rd round, and so forth. I think this makes a good balance. Bad teams don't have to keep a bunch of bad players, and can get a jump on rebuilding. Good teams don't have to drop good players and can mostly keep their team.

As far as payouts and all that, I think it's fun to take a small part of the league fees and get a championship trophy or medal or something like that. It's not hard to find a local trophy shop that will do this, and you can get a nice trophy made for pretty cheap. I like this, in one league we had medals made every year for the champion. So at the draft each year, the champions would all wear their medals to the draft. Sort of a bragging rights thing. We wanted to win the medal more than the money.

[dpbuddha 9]

38 minutes ago, polecatt said:

I like playing dynasty. That's mostly what I play the past few years.

There's all sorts of ways to do it, and they all seem to go okay. I would say set a range, a minimum to keep, which I think should be no less than 5, no more than 8. Set a maximum too, that I say 10-12. That tends to give people a little wiggle room, they don't have to keep defenses and kickers, etc.

The way to do the draft, make the first draft a snake draft but then just normal after that. Worst record gets first pick each round. Though, the round you start in, is the round you run out of keepers. Example, one team only keeps the minimum, which we'll say is 5. They will start picking in the first round. Another team that keeps 6, will start in the 2nd round, the team that keeps 7 starts in the 3rd round, and so forth. I think this makes a good balance. Bad teams don't have to keep a bunch of bad players, and can get a jump on rebuilding. Good teams don't have to drop good players and can mostly keep their team.

As far as payouts and all that, I think it's fun to take a small part of the league fees and get a championship trophy or medal or something like that. It's not hard to find a local trophy shop that will do this, and you can get a nice trophy made for pretty cheap. I like this, in one league we had medals made every year for the champion. So at the draft each year, the champions would all wear their medals to the draft. Sort of a bragging rights thing. We wanted to win the medal more than the money.

I definitely like the "winner's medal" thing and bringing your bling to the next draft. I like setting a cap on keepers...I love draft day and want it to still be fun. Do/have you had any success in keeping people involved when they're doing poorly? Is that just part of being in a dynasty/large keeper league? People will stay involved and plan for the future?

[polecatt 401]

25 minutes ago, dpbuddha said:

I definitely like the "winner's medal" thing and bringing your bling to the next draft. I like setting a cap on keepers...I love draft day and want it to still be fun. Do/have you had any success in keeping people involved when they're doing poorly? Is that just part of being in a dynasty/large keeper league? People will stay involved and plan for the future?

Yeah, the medal thing definitely makes it more fun. Also had a league, where at the start we got a traveling championship trophy with several name slots on it, then each season, we would get the champion's name engraved on it for that year. The champ gets to keep it for the year, and then when the names are all filled up, whichever team won the most, gets to keep it.

I haven't really had any trouble with people quitting early when their team sucks. I think people mostly do that when they're gonna quit a league for good. If they're coming back, they know they'll catch hell for letting their team tank, plus you can impose penalties going into the next season. You do have to keep an extra eye out though for collusion, especially near the playoffs. Since it's a dynasty, people will still want to do drop and adds when they're out of playoff contention. You need to set some firm rules about that. I would advise not to allow adds during the offseason.

The draft isn't as long, but it's just as intense. We select our keepers just a couple of days before the draft. So you don't really know exactly what you're picks will be until then. So you don't have people preparing for the draft in early September, and getting bored with it in June. Plus, people really want to get the top rookies. They're the lifeblood of dynasty.

Best thing is, it's year round. The middle of the offseason is when the trade talks can really get heated.

 

[Phil Simms 11 127]

I run a couple of yahoo leagues, I do not include kickers or Def/special teams. FAAB for waivers but I change it to $1000 from $100. I hate 10 teams, 12 teams or bust. And I am a fan of yahoo plus it is free. 

(Self-promotion - My more expensive league is full but if anybody wants to join the $150 I just made just follow the links) https://edge-forums.nbcsports.com/topic/852578-no-kicker-no-def-12-teams-3-flex-snake-150-05-ppr-yahoo/

 

[AxeElf 787]

If you have all these questions, you are nowhere near ready to be the commish of your own league, let alone a league with the kind of complexities you're toying with.  You're like the little kid who wants a unicorn for his birthday, but has no idea of how to care for a unicorn.

Be kind to your future league, and don't do it until you are ready, or it will explode into a supernova of bitter feelings within two years.

Try some leagues with the features you are looking at yourself, first--then once you've experienced them, you can try crafting the same experience for others.

[Ray_T 589]

3 hours ago, dpbuddha said:

Hey guys...been playing forever, but never started/ran/commish'd a league before. I'm curious what you guys have learned from running leagues or just playing in them that you wish you had implemented from the start (or adjusted at some point to include) in your league.

- Best website to host a new league?

