The Perfect Fantasy League-Commisioner Advice

[baubaby]

It took 13 years but we have it..here it is:
12 team league,14 week regular season, 15 position roster
Playoffs are in week 15 and 16, 3 division winners advance 1 wild card. 3rd place playoff in week 16.
Bonus payouts for best QB, Receiver and RB.
Team of the week bonus. and a Toilet bowl for the 8 non-playoff teams.
No transaction fees. Postion caps at 5 for RB/WR. Use priority waiver wire and open drop/add after waiver wire runs.
Commisioner puts to vote possible bogus trades. Must have clear plan fool proof plan for playoff determination and tiebreaks.

You have a 12 team 3 divison league because the schedule comes out perfect..you play everyone in your division twice everyone else once.
You have position bonus payouts and Team of the Week because it's fun and teams keep trying even if they have no shot at the playoffs. The worst thing that can happen to a league is a couple of owners basically quitting halfway thru i.e. not covering bye weeks or playing injured players.
You don't do transactions fees for a couple of reasons. It can be hard to collect and once again teams may stop trying to improve because of the money.
You have the position cap to prevent RB stockpiling. You want a team to be able to recover from a bad draft or injuries. Position caps and the correct size roster keep a little life in the free agent pool. When owners have to cover byes or deal with injuries they are forced to use sound strategy.
The waiver wire works great and levels the playing field. Locked out until Wednesday night the teams from worst to first previous weeks scoring all get a clean shot at FA's. After the waiver runs an open drop add pool until Sunday is recommended.
The Commissioner doesn't have to do much anymore but organize the draft..load the rosters and payout...If you follow these guidelines you have very few disputes or hassles. A great group of guys always helps so weed out any a holes(just don't invite them back)

Our entrance and payout structure goes something like this
150 entance fee (12 teams)
1st around 1000
2nd around 350
3rd around 70
bonus payout 50
team of week (14 weeks) 10
Toilet Bowl(seperate entrance fee $10) start with 8 non-playoff teams with 4 highest scoeres advancing to week 16 highest scored week 16 wins..
It's hard to find a good league..Our league has evolved into one that almost perfect...

[awwchrist]

good work! Sounds a lot like my homebrew.

I'm a big fan of limiting bench spots as well. We start 2RB 2WR 1Flex and there's one bench spot for every starting spot.

It's far too easy to bury JJ Arrington or any non-producing player in most leagues and shove in another replacement player from the glutton of backs you horded at the draft. Smaller benches force more thinking with your roster transactions. You think farther into the season, look at matchups more closely..

[baubaby]

Yeah we use the flex spot also. It can be a RB, WR or TE. We don't have the TE postion because it would be pointless in a 12 team league because the lack of quality TE's. There is really only 5 or 6 worth having in the league plus covering byes would suck up an extra roster spot. We also do performance scoring. Didn't Jerome Bettis go 4 carries for 3 yards but with 3 TD's while Duce did all the work last year. ..Duce's numbers would still be close to Jerome's in our league. 1 point for every 10 yds. rushing or receiving, 3 point bonus at 100.6 for a TD....We used have it where an RB could get 98 yds rushing 60 receiving but with no TD's and he would get nothing.
Another thing as a Commish I don't do is the last minute rule change at the draft. There is usually that one guy that thinks he got screwed last year and he needs a bigger roster or 8 RB's....it's like mini-coup attempt.. What we do now is kick around and rule change ideas occassionally thru-out the year on the webboard.Then will vote on it. .Going with some whack last minute rule or scoring changes is another sure way to screw your league up...

[spodog]

It took 13 years but we have it..here it is:

It's hard to find a good league..Our league has evolved into one that almost perfect...

You're arm hurtin' from pattin' yourself on the back yet?

[Matthias]

It took 13 years but we have it..here it is:

It's hard to find a good league..Our league has evolved into one that almost perfect...

You're arm hurtin' from pattin' yourself on the back yet?

your fingers hurting from typos?

cut the man some slack. jesus. he's obviously experimented around with different formats and rules of leagues so sharing with the community one that he found that has had positive results. no reason for you to go peeing all over it with a snide comment.

baubaby, thumbs up. sounds good.

[baubaby]

Thanks...and we did make every mistake in the book over the years...inability to collect fees, the dirty deals. owners ghost coaching a second team, shenanigans with the drop/add pool, playoff determination schemes that weren't fullproof, owners slacking off or quitting..etc.etc... .just trying to impart a little knowledge...Main theme of the post would be to keep the money simple, have foolproof rules and develop the little bonuses, and things(Toilet Bowl) that keep people playing even if there 0-5.....baubaby

[Dexter II]

I like the league structure. I agree with your position on transaction fees and recently put it to a vote in my league to get rid of them.

One area which I'm not in total agreement on is the priority waver wire. It can be tough to take when you draft a good team only to have weak team be able to pick up undrafted studs (like Muhammad and LJ last year) and suddenly contend. I am using carry over waiver order where you maintain your position week to week if you don't use it. I think this makes owners consider pickups a little more carefully.

Just wondering what type of draft you use. In my opinion if it's not an auction style yet, switching from snake to auction would make the league "perfect".

[Free Bagel]

Someone insert some linebreaks pleaaasseee, I can't read that.

[bjlmonster]

good work! Sounds a lot like my homebrew.

I'm a big fan of limiting bench spots as well. We start 2RB 2WR 1Flex and there's one bench spot for every starting spot.

It's far too easy to bury JJ Arrington or any non-producing player in most leagues and shove in another replacement player from the glutton of backs you horded at the draft. Smaller benches force more thinking with your roster transactions. You think farther into the season, look at matchups more closely..

I disagree with you completely on this. So, the guy who shows up to the draft with a magazine he just bought or a cheatsheet he just printed of the internet. Has done no work or research. Drafts 7 crappy players, but wait he loses week 1 and is first guy to pick up Willie Parker and know his team is better. Why not give the guy who researched and knew Parker would be good if he got a shot, drafted him in round 18, and puts him in the lineup. Reward the guys who do the work prior to the season, not the guy who luckily picks up a guy who gets hot.

[baubaby]

On the draft.....I'm usually able to get 5 owners together for quick card draw -Ace thru Queen(12 team league). Then it goes serpentine(snake I think you called it) the rest of the way. This was the first year I can remember the guys with the first couple of picks weren't happy about it.. I had the 5th pick and it went 1. Ladanian 2. SA 3. Peyton 4. Mcgahee and I took Priest..surprisingly I was able to get Randy in the 2nd(20th overall)
On the priority waiver(worst is first) disagreement...it's been my experince that cheatsheet guy usually can draft a good first week line-up but finds trouble in the middle rounds or drafts injured players....We had one last year...he took Marcel Shipp and Anquan Boldin in the mid rounds. He did lose his first week but he was 3rd highest in points so he didn't have a high priority. He actually went on to win 13 straight...13 -1 record the best regular season record we've had in our 13 year history..

I think it more likely helps the guy that gets screwed with an injury to a top pick..But your right..it's almost worth it if your gonna lose in that first week better to lose badly..be the lowest scorer....Because that first week you can really see who the sleepers are - and often they're not drafted....I still like lowest first otherwise the rich just get richer..