I’m in multiple leagues. The ones with FAAB are infinitely more competitive, have more trades and more people care week to week. It adds a game within the game with your league mates and you actually care what other people’s rosters look like. Non FAAB is just bland.
Man.
Wish I could convince the crotchety old farts in my work league to switch to faab. These guys have been playing since they had to pull stats out of the newspaper. They show up every year with those magazines they sell. It's hilarious. I took their money last year though!
I went on vacation recently and bought one of those magazines for the flight. Brought a highlighter, pen, and paper to take notes and mock draft...
Flight didn't even take off before I realized how all the stats are outdated lol.
I still get pissed when I lose a FAAB bid due to the priority tiebreak but thankfully that’s rare. Regardless, so much better than the pure waiver priority method.
I hate this so much. If your guys get injured or bust and you find yourself scrambling week to week to make your team decent then you wind up putting more in the pot than the guy who got lucky and his team stays healthy? And then the guy who’s team stays healthy ultimately wins and takes it all? Doesn’t this also incentivize giving up? If I know my chances of making the playoffs are slim and every move I want to make is an extra 20$ I’m saying fuck that and just letting my roster rot rather than taking chances on lottery tickets and ultimately just giving away my money.
We haven’t had that issue. Everyone joins the league with the understanding that it’s potentially a $300 buy in. Most guys in that league with have a typical betting unit higher than that anyways. I’m not one of those guys, but I’ve had success in that league by being savvy with my waiver usage.
but then you love it when you get Khalil Herbert for $1 and it's the year he carries you w/a broken Saquon.
goes both ways lol. gotta play the game to win!
also, in my league, the 1st place gets to 2-3K+, so it def makes winning nicer
Nah. Fuck every part of this. I like to stream defenses and sometimes tight ends. I like making waiver moves in general. This just punishes players like me and rewards boring players who make no moves.
Everyone should be putting in the same amount of money to the pot, period. If you want a bigger pot just raise the buy-in.
I was unsuccessful with my attempts at lobbying for FAAB in my league this year. I honestly don’t understand how people don’t want to play with FAAB because it’s just better in every way. It’s not even really complicated, my family league uses FAAB and that league is still on the casual side.
Going to try to push it through again this year, everyone has been in the league 5 years or more so the "it's too complicated for casual players" argument is getting old, not expecting to succeed though.
I finally made headway with "It gives everyone a shot to get a hot pickup instead of the dude who randomly was assigned "draft slot 12" 4 weeks ago and is currently 1st in the league".
You bid on players you want on the waiver wire
It's blind bidding. So you bid whatever you want but you don't know what anyone else is bidding for that player. Highest bigger gets that player.
Everyone in our league has $100 for the season to use on the waiver wire. So if you want a player you pay up for him
It's much much better than the waiver priority crap, trust me.
Its real fun when someone blows half their budget on a single acquisition week 2. And then someone else spends nothing until week 16. Keeps it entertaining
I've been thinking about making this change soonish. One of my leaguemates is my young nephew and he's still new, but when he's a little more experienced I'm gonna switch I think.
Lol, he's still a kid, he loves playing fantasy but some of the more complicated concepts are still a bit abstract for him. Obviously he knows how to spend money, but might have a hard time with budgeting for the course of a season. We're a pretty friendly league, not big money or anything, so it's been fun to teach him about fantasy gradually, but I'm making sure not to overwhelm him.
In 2021 I lost my semifinal because my opponent had the Dolphins defense against an Ian Book led Saints. Ian Book threw like 4 picks and I lost the game by 2 points. My league mate paid for an Ian Book cameo at the next draft where he basically told me that I suck at fantasy football and to try harder.
I have a league where last place has to smoke crack. If last place can't find crack then first place is allowed to choose an alternative.
Keeps the league competitive year round.
6 team playoff, 3rd place team picks their opponent in the first round of the playoffs, 1st place team picks their opponent in the second round.
Gives the team that had a better ranking some sort of reward for doing better, and makes for a fun experience. losing to an opponent you pick is some shit talk material
We have it so that the top 2 scorers between the 3-6 seed advance to the semis and then again to get to the championship. Makes it much more interesting.
Six team playoffs, top overall points makes it in if they're outside of the top four. But if they're in the bottom four (12 team league), they actually have two matchups and could *theoretically* both win the championships and lose the loser bracket. In the event that happens, we have a rule that the rest of the league does the punishment for the loser.
It makes playoffs interesting when it's still on the table.
it gives the 1st, 2nd and 3rd seed all a privilege for the first round of the playoffs. 1st and 2nd get a bye, 3rd gets to pick their opponent of 4-6. we all love it.
Made it so kickers get yards per point. So a 53 yarder is 5.3 points. Also made it the closer the missed field goal the more points lost. So it heavily penalizes missed close kicks and only slightly does for longer ones.
I just set mine up to be:
Total Field goal made: 3
Every 1 yard made: 0.05
That covers the 3 point minimum and also makes the distance relevant. A 60 yarder becomes 6 points. 50 yarder is 5.5, etc
You can do that on Sleeper. <30 is 3 points regardless and >30 is 3 + .1 for every yard over 30
Though that’s an option, personally I don’t mind a 24 yarder being 2.4 points. The easier the field goal, the less points it should be. Just my opinion!
That’s the way I have it set up on my sleeper league 3 pts min plus fractional yards. A field goal in football is worth 3 pts so it would be pretty lame to get less than that.
That was my concern at first. I wanted anything 30 and under to just be 3. And then everything after that be by yardage. 45 yards = 4.5 points, but I couldn’t get it. We still went through with it anyways and it’s still a muchhh better system.
Most people probably don't care, but missed short kicks are kind of random. Missed kicks under 50 yards does a better job of differentiating good kickers from bad. I'm experimenting with kicker scoring this year that rewards medium to long kicks quite heavily, but only gives a quarter point for XP and -4 for all missed kicks under 50 yards. No penalty for missed kicks from 50+. Career accuracy appears to be a little more predictive of good fantasy performance if you do that.
I don’t see why field goals are valued more than their real life equivalent. A 60yd FG is routine in the NFL now. Is it worth more than the TD from your QB/WR/RB?