- 10 team teams are too loaded. I like 12-team leagues. Any arguments?

- I'm a strong believer in FAAB, so I think that's going to be included no matter what. $0 bids allowed? re-up your FAAB account for $$?

- I have never done a dynasty league but I like the sound of it...I feel like that would really keep people engaged year-round...is this just a big headache?

- Trade player for draft picks ok (if we do snake draft)? Trade player for future year auction $ (if we do auction league)?

- I also very much like the auction style draft, but not sure how you go about running a dynasty or multi-keeper league in that format...keepers retain their cost? Go up $x? Don't do dynasty and auction?

- If I do dynasty, can people retain their entire roster or is there a cap? Does that just become an x-player keeper league?

- I feel like dynasty drafts starting in year 2 may be a little lackluster...does this make dynasty leagues less fun/desirable? If dynasty is snake draft, how do you determine order in year 2? Reverse standings?

- Keep or get rid of Def/ST? K? I prefer not to use IDP. How many at each position? 2 WR? 3 WR? Flex? Bench Size?

- Any punishment or way to ensure participation/enjoyment for the teams that start 0-6 so they don't give up? Weekly payouts? (in my dreams the league picks a tattoo for the loser, loser picks the location...$ for tattoo comes from entry fees)

- Any fun payout ideas? Bonus for total points @ year's end? Just based on playoff results? Weekly contests?

- Anything else I didn't mention here? Please let me know. Unlikely to get this together for this season, but for some reason I got a wild hair up my a$$ and want to see if this can happen.

you also have to decide how many bells and whistles you want in your league.

if you want all the bells and whistles, you need to likely pay for a website that will provide them.

Yahoo provides a free league that is pretty good.  you can do what they call an offline draft where you can do as auction if you like, but as commish you are then inputting all the data for the draft picks selected.

its not fancy, but its free and it works.   In a first year league, sometimes that is more important as convincing beginners to spend an extra x dollars per person for this website that has all these features is tough.     so the free option (at least for the first year) may be preferable unless you have a ton of experienced players who will be joining.

generally I'd say if you have that, you may wish to consult them to see what the group wants.

[easilyscan 558]

Best website to host a new league? 
I've only used Yahoo. No complaints.

10 team teams are too loaded. I like 12-team leagues. Any arguments?

That depends. Who are the other owners going to be ? Friends ? Family ? Coworker/friends ? Strangers ?
The higher number of teams, the better the chance of getting idiots involved.
If you're absolutely certain you can get 11 other owners who won't need handholding, babysitting, & will pay the league dues on time, etc, go for it.

You never brought it up, & it's controversial, but in the 10 team league I've managed since 2006, I made it total points instead of head-to-head record a couple years.
6 of the 10 teams preferred it, the other 4 didn't favor one over the other.

The only other thing I can think of is the draft date.
I always schedule ours for Labor Day. (Evening)

 

[Ray_T 589]

20 minutes ago, easilyscan said:

Best website to host a new league? 
I've only used Yahoo. No complaints.

10 team teams are too loaded. I like 12-team leagues. Any arguments?

That depends. Who are the other owners going to be ? Friends ? Family ? Coworker/friends ? Strangers ?
The higher number of teams, the better the chance of getting idiots involved.
If you're absolutely certain you can get 11 other owners who won't need handholding, babysitting, & will pay the league dues on time, etc, go for it.

You never brought it up, & it's controversial, but in the 10 team league I've managed since 2006, I made it total points instead of head-to-head record a couple years.
6 of the 10 teams preferred it, the other 4 didn't favor one over the other.

The only other thing I can think of is the draft date.
I always schedule ours for Labor Day. (Evening)

 

agreed. its fine

thing about yahoo is they dont have the ability to customize like some other leagues, but for the price (free) it is excellent.

you likely wont do better unless you pay.

[polecatt 401]

44 minutes ago, easilyscan said:

Best website to host a new league? 
I've only used Yahoo. No complaints.

10 team teams are too loaded. I like 12-team leagues. Any arguments?

That depends. Who are the other owners going to be ? Friends ? Family ? Coworker/friends ? Strangers ?
The higher number of teams, the better the chance of getting idiots involved.
If you're absolutely certain you can get 11 other owners who won't need handholding, babysitting, & will pay the league dues on time, etc, go for it.

You never brought it up, & it's controversial, but in the 10 team league I've managed since 2006, I made it total points instead of head-to-head record a couple years.
6 of the 10 teams preferred it, the other 4 didn't favor one over the other.

The only other thing I can think of is the draft date.
I always schedule ours for Labor Day. (Evening)

 

ESPN is good to host a league too.

That's what I've always used and it's been great for a long time. The first couple of years they ran it, it had some issues, but nothing huge.

It's lets you customize a lot too. It's free.