Martin A. Schulman - Fantasy Football For Dummies

Many fantasy coaches only want to play for cold, hard cash. The key for money players is to determine a comfortable buy-in amount. Many of these types of leagues charge $10 to $2,000 to play with the prospects of winning a T-shirt or $1,000,000! The fees and prizes can be collected entirely by the site (like in CBS Sports or Yahoo! competitive pay leagues) or by the commissioner, who pays the league provider and then divides the rest of the league dues amongst the winners every season. This is also one of the main draws of Daily Fantasy Football, which is covered in Part 4of this book.

Examine your financial situation to determine how much money is worth spending on fantasy football. Personally, I think league fees and prizes should stay in the $20 to $200 range. If you’re on a limited budget, you may want to stay on the low end of the range. If, however, you want to play for more money, consider joining a pay public league, where you can be as cutthroat as you want to be without losing friends (see the earlier section, “ Pay public leagues”).

Playing for money can bring out the worst in people. I’ve seen many leagues crumble and friendships lost when members put too much cash on the line. Heed my advice here to prevent your league from turning into a reality-show competition gone awry.

Do you like the idea of playing in a private fantasy league, but you’ve never been invited to join one? (Check out the “ Joining the private sector: An invitation required” section earlier in this chapter.) Are you organized, blessed with good communication and decision-making skills, a glutton for punishment — and perhaps a bit of a control freak? Have you considered starting your own fantasy league and inviting your friends and coworkers to play? If so, you’re a prime candidate to become a league commissioner. Everything that a commissioner needs to know could be an entire Dummies book, but this section covers the basics.

If you don’t have experience playing fantasy sports, I urge you to reconsider founding a league before you play in one. Spend a couple seasons getting your feet wet and discovering all the nuances of fantasy football before you start your own league and become a commissioner (see Chapter 4, where I recommend joining a practice league). However, if you’ve been playing fantasy football for a few years, this section can help you take your game to the next level. I’ve been a fantasy football commish, and it’s lots of work for little reward, but it can be very satisfying if your league is a success and coaches want to return year after year.

As a commissioner, your first step is to determine if you want to run a free or pay league. You also have to determine how casual or competitive you want the league to be. After you have those answers, just set up the league accordingly. Here’s a bulleted overview of your commish duties before the season starts:

Create a new league: Pick a league provider, sign up, pay the league dues yourself and choose how many teams you want to have in your league. ( Part 4discusses the major providers.)

Invite coaches to join: You can’t play by yourself, right? Try to invite people you can count on to play and to pay you their share of the league dues.

Set the league rules: This includes roster size, position requirements, roster deadlines, and scoring modifiers. Of course, you can leave the league defaults in place and save yourself lots of time, but would that be fun?

Set the draft day and time: The site offers you options, but you have to be in touch with your league and make sure everyone can be there on time if you’re not using an auto draft.

After the season begins, you may encounter more headaches. You have to do these things:

Review trades and trade protests: When two teams make a deal, the commish has to approve it in most leagues. If other coaches don’t like it, they can file a protest with you and then you have to rule on the deal (see Chapter 11for more).

Oversee coaches’ conduct: Everything from not benching injured players to using foul language on a public message board can affect your league and make it no fun for anyone. The commish must be proactive all season long to ensure the success of his league by disciplining such actions or warning the coaches to shape up or ship out.

As a commissioner, your friends and coworkers will expect you to be on call 24/7 to answer questions, take harassment, and otherwise buy into doing things their way. You’ll be bombarded with suggestions leading up to every decision you make. Messages from your fellow coaches will no longer begin with, “How’s it going?” Instead, you’ll get “I would have,” “You should have,” or “I can’t believe you.” When adults engage in “did too, did not” behavior, they play rougher than children, and as the commish, you must keep the big kids’ sandbox clean, safe, and fun to play in.

Throughout the season, you’ll need to remain fair and balanced when making decisions on league issues. You’ll definitely have to deal with controversies in your league, and even if the answers and solutions are clear in your mind, you have to be democratic and hold the interests of the league above your own.

The following is a rundown of some of the ways you can use your commish powers for good:

Accept feedback from fellow coaches — privately and in writing. A leader should have trusted advisers, but don’t turn coaches against one another by having them air their dirty laundry in public.

Consider holding votes on league matters, but do so only on your terms (as specified by league rules). Don’t vote at the drop of a hat or on every last detail. Mob rule doesn’t work, but neither does a dictatorship. Use email to ask for opinions, but you must still make the final call.

Don’t be swayed by message-board banter. Let coaches know when their smack talk crosses the line in terms of tone, language, or lack of respect for other league members. Even if a coach writes a strong message in support of a rule change, make sure it works for the rest of the league before acting on it.

You can choose a deputy commissioner to evaluate all trades that you’re involved in. Pick another experienced coach who you think will be unbiased when making rulings.

Collect the membership fees (if applicable) before the season starts. After all, quitters don’t pay.

The following list presents some of the ways you can ruin your league by making bad commissioner decisions:

Let the whiners and barkers run the league. The most opinionated coaches aren’t always right. Seek out other opinions from the coaches who don’t use the message boards before making rulings.

Change basic rules/scoring settings after the season has started or after your draft has taken place. Your league’s parameters affect coaching and draft strategy, so tweaking rules after the fact is inherently unfair.