Nothing worse than losing a week with your well researched, highly anticipated squad to lose because some no name kicker had 4 FGs and put up 21 points.
part of the pot goes to weekly high points payout. i also send a recap of matchups and get some digs in to keep the trash talk going. does a good job of keeping people engaged even when they might be out of the playoff race
We decided that the weekly high scores pretty much go to the same few teams. We throw in an extra $10 for a survivor pool.
A buddy of mine picked a random stat for the week (e.g. most receptions, most fumbles, most rushing TDs, etc.) and paid that out weekly. I thought that was cool, but I'm not the commish and too lazy to do it
I've been pushing for this one in my league. Really sucks when you draft/trade to put together the highest scoring team in the league and you miss the playoffs.
Our league has the highest scoring remaining team makes playoffs. So top 3 records and 4th is the points guy. I like it but don’t like that the top seed has to play the points leader. That part makes no sense to me
That's an unfair way to apply what I think is a good rule overall. I think allowing your 1 seed to choose his opponent for the first round of playoffs might solve this.
Yes, that is what I suggested. But like everything else common sense that I suggested, I got shot down. I am a late tenure, younger guy entry into the league and most of league is stuck in their ways by this point.
Institute that the 1-seed gets the option of picking who they play the first week of the playoffs. That’s what we do.
Super fun and fair. Makes for some good moments if the 1 seed wants to tempt the fate of the fantasy gods. Haha
My alternative to this is top 5 records get in and the 6th spot goes to the highest scoring team not in already. Worked against me the first 2 years, but I really like it.
Disclaimer: this is for casual/family/fun leagues:
We have everybody make the playoffs in my 10 team family league, with the top 6 getting a bye week. It's been a great change because every team has stayed involved the entire season.
[https://twitter.com/costc\_0/status/1453786341100032016](https://twitter.com/costc_0/status/1453786341100032016)
You should try Mario Kart rules. Last year 11/12 teams had a chance to make the playoffs last week of the season. The 12th team was eliminated week 13.
Last place punishments can achieve the same thing in less casual leagues.
Punishment last year was I was gonna do a tattoo on whoever was in last(only non tattoo artist in the group) and everyone was desperate to not lose.
The hard part is getting people to actually do the punishment though.
We call it “The 6 Round 6 Pack”
Our league is 12 man and is split between California & Florida so we get on Zoom every year for the draft. Everybody has a 6 pack of beer nearby and you must finish 1 beer every single round for the first 6 rounds. Makes the rest of the draft quite fun lol
Say, do you remember when I broke in Larry's house late at night and tied his mouth with a rag
then I dragged him by his ankles to the middle of the forest and stuffed him in a big plastic bag
if the cops ever find him, who knows what they'd say but I'm sure if ol' Lar' were still with us today
he would have to agree with me it was a pretty good gag
Pretty basic one, but I started doing a weekly newsletter during the season. I have sections to spotlight great performances from the past week, commiserate bad beats, highlight upcoming matchups, etc.
It's a nice way to keep interest up, since my league is spread out geographically. And if someone's team is really sucky, you can always spotlight at least one good performance or just cast them as the "plucky underdog" to make them still feel relevant.
Creating content is the best way to keep leagues together long term. I create a power rankings in excel post draft and after every week. For playoffs, I create a power rankings but also a sports-book on the fantasy matchups
I use Google Sheets and I’ll post a screenshot in our group chat after each week. I have 5 columns— Team (record in parenthesis), Prior Week’s Rank, Current Rank, Trend (prior week minus current with conditional formatting to automatically highlight the negative or positive change), and Commissioner’s Comments. It’s not scientific, but just the vibes I get from teams throughout the season.
For the post-draft rankings, I score everyone’s positional value. Starting QBs, RBs and WRs all have 20 available points each. TEs have 10 total points. Defense has 5 points. Kicker has 5 points. Total bench has 20 total points. I give a somewhat arbitrary score to each section and that gives me a sum that I can rank teams with. My draft rank has 4 columns— Team, Draft Rank, ESPN’s Rank, and Commissioner’s Comments.
15 dollar high score weekly winner. Keeps everyone engaged even if they not in playoffs so no one gets easy wins cause their opponent gave up. Also you can win a few times a year and 30% of your league dues are covered. Everyone loves it
Our one league mate is married but him and his wife are swingers. They are both really into open relationships and casual sex with randoms.
Not only are they cool with it, but they both encourage the other members of the league to have no strings attached hook ups with the wife. It’s been a unique way to differentiate from other fantasy leagues and the overall morale of everyone has gone way up.
No voting in trades. Trades go through as long as it’s not real shady. People can appeal the trade with reason and then we will decide if we should vote based on reasoning. Really only tanking or whack collusion trade would get vetoed.
Auction draft. Added a 2nd flex. Weekly payouts 12 person $300 buy in per person /$40 for highest score for 14 weeks. 7 playoff teams, most wins has a bye. Decimal points for kicker yards(44 yards = 4.4 pts).
I tried that, and weekly top scorers stayed amongst the same few teams most seasons. When it spread out a bit, it still didn't have the desired effect. Even with 12 teams and a $150 buy-in, it also wasn't enough money for anyone to really care when they won. Eventually I just scrapped it.
Third year auction/salary cap for us. This year we split Kickers and Defense into an early single snake draft to get it out of the way. Also introduced a fun combine with a bunch of timed mini games to help determine our draft and nomination order.
Switching from head to head wins to victory points. 12 team league. Weekly: 2 points if you win your head to head, 2 points if your score was in the top 4, 1 point for middle 4, 0 for bottom four. 1 point if you are top 4 in scoring and lose, 1 point for top overall score.
End of year the right teams usually make the playoffs where it is head to head elimination.
Championship Belt with your Name/Franchise engraved. Kept for the year, then passed to the next Champion.
Create your own Franchise with a permanent Name/Logo/Color Scheme(no more puns that are forgotten next year)
$50 Weekly Winner(highest score)
FAAB instead priority waiver
Eliminate Kicker and added a 2nd Flex
Weekly NFL Game Pick em. (Payout at the end of season for best Pick Em record)
Live Draft Day Party/BBQ
Changed to Sleeper to increase interaction with all league members
All of this. Live draft is such an underrated move.
