Division problems...

[dan9124]

This is the first year I've ran a league, so I'm running into a few roadblocks...the most pressing issue though, is what to do about divisions? Should I even have divisions? It's a 12 team redraft league. We've always played divisions before, but nfl.com randomly placed teams...But now I have to do it myself. I want to be fair, but I also don't want the traditionally strongest owners all in the same division, so I'm reluctant to leave it up to a random drawing or anything. Any ideas? Thanks.

[dream_017]

This is the first year I've ran a league, so I'm running into a few roadblocks...the most pressing issue though, is what to do about divisions? Should I even have divisions? It's a 12 team redraft league. We've always played divisions before, but nfl.com randomly placed teams...But now I have to do it myself. I want to be fair, but I also don't want the traditionally strongest owners all in the same division, so I'm reluctant to leave it up to a random drawing or anything. Any ideas? Thanks.

I place them based on draft position. Mine is a 10 team league and I use odd/even draft position for the divisions. If you go to 3 divisions, you could use 1,4,7,10 / 2,5,8,11 / 3,6,9,12

[dan9124]

That's an idea...I'll see how that works out. Thanks.

[kyguy78]

Draft position, but only if you do it based on last year's records.

[dan9124]

we changed formats this year, so I don't have the records to go by anymore...plus there are a few new people...

[aqua]

Personally, I don't think divisions work well in redraft leagues. They create another dimension but they only really have value in dynasty leagues and in a somewhat lesser amount, keeper leagues. The reason is that you may find yourself in a really strong /weak division and therefore have a really bad/good record - in a dynasty league, the rookie draft will(should) eventually create parity and bring about a cycle of strong and good teams. If you run a redraft league and get stuck in a really strong division then you are just screwed.

On divisions in fantasy football:
Redraft: No
Keeper: Maybe
Dynasty: Yes

[aman74]

So if you have 10 or 12 teams once you have played every team once do you just start back at the top?

[dan9124]

We have 12 teams and a 14 week regular season with 3 divisions (as of right now), so we play the people in our division twice and everyone else once.

[Cards24]

We run an auction league with no keepers. The most fair way of doing it year after year is picking from a hat BEFORE the draft. Before the draft so you can keep an eye on your division rivalry team picks.

[dan9124]

I ended up coming up with my own method of doing it. May not be the most fair way....I basically divided the owners into 3 "tiers" based on how I believe they will perform. The first tier had 6 owners in it, as I know they can be counted on to be dedicated and spend time perfecting their team. The next tier had 3 owners in it, as they aren't as dedicated, but can still be counted on to set their lineup and make transactions. The last tier had 3 owners who may or may not play the whole season, and they usually have pretty bad fantasy seasons. So I drew out of a hat 2 owners from tier 1, 1 owner from tier 2, and 1 from tier 3, and that's what I set the division as.

May not be the best way, and I may be better off with no divisions, but we've always played with divisions and this was the best way I could think of to ensure relatively even divisions.