How To Start Your Own Fantasy Football League

23 July 2011

Grab a pen and paper, you'll need to start on this NOW

For the past 7 years, I have been one of those rare females that have played fantasy football. When I first started out, we had a 5 team league consisting of myself, my brother, my dad, my uncle and my boyfriend at the time.

Because almost all of us did not have laptops back in 2004, (and some still don't), we decided to not use a hosted site like NFL.com and instead opt for keeping track of our fantasy scores----by hand.

We used the box scores after Monday Night games to calculate our scores and have weekly calls to confirm that each side had correct math. With the endless amount of sites that have fantasy football today, our method created just 6 years ago seems like cave drawings on a wall.

Since 2004 and after bouncing around a couple different fantasy sites, we have stuck with Yahoo Sports for a couple years now and haven't looked back. Seeing as how I have been commissioner of at least one league per year since 2004, I consider myself some-what of a quasi-expert on the topic and I'm here to offer tips and advice on how to get your own Fantasy Football league started.

When starting your own league, be prepared to answer these questions when you ask someone to join your league.

Hit the title/read more to discover what you need to know before starting your own league...

Learn the Game

First things first, if you are interested in starting a Fantasy Football league, you need to know how to play yourself. If you don't know a thing about Fantasy Football, you can learn all about it here. No one wants a commissioner that has no idea what they are doing. Remember, as the commish, YOU will be the one players come to if they have a question and no one wants a leader without answers.

What Kind of League Do You Want to Have?

Fantasy Football contains endless amounts of rules and formats that can be customized to suit your league style. You will need to figure out things like if you offer points for defensive players, performance bonus points or if you will have a keeper league. Here a few options you might want to consider:

Will You Charge a League Fee?

Most fantasy league require "league dues" that are thrown into a pot and the winner of the league receives a hefty payout at the end of the year. You have several options as far as price because leagues can be anywhere from free to hundreds of dollars. Consider the income level of your friends and try to be sensitive to certain situations. League dues can be given out as a lump sum payment or as increments depending on how teams finish. Also if you plan on holding a draft party or getting a league trophy, you might want to consider splitting that up between your league to help on costs for you like food, drinks or the actual trophy itself.

Here is a sample of the payout we use in one of my leagues:

• League Champ: $300
• Runner Up: $150
• 3rd & 4th Place: $75
• Weekly High Score Winner: $20
  

Decide Who You Want to Play

Because Fantasy Football can be some-what time consuming and 12 people are usually needed to play in a league, its important to pick people to play in your league that are genuinely enthusiastic about playing. The problem with people who are hesitant about playing is these people put you at risk of having a sub-par league. Unenthusiastic people tend to let injured players and guys on bye weeks stay in their lineup, affecting the outcome of games and ultimately your league. Sure it may sound good to have someone who forgets to change their lineup to reflect injuries/byes but at the same time, it also hurts the league in that it negatively affects other teams who may be legitimately trying.

I have found its more successful to court players for your league by finding fans that already go to football games. Focus on football fans first and then try to talk some buddies in to fill the remaining slots needed. Also be prepared for some players to drop out of the league as draft day approaches. Plan for a couple back up players in case you need a last minute replacement. Worse comes to worse, you will have to open your league up to the public to fill the remaining slots vs keeping a private league to those who you know personally.


Decide On the Draft Date

Draft Day is the single most important day in the fantasy football season. Because its so important, you must hammer out your league details usually about a month in advance to give everyone enough time to plan for the draft. If you are holding a live draft party, you need to either find a house big enough to hold 12 people (with laptops and paperwork) or find a restaurant that is Fantasy Football friendly. A lot of sports bars are now offering food and drink specials for you to hold your draft party at their establishment. When choosing a house or restaurant, make sure the host knows you will need that area for at least 3 hours (depending on how fast you draft). Also consider Labor Day holiday as many people travel out of town that weekend so try to plan your draft around this weekend but before the first real game of the season.

Should you have an Auto Pick draft instead of a live draft, choose a few days after the last preseason game to have your auto pick selection take place. This gives everyone enough time to pick players who impressed them during the preseason or players to avoid due to preseason game injuries.

• Consider bringing or making a fantasy football draft board. This board helps other members in league from saying "who's taken?" or drafting someone that is not available. You can learn  How To Make Your Own Fantasy Football Draft Board here.

• Bring a time clock and use it while players are drafting. Sometimes league players can take a long time to choose a player, creating a longer draft in the end. Using a time clock speeds up this time consuming process.

• Provide helpful documents to your league participants. I created a handy draft day sheet to help the players in my league focus on what they already have and what needs they still have to address.You can find a draft day sheet here available for print and download.

Find a Host Site

Since Fantasy Football has pretty much exploded in popularity, there are countless sites that you can play on. But when it comes to choosing the site, it's best to use one of the big sites such as CBS, Yahoo, NFL, or ESPN as your fantasy sports providers.

I have heard great things about using CBS as a fantasy sports provider but have never tried them out due to their fees. Personally, I prefer Yahoo because I can get almost the same customization that CBS charges a fee for.

Be careful about smaller sites! I used to use a site called Flea Flicker (before AOL bought them) and it wasn't until after the first game of the fantasy season that I found out their "live scoring" meant that the site was updated after the game and not during. Bad news for someone who has a lap top glued to their side during Jaguar away game weekends.



What Kind of Commissioner Will You Be?

Once you have your league and draft details all sorted out, its important to think about what kind of fantasy football league commish you will be.

Tyrant? Over Bearing? Wimp? None of these terms would be ideal if someone were to describe your commish style. As silly as it sounds, you want to be a good leader for your league. Some players take fantasy football very seriously either due to pride or money on the line. Therefore its important to have a pep talk with yourself as to how you will rein over your league.

Tips on being a good Commish

• Have everyone vote on major rules. Things can get dicey if someone misinterprets a rule or believes they should have gotten points somewhere. Clear up the rules before your draft so everyone knows ahead of time on things such as bonus points, keeper leagues etc...

• Respond to every communication by players in your league. You should expect phone calls, emails and texts throughout the year when issues arise during the season. Respond quickly and effectively to each player's concerns.

• Pay attention to other teams and what they are/aren't doing. Simply put: if someone thinks they can get away with cheating, they will. Watch out for trades that may affect the integrity of your league. You don't want someone who is out of a playoff race to trade Adrian Peterson for a kicker from a team that will already be in the playoffs.

Constantly Try to Improve Your League; Year After Year

From improvements to the draft party, host league research, or even getting a fancy trophy you want to always try to get better at your league. Doing so, keeps the players in your league happy and coming back year after year. I can't tell you how much fun it is to play with the same core group every year. 

After reading this advice,  you may thing you have a lot of work ahead of you. That's sort of true, leading up until draft day requires some time and patience, but once the draft starts and the shit talking starts--it all becomes worth it. Use these tips based off years of experience and you will breeze through your first time as a Fantasy Football Commissioner.