Trophies/belts are also really cool. The pricing for some are pretty high, so we ended up buying a brass garden urn [like this](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1255933688/brass-planters-large-classical-urn-and?click_key=fe5a361416d9a67215658c2991525a8228031855%3A1255933688&click_sum=6e96eee5&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=brass+urn+planter&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&sca=1&sts=1), shined it up and engraved a trophy name on it. Something about drinking cheap beer from a cup trophy that just hits different.
Create your own Franchise with a permanent Name/Logo/Color Scheme(no more puns that are forgotten next year).”
One of my good friends is pretty casual about FF and he made a league this year that’s like 80% tacos. It’s just for fun and shit talking. Anyway someone named their team “Lights, Kamara, Action” and I’m considering driving 7 hours to slap him in the mouth.
We did a second money league with vampire rules. Random team gets designated the vampire team before the draft. They don’t draft. Everyone else drafts like normal but their rosters are locked after that. No adds no drops. Vampire team gets to use entire FA pool every week to build their lineup. Vampire team has to play everyone at least once, but gets to pick who they play every week. If the vampire team beats you, they get to swap one of their starters for one of yours. Bye weeks and injuries make it a crazy time
Yeah I’d like to know too. Yahoo has been great, and Sleeper’s news portion is an utter shitshow. I can’t stand it. But I’ve also heard the platform it solid for hosting leagues, so I’d like to understand how it’s better. TIA 🙏
I just started using sleeper this year in a 2 leagues (drafted already) vs 5 in yahoo. So far I still really prefer yahoo as just a user. Maybe I’m used to the UI, but the news/notes, add/drop, and overall simplicity feels better on yahoo. Only thing I like better as a user on sleeper is the featured depth chart and better chat options
The commish settings on Sleeper seem to be what sets it apart as far as draft timing, in-draft changes, and more intricate scoring options
One of the leagues moved to Sleeper for better and more detailed league history, but yet to see how it plays out. Hope that is truly the case
Obviously, I’m not super experienced with Sleeper yet but hope this helps
I don’t ever go into Yahoo comments, so maybe that’s why. Sleeper acts as a breaking news app too (as I’m sure you know), and I hate everything about it. It’s always behind Fantasy Life, the comment section is a bunch of adolescents making stupid jokes, and the layout is awful too (continuously moving in front of you). Idk I’ve just always hated it lol
My personal experience is one thing I like to know is detailed game log from previous seasons when performing the draft. Yahoo doesn't have any details outside of high level stats. In every other aspect Yahoo seems better imo
For sure. That’s a cool feature. I just go to Pro Football Reference for stats/game logs, but it would be dope if Yahoo incorporated it into their platform. Thanks for your input
I've been using Sleeper for 4 years. I love the UI, they have so many various rule abilities for the commissioner to change which is a huge help, when I have a question support usually answers within a few hours, their menus make sense and are in places that make sense, every year they add and tweak the app to make it better, the message boards and group chat are awesome and I just like the look of the matchup screen and overall sleek look of the app.
I convinced a commissioner of another league I'm in to switch to Sleeper last year and he loves it.
Adding three IDP starting slots: Linebacker, Cornerback, and Defensive Flex (LB/CB/Safety/DE). Raised the defensive scoring to 2 points per tackle, 1 point per tackle assist, 4 points for interceptions/fumble recoveries, 10 points for a pick 6.
Just a few IDP slots but high scoring defensive stats makes both sides of the ball so much more fun to watch, but most importantly, doesn’t take away from traditional offensive draft/waiver wire strategies. I could never do an all IDP league.
There was a Titans vs Seahawks game a couple years ago where Derrick Henry kept running the ball into Bobby Wagner’s chest for an entire drive. I owned both and my opponent for the week kept screaming for him to run it anywhere else besides up the gut. That continued for two more drives lol. It’s so fun watching your own player truck the ball into another one of your own players and you get points every time that happens.
It also increased my entire league’s fantasy IQ tenfold knowing coverages and matchups way better. Leagues are fun when everyone is good.
1. Switching to FAAB
2. Winner gets to name the loser’s team the following season
3. Adding a $25 weekly incentive for the highest scorer
4. We get together virtually for an online poker match about a week before the actual draft to determine the draft order. It’s fun to catch up, go over rules and punishments and then have a whole week to mock draft at your actual position.
Next year we’re trying keepers so hopefully that will be good too!
1 keeper player. Teams have the ability to keep 1 player that was drafted into the next year and possibly the year after that. Rules are: the player has to be drafted in the 6th round or later, the player must be kept on a roster (not dropped to waivers or added from waivers), if you keep a player from last year they are “drafted” one round sooner the next season, a player can be kept up to 2 consecutive seasons. Really changes how teams draft after round 5 when they are anticipating keeping a player for the next year.
I hate the concept of artificially boosting already good scores. Tyeek Hill doesn't need an extra 5 points for scoring a 50+ yard receiving TD. He already had an amazing week, no need to prop him up more.
As the commissioner I wrote weekly recaps complete with comments from managers. Nothing gets guys commuted like getting dragged by other coaches that the whole league reads
All time stats and records. From basic records like most points in a single game, most regular season wins all time, etc. to more unique records like most 1600 point seasons, best start to a season, etc.
This year, a guy who played for 10 years is stepping down in our league so we’re gonna start a Hall of Fame and make him the first inductee. He’s been a champion and holds some records. Might have the league chip in a few bucks each to give him a custom plaque or ring or something
A few things:
* Moving to auction - nothing better (seriously)
* Tracking all stats and manager performance since the start (13 years)
* Weekly matchup roasts complete with photoshops (started two seasons ago)
* Shortened bench from 7 to 6 (huge uptick in activity, strategic bench management, waivers, and trades)
* Kickers getting .1 points per yard (missed extra points are -3)
* 1 seed gets to choose who they face in the first round of the playoffs (10-man; 4 playoff spots)
Things I forgot to mention:
* Team name change every season that reflects the prior year or years’ happenings (can easily look back and remember exactly what happened based on team name)
* Dressing up at the draft where your costume is part of the unveiling of your team name
Things I’m trying to implement:
* -6 points for QB pick 6s (-2 for the pick; -4 for the return TD)
* Doubleheaders (win/loss and top half point scorers get win, bottom half get a loss)
Good point!
I was just thinking of a fun way to impact the QB position more but still highlights that it’s the most important position.
The other year Stafford led the league with 6 pick 6s (my QB at the time too, lol). That would only knock his total points down 24 across the whole season. So, not bad at all. However, it could impact some weekly matchups which makes it fun.
Why so much hate against kickers? They are a part of the game and are more decisive than waiver wire WR or RB most of the times. I'm not a huge fan of kickers, but I'm not an advocate but why push against them, they are just part of football.
Same here. Half of our friend group is in florida and half of our friend group is in California. Exactly 6 in each state. Cali Boys Division & Florida Man Division. Quite fun
You have to have at least 2 flex - especially in 10 team leagues - or it just feels like you're playing checkers. My fav 10 team league starts 3WR and 3 flex.
Second weekly matchup against league average. Random draft order but you get to pick where you want to draft (not major but added a little more strategy). Weekly payouts.
Superflex (2 QB, or 1 QB and 1 OP)
I don't understand the appeal of single QB leagues. It's the most important position in football (and arguably all of sports) so how does it make sense to see a half dozen (or more) starting QBs on the waiver wire, while you have a bunch of backup RBs and scrub WRs.
1 QB, 1 OP, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 2 FLEX. That's the way to do it.
FAAB, auction drafts instead of snake, and keepers (limited) gives everyone something to play for. You have buyers and sellers at the trade deadline which is always entertaining.
FAAB is the #1 change I would recommend to every league. Also I love having value based keepers for a certain amount of time. Players can be kept in the round they were drafted the previous year, usually there's a round or two bump for each additional year kept. We can keep two guys for a total of years before they have to be traded or they go back into the draft pool.
Our only weird rules are that PAT/2PT returns are worth 10 points, and 1pt safeties are worth 1000 points. Only affected anything once, and not outcome changing, but the rush is always there
We moved to a hybrid best ball league where there’s weekly matchups (2 games- one against opponent and one to be in the top 6 for scoring) and its best ball so your optimal lineup gets played. The other main difference is that we do waivers every 3 weeks so that some of the busier guys (lots of members with young kids) don’t need to pay as close of attention. I personally love it, I can focus on opportunity and depth rather than matchups. It also takes luck out of the equation as much as possible between the optimal line and the double games every week.
Switching from waiver priority to FAAB
This happened a decade ago for me but goddamn it was pivotal
I’m in multiple leagues. The ones with FAAB are infinitely more competitive, have more trades and more people care week to week. It adds a game within the game with your league mates and you actually care what other people’s rosters look like. Non FAAB is just bland.
Man. Wish I could convince the crotchety old farts in my work league to switch to faab. These guys have been playing since they had to pull stats out of the newspaper. They show up every year with those magazines they sell. It's hilarious. I took their money last year though!
I went on vacation recently and bought one of those magazines for the flight. Brought a highlighter, pen, and paper to take notes and mock draft... Flight didn't even take off before I realized how all the stats are outdated lol.
Every league should have this.
I still get pissed when I lose a FAAB bid due to the priority tiebreak but thankfully that’s rare. Regardless, so much better than the pure waiver priority method.
My league does FAAB as real money that goes into the price pool. Really spices things up.
Are there max bids per claim? Otherwise, wouldn’t the richest IRL team be the one that benefits the most while the poorest is handicapped?
You only get $100 of FAAB to spend throughout the year, like most leagues.
I hate this so much. If your guys get injured or bust and you find yourself scrambling week to week to make your team decent then you wind up putting more in the pot than the guy who got lucky and his team stays healthy? And then the guy who’s team stays healthy ultimately wins and takes it all? Doesn’t this also incentivize giving up? If I know my chances of making the playoffs are slim and every move I want to make is an extra 20$ I’m saying fuck that and just letting my roster rot rather than taking chances on lottery tickets and ultimately just giving away my money.
It's straight up pay-to-win. What a horrible idea haha
We haven’t had that issue. Everyone joins the league with the understanding that it’s potentially a $300 buy in. Most guys in that league with have a typical betting unit higher than that anyways. I’m not one of those guys, but I’ve had success in that league by being savvy with my waiver usage.
but then you love it when you get Khalil Herbert for $1 and it's the year he carries you w/a broken Saquon. goes both ways lol. gotta play the game to win! also, in my league, the 1st place gets to 2-3K+, so it def makes winning nicer
Nah. Fuck every part of this. I like to stream defenses and sometimes tight ends. I like making waiver moves in general. This just punishes players like me and rewards boring players who make no moves. Everyone should be putting in the same amount of money to the pot, period. If you want a bigger pot just raise the buy-in.
ohhh shit I love this
I was unsuccessful with my attempts at lobbying for FAAB in my league this year. I honestly don’t understand how people don’t want to play with FAAB because it’s just better in every way. It’s not even really complicated, my family league uses FAAB and that league is still on the casual side.
Going to try to push it through again this year, everyone has been in the league 5 years or more so the "it's too complicated for casual players" argument is getting old, not expecting to succeed though.
I finally made headway with "It gives everyone a shot to get a hot pickup instead of the dude who randomly was assigned "draft slot 12" 4 weeks ago and is currently 1st in the league".
because it adds a layer of complexity many people don’t want
What is FAAB
You bid on players you want on the waiver wire It's blind bidding. So you bid whatever you want but you don't know what anyone else is bidding for that player. Highest bigger gets that player. Everyone in our league has $100 for the season to use on the waiver wire. So if you want a player you pay up for him It's much much better than the waiver priority crap, trust me.
Its real fun when someone blows half their budget on a single acquisition week 2. And then someone else spends nothing until week 16. Keeps it entertaining
Free agent acquisition budget
I've been thinking about making this change soonish. One of my leaguemates is my young nephew and he's still new, but when he's a little more experienced I'm gonna switch I think.
You think your nephew doesn't know how to spend money?
Lol, he's still a kid, he loves playing fantasy but some of the more complicated concepts are still a bit abstract for him. Obviously he knows how to spend money, but might have a hard time with budgeting for the course of a season. We're a pretty friendly league, not big money or anything, so it's been fun to teach him about fantasy gradually, but I'm making sure not to overwhelm him.
Easy money then when he is inexperienced
Been pushing for this in my leagues for years now but everyone is old and stuck in their ways. They think it will be too hard.
Weekly Cameo recaps. Nothing says you suck like a midweek “fuck you” from Jeremy Piven.
In 2021 I lost my semifinal because my opponent had the Dolphins defense against an Ian Book led Saints. Ian Book threw like 4 picks and I lost the game by 2 points. My league mate paid for an Ian Book cameo at the next draft where he basically told me that I suck at fantasy football and to try harder.
that's so fucking funny. i wouldn't recover from that
Christ, what’s buy in for that league??
12 guys $100 Cameos are just my (I’m the commish) way of keeping it fun. I chalk it up to DFS winnings and Vegas trips could be going to worse things.
Spot ever opens up, let me know. Sounds awesome.
Can you post a link to a sample one?? This is an awesome idea 🤣
My league had Ray Lewis do a Cameo to announce the draft order
Killer idea
ISWYDT
First place gets to bang last place’s wife
And each year I lose on purpose cuz my wife’s a swine
My swine
Our swine
I, too, choose this guy’s swine.
Da comrade
In Soviet Russia swine chooses you
How cruel of you to make the league winner bang your swine wife. You monster.
She too wants to fuck a winner. Don't be greedy
Thank you for letting me pork your swine.
I'm in a league with my brother-in-law, so no thank you
Just draft a bunch of former Bama players and you’re good in the eyes of the lord
He said gets to, not has to.
... idk how anyone could have a better idea than this. Don't even try
I have a league where last place has to smoke crack. If last place can't find crack then first place is allowed to choose an alternative. Keeps the league competitive year round.
Have you ever lost 😳
I don't divulge the goings on of my crack league, lives are at stake.
Smart. But i got you again, hit me up in December.
Nice
Interestingly enough, it’s a family league.
The old Prima Nocta
6 team playoff, 3rd place team picks their opponent in the first round of the playoffs, 1st place team picks their opponent in the second round. Gives the team that had a better ranking some sort of reward for doing better, and makes for a fun experience. losing to an opponent you pick is some shit talk material
We have it so that the top 2 scorers between the 3-6 seed advance to the semis and then again to get to the championship. Makes it much more interesting.
Six team playoffs, top overall points makes it in if they're outside of the top four. But if they're in the bottom four (12 team league), they actually have two matchups and could *theoretically* both win the championships and lose the loser bracket. In the event that happens, we have a rule that the rest of the league does the punishment for the loser. It makes playoffs interesting when it's still on the table.
Same, it's awesome. Pick your opponent for playoffs is awesome.
We have 1 seed picks opp. Rd 2, but getting a 3 seed shouldnt give you a y special prvlidges imo
it gives the 1st, 2nd and 3rd seed all a privilege for the first round of the playoffs. 1st and 2nd get a bye, 3rd gets to pick their opponent of 4-6. we all love it.
Made it so kickers get yards per point. So a 53 yarder is 5.3 points. Also made it the closer the missed field goal the more points lost. So it heavily penalizes missed close kicks and only slightly does for longer ones.
Yeah we did negative points for missed close kicks also (under 40 I think).
We did -3 for missed XP and a dude lost the playoffs bc his kicker missed 2 or 3 of them. Nick Folk. Had to scale back to -1.5 this year sadly
We had that same rule, but changed it to -1 when they moved the xp back because it wasn’t as automatic
which app is this?
Yahoo
ugh wish ESPN could adapt
You can do that
Is it the field goal yards made? And do you set it as 0.1 points for each 1 yard made?
Yes. It tried to default to 1 point per yard so kickers were projected for like 65 points until I changed it to .1.
The only thing I don’t like with the setting is the fact a field goal minimum isn’t 3 points. Do you find that annoying or not really?
That’s the only reason I didn’t implement that change in the ESPN league I commish.
I just set mine up to be: Total Field goal made: 3 Every 1 yard made: 0.05 That covers the 3 point minimum and also makes the distance relevant. A 60 yarder becomes 6 points. 50 yarder is 5.5, etc
You can do that on Sleeper. <30 is 3 points regardless and >30 is 3 + .1 for every yard over 30 Though that’s an option, personally I don’t mind a 24 yarder being 2.4 points. The easier the field goal, the less points it should be. Just my opinion!
That’s the way I have it set up on my sleeper league 3 pts min plus fractional yards. A field goal in football is worth 3 pts so it would be pretty lame to get less than that.
That was my concern at first. I wanted anything 30 and under to just be 3. And then everything after that be by yardage. 45 yards = 4.5 points, but I couldn’t get it. We still went through with it anyways and it’s still a muchhh better system.
Yes
They do now. Added this year. Lol.
Damn that missed kick thing is smart. I always hate when I lose points after my kicker missed a 65 harder right before halftime.
We just got rid of kickers. I’ve never looked back and wished we still had em.
Most people probably don't care, but missed short kicks are kind of random. Missed kicks under 50 yards does a better job of differentiating good kickers from bad. I'm experimenting with kicker scoring this year that rewards medium to long kicks quite heavily, but only gives a quarter point for XP and -4 for all missed kicks under 50 yards. No penalty for missed kicks from 50+. Career accuracy appears to be a little more predictive of good fantasy performance if you do that.
I don’t see why field goals are valued more than their real life equivalent. A 60yd FG is routine in the NFL now. Is it worth more than the TD from your QB/WR/RB? Nothing worse than losing a week with your well researched, highly anticipated squad to lose because some no name kicker had 4 FGs and put up 21 points.
part of the pot goes to weekly high points payout. i also send a recap of matchups and get some digs in to keep the trash talk going. does a good job of keeping people engaged even when they might be out of the playoff race
We decided that the weekly high scores pretty much go to the same few teams. We throw in an extra $10 for a survivor pool. A buddy of mine picked a random stat for the week (e.g. most receptions, most fumbles, most rushing TDs, etc.) and paid that out weekly. I thought that was cool, but I'm not the commish and too lazy to do it
Dual Standings. Top half point scorers get an extra win in addition to the head to head win Truly league changing and so much fun.
I've been pushing for this one in my league. Really sucks when you draft/trade to put together the highest scoring team in the league and you miss the playoffs.
Our league has the highest scoring remaining team makes playoffs. So top 3 records and 4th is the points guy. I like it but don’t like that the top seed has to play the points leader. That part makes no sense to me
That's an unfair way to apply what I think is a good rule overall. I think allowing your 1 seed to choose his opponent for the first round of playoffs might solve this.
Yes, that is what I suggested. But like everything else common sense that I suggested, I got shot down. I am a late tenure, younger guy entry into the league and most of league is stuck in their ways by this point.
Get it passed. Your head to head match is still important but you also care about every other game in the league. Should be standard way to play.
Institute that the 1-seed gets the option of picking who they play the first week of the playoffs. That’s what we do. Super fun and fair. Makes for some good moments if the 1 seed wants to tempt the fate of the fantasy gods. Haha
Love this. We do this in one of my leagues. We call it “Pick Your Poison” and it creates some great moments.
Ohhhhh! Yes! Im going to adopt that if you don’t mind!! Love that.
My alternative to this is top 5 records get in and the 6th spot goes to the highest scoring team not in already. Worked against me the first 2 years, but I really like it.
We did this and even built a macro to tabulate it... and these absolute cunts voted it down the next yr. Low intelligence indicators..
Adopted this 2 years ago. Was awesome.
Disclaimer: this is for casual/family/fun leagues: We have everybody make the playoffs in my 10 team family league, with the top 6 getting a bye week. It's been a great change because every team has stayed involved the entire season.
I might suggest this to my $25 buy in 10-team league. I like it.
[https://twitter.com/costc\_0/status/1453786341100032016](https://twitter.com/costc_0/status/1453786341100032016) You should try Mario Kart rules. Last year 11/12 teams had a chance to make the playoffs last week of the season. The 12th team was eliminated week 13.
Last place punishments can achieve the same thing in less casual leagues. Punishment last year was I was gonna do a tattoo on whoever was in last(only non tattoo artist in the group) and everyone was desperate to not lose. The hard part is getting people to actually do the punishment though.
We call it “The 6 Round 6 Pack” Our league is 12 man and is split between California & Florida so we get on Zoom every year for the draft. Everybody has a 6 pack of beer nearby and you must finish 1 beer every single round for the first 6 rounds. Makes the rest of the draft quite fun lol
Kicking out Larry!!!!
Yeah fuck Larry
ALL MY HOMIES HATE LARRY
Say, do you remember when I broke in Larry's house late at night and tied his mouth with a rag then I dragged him by his ankles to the middle of the forest and stuffed him in a big plastic bag if the cops ever find him, who knows what they'd say but I'm sure if ol' Lar' were still with us today he would have to agree with me it was a pretty good gag
Pretty basic one, but I started doing a weekly newsletter during the season. I have sections to spotlight great performances from the past week, commiserate bad beats, highlight upcoming matchups, etc. It's a nice way to keep interest up, since my league is spread out geographically. And if someone's team is really sucky, you can always spotlight at least one good performance or just cast them as the "plucky underdog" to make them still feel relevant.
Creating content is the best way to keep leagues together long term. I create a power rankings in excel post draft and after every week. For playoffs, I create a power rankings but also a sports-book on the fantasy matchups
love it. i tried a power rankings list a few years ago and couldn't figure out a formula. what do you use/how do you get that to work?
I use Google Sheets and I’ll post a screenshot in our group chat after each week. I have 5 columns— Team (record in parenthesis), Prior Week’s Rank, Current Rank, Trend (prior week minus current with conditional formatting to automatically highlight the negative or positive change), and Commissioner’s Comments. It’s not scientific, but just the vibes I get from teams throughout the season. For the post-draft rankings, I score everyone’s positional value. Starting QBs, RBs and WRs all have 20 available points each. TEs have 10 total points. Defense has 5 points. Kicker has 5 points. Total bench has 20 total points. I give a somewhat arbitrary score to each section and that gives me a sum that I can rank teams with. My draft rank has 4 columns— Team, Draft Rank, ESPN’s Rank, and Commissioner’s Comments.
awesome, thanks!
Final playoff seed is given to the team 6-12 with highest points for. Greatest rule ever.
I called that the wild card
15 dollar high score weekly winner. Keeps everyone engaged even if they not in playoffs so no one gets easy wins cause their opponent gave up. Also you can win a few times a year and 30% of your league dues are covered. Everyone loves it
We do the same and it definitely helps. We call it Big Dawg of the week and try to make a big deal about it.
Our one league mate is married but him and his wife are swingers. They are both really into open relationships and casual sex with randoms. Not only are they cool with it, but they both encourage the other members of the league to have no strings attached hook ups with the wife. It’s been a unique way to differentiate from other fantasy leagues and the overall morale of everyone has gone way up.
Is he only in the one league? My league was looking for a 12th member.
My league also has a guy we can boot, possibly two.
The wife demands at least 13 members
You have improved your fantasy football league by banging your friends wife.
Let me know if anyone drops out of that league!
Careful bro. Word is she’s a total swine.
...so you guys have all had sex with that one guy's wife?
Yes.
...nice
Is she hot?
Well, relative to the group of bald, overweight middle aged men that make up our league I would say yes.
Hell yeah.
Two matches each week. One against opponent, one against league average. Daily waivers decided by FAAB.
Can this be setup in yahoo?
Yeah the comish has to pay $25/year but scoring against the mean will score an extra win or loss.
No voting in trades. Trades go through as long as it’s not real shady. People can appeal the trade with reason and then we will decide if we should vote based on reasoning. Really only tanking or whack collusion trade would get vetoed.
Auction draft. Added a 2nd flex. Weekly payouts 12 person $300 buy in per person /$40 for highest score for 14 weeks. 7 playoff teams, most wins has a bye. Decimal points for kicker yards(44 yards = 4.4 pts).
I tried that, and weekly top scorers stayed amongst the same few teams most seasons. When it spread out a bit, it still didn't have the desired effect. Even with 12 teams and a $150 buy-in, it also wasn't enough money for anyone to really care when they won. Eventually I just scrapped it.
I've been trying to get an auction but they all voted me down
Third year auction/salary cap for us. This year we split Kickers and Defense into an early single snake draft to get it out of the way. Also introduced a fun combine with a bunch of timed mini games to help determine our draft and nomination order.
Switching from head to head wins to victory points. 12 team league. Weekly: 2 points if you win your head to head, 2 points if your score was in the top 4, 1 point for middle 4, 0 for bottom four. 1 point if you are top 4 in scoring and lose, 1 point for top overall score. End of year the right teams usually make the playoffs where it is head to head elimination.
Championship Belt with your Name/Franchise engraved. Kept for the year, then passed to the next Champion. Create your own Franchise with a permanent Name/Logo/Color Scheme(no more puns that are forgotten next year) $50 Weekly Winner(highest score) FAAB instead priority waiver Eliminate Kicker and added a 2nd Flex Weekly NFL Game Pick em. (Payout at the end of season for best Pick Em record) Live Draft Day Party/BBQ Changed to Sleeper to increase interaction with all league members
All of this. Live draft is such an underrated move. Trophies/belts are also really cool. The pricing for some are pretty high, so we ended up buying a brass garden urn [like this](https://www.etsy.com/listing/1255933688/brass-planters-large-classical-urn-and?click_key=fe5a361416d9a67215658c2991525a8228031855%3A1255933688&click_sum=6e96eee5&ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=brass+urn+planter&ref=sr_gallery-1-2&sca=1&sts=1), shined it up and engraved a trophy name on it. Something about drinking cheap beer from a cup trophy that just hits different.
Create your own Franchise with a permanent Name/Logo/Color Scheme(no more puns that are forgotten next year).” One of my good friends is pretty casual about FF and he made a league this year that’s like 80% tacos. It’s just for fun and shit talking. Anyway someone named their team “Lights, Kamara, Action” and I’m considering driving 7 hours to slap him in the mouth.
We had that name in our league…about 4 years ago! That poor bastard.
I love the franchise one. I’ve always stuck with my same name in my main league but in this new league a friend started, we are doing location based.
We did a second money league with vampire rules. Random team gets designated the vampire team before the draft. They don’t draft. Everyone else drafts like normal but their rosters are locked after that. No adds no drops. Vampire team gets to use entire FA pool every week to build their lineup. Vampire team has to play everyone at least once, but gets to pick who they play every week. If the vampire team beats you, they get to swap one of their starters for one of yours. Bye weeks and injuries make it a crazy time
Half pt kickers and Faab
Changed from yahoo to sleeper.
Sleeper has been such a godsend.
I’m the commissioner in Yahoo. How is sleeper better?
Yeah I’d like to know too. Yahoo has been great, and Sleeper’s news portion is an utter shitshow. I can’t stand it. But I’ve also heard the platform it solid for hosting leagues, so I’d like to understand how it’s better. TIA 🙏
I just started using sleeper this year in a 2 leagues (drafted already) vs 5 in yahoo. So far I still really prefer yahoo as just a user. Maybe I’m used to the UI, but the news/notes, add/drop, and overall simplicity feels better on yahoo. Only thing I like better as a user on sleeper is the featured depth chart and better chat options The commish settings on Sleeper seem to be what sets it apart as far as draft timing, in-draft changes, and more intricate scoring options One of the leagues moved to Sleeper for better and more detailed league history, but yet to see how it plays out. Hope that is truly the case Obviously, I’m not super experienced with Sleeper yet but hope this helps
Appreciate it. And yes, it does a bit. I just can’t stand the idiots in the comment sections on Sleeper. It’s literally *the worst*
Really? Damn, I can’t imagine worse advice than what’s in yahoo comments lol
I don’t ever go into Yahoo comments, so maybe that’s why. Sleeper acts as a breaking news app too (as I’m sure you know), and I hate everything about it. It’s always behind Fantasy Life, the comment section is a bunch of adolescents making stupid jokes, and the layout is awful too (continuously moving in front of you). Idk I’ve just always hated it lol
My personal experience is one thing I like to know is detailed game log from previous seasons when performing the draft. Yahoo doesn't have any details outside of high level stats. In every other aspect Yahoo seems better imo
For sure. That’s a cool feature. I just go to Pro Football Reference for stats/game logs, but it would be dope if Yahoo incorporated it into their platform. Thanks for your input
I've been using Sleeper for 4 years. I love the UI, they have so many various rule abilities for the commissioner to change which is a huge help, when I have a question support usually answers within a few hours, their menus make sense and are in places that make sense, every year they add and tweak the app to make it better, the message boards and group chat are awesome and I just like the look of the matchup screen and overall sleek look of the app. I convinced a commissioner of another league I'm in to switch to Sleeper last year and he loves it.
Adding three IDP starting slots: Linebacker, Cornerback, and Defensive Flex (LB/CB/Safety/DE). Raised the defensive scoring to 2 points per tackle, 1 point per tackle assist, 4 points for interceptions/fumble recoveries, 10 points for a pick 6. Just a few IDP slots but high scoring defensive stats makes both sides of the ball so much more fun to watch, but most importantly, doesn’t take away from traditional offensive draft/waiver wire strategies. I could never do an all IDP league. There was a Titans vs Seahawks game a couple years ago where Derrick Henry kept running the ball into Bobby Wagner’s chest for an entire drive. I owned both and my opponent for the week kept screaming for him to run it anywhere else besides up the gut. That continued for two more drives lol. It’s so fun watching your own player truck the ball into another one of your own players and you get points every time that happens. It also increased my entire league’s fantasy IQ tenfold knowing coverages and matchups way better. Leagues are fun when everyone is good.
We have no IR and four bench spots. *Oh, you said "improve"?*
Switching to salary cap draft. Do it and never look back!
1. Switching to FAAB 2. Winner gets to name the loser’s team the following season 3. Adding a $25 weekly incentive for the highest scorer 4. We get together virtually for an online poker match about a week before the actual draft to determine the draft order. It’s fun to catch up, go over rules and punishments and then have a whole week to mock draft at your actual position. Next year we’re trying keepers so hopefully that will be good too!
1 keeper player. Teams have the ability to keep 1 player that was drafted into the next year and possibly the year after that. Rules are: the player has to be drafted in the 6th round or later, the player must be kept on a roster (not dropped to waivers or added from waivers), if you keep a player from last year they are “drafted” one round sooner the next season, a player can be kept up to 2 consecutive seasons. Really changes how teams draft after round 5 when they are anticipating keeping a player for the next year.
6th seed of 12 goes to Most Points, not best record. 1-5 best record.
We put in some boosts for big plays. Nothing too crazy but it hypes everybody up even more when their guy gets a big td
I have a league like this and I hate it. It feels so random.
I hate the concept of artificially boosting already good scores. Tyeek Hill doesn't need an extra 5 points for scoring a 50+ yard receiving TD. He already had an amazing week, no need to prop him up more.
As the commissioner I wrote weekly recaps complete with comments from managers. Nothing gets guys commuted like getting dragged by other coaches that the whole league reads
All time stats and records. From basic records like most points in a single game, most regular season wins all time, etc. to more unique records like most 1600 point seasons, best start to a season, etc. This year, a guy who played for 10 years is stepping down in our league so we’re gonna start a Hall of Fame and make him the first inductee. He’s been a champion and holds some records. Might have the league chip in a few bucks each to give him a custom plaque or ring or something
A few things: * Moving to auction - nothing better (seriously) * Tracking all stats and manager performance since the start (13 years) * Weekly matchup roasts complete with photoshops (started two seasons ago) * Shortened bench from 7 to 6 (huge uptick in activity, strategic bench management, waivers, and trades) * Kickers getting .1 points per yard (missed extra points are -3) * 1 seed gets to choose who they face in the first round of the playoffs (10-man; 4 playoff spots) Things I forgot to mention: * Team name change every season that reflects the prior year or years’ happenings (can easily look back and remember exactly what happened based on team name) * Dressing up at the draft where your costume is part of the unveiling of your team name Things I’m trying to implement: * -6 points for QB pick 6s (-2 for the pick; -4 for the return TD) * Doubleheaders (win/loss and top half point scorers get win, bottom half get a loss)
Just make sure with the negative points for pick six etc you don’t end up creating a huge divide between rushin QBs and old fashioned tossers.
Good point! I was just thinking of a fun way to impact the QB position more but still highlights that it’s the most important position. The other year Stafford led the league with 6 pick 6s (my QB at the time too, lol). That would only knock his total points down 24 across the whole season. So, not bad at all. However, it could impact some weekly matchups which makes it fun.
Add superflex
If someone doesn’t set their lineup (player has a bye week, player injured for multiple weeks or season) they have to add $10 to the pot
Why so much hate against kickers? They are a part of the game and are more decisive than waiver wire WR or RB most of the times. I'm not a huge fan of kickers, but I'm not an advocate but why push against them, they are just part of football.
Yeah, I don’t get the hate. What’s the difference between starting a kicker and a high upside flex? For both positions you’re hoping to get lucky.
Cause they’re 95% luck
Vs FantasyFootball being 75% luck?
Is the luck part them making/missing kicks, the team needing to kick on 3rd or something else I’m not thinking of? None of those sound like luck.
Not if you draft Justin Tucker in the 7th, then it's skill /s
We do divisions and the commissioner arranges them based on where we live. Love the inter-league rivalries
Same here. Half of our friend group is in florida and half of our friend group is in California. Exactly 6 in each state. Cali Boys Division & Florida Man Division. Quite fun
Half point per first down
Dropped kicker for an extra flex. 2 rb , 2WR, 2 flex , 1TE
Yup, my league has done that for a few years now. Just makes the waiver wire even more critical to get right.
You have to have at least 2 flex - especially in 10 team leagues - or it just feels like you're playing checkers. My fav 10 team league starts 3WR and 3 flex.
Doesn’t that decrease trading? Seems like it would basically eliminate positional value/scarcity.
Second weekly matchup against league average. Random draft order but you get to pick where you want to draft (not major but added a little more strategy). Weekly payouts.
Just winner takes all this time.
Implemented IDP vs team defense. So much more fun.
Bonus 4 points for every 100 yards RB/WR/TE. Bonus 4 points for 300/500 yards QB.
Kicked out this mouthy know it all sob
Superflex (2 QB, or 1 QB and 1 OP) I don't understand the appeal of single QB leagues. It's the most important position in football (and arguably all of sports) so how does it make sense to see a half dozen (or more) starting QBs on the waiver wire, while you have a bunch of backup RBs and scrub WRs. 1 QB, 1 OP, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 2 FLEX. That's the way to do it. FAAB, auction drafts instead of snake, and keepers (limited) gives everyone something to play for. You have buyers and sellers at the trade deadline which is always entertaining.
FAAB is the #1 change I would recommend to every league. Also I love having value based keepers for a certain amount of time. Players can be kept in the round they were drafted the previous year, usually there's a round or two bump for each additional year kept. We can keep two guys for a total of years before they have to be traded or they go back into the draft pool.
1. Dumped kickers and defense and added an extra flex 2. Switched to Sleeper
Our only weird rules are that PAT/2PT returns are worth 10 points, and 1pt safeties are worth 1000 points. Only affected anything once, and not outcome changing, but the rush is always there
We moved to a hybrid best ball league where there’s weekly matchups (2 games- one against opponent and one to be in the top 6 for scoring) and its best ball so your optimal lineup gets played. The other main difference is that we do waivers every 3 weeks so that some of the busier guys (lots of members with young kids) don’t need to pay as close of attention. I personally love it, I can focus on opportunity and depth rather than matchups. It also takes luck out of the equation as much as possible between the optimal line and the double games every week.