MoSneaky Fantasy Football Online Magazine » Ideas to Improve your Fantasy League

Ideas to Improve your Fantasy League

14 May, 2007 League Tips

Booee Fantasy Football will never obtain the excitement level that currently exists in Fantasy Cock-Fighting, however, with the addition of a few keen rules and traditions, your league can continue to strive to “be all it can be”.

Here are some successful recipes that have been forwarded to us by readers, fellow participants, and the MoSneaky staff to help you better your Fantasy Football experience.

1. Hold a Toilet Bowl at the end of the season
Leagues will often face off the two worst teams in their leagues at the end of the season. The game is usually held the week that the Fantasy SuperBowl takes place. The loser of this game is deemed the “Toilet Bowl Winner”. Along with the shame of receiving this demoralizing title, leagues will often add an extra penalty. Some great examples include:
· Forcing winner to purchase food/beverage for future drafts
· Added monetary penalty
· Blindfolding and dressing up the “Winner”(Loser) in a chicken outfit and tossing them in a river.

2. Have everyone create/purchase a logo
Logos can greatly add to team identification and pride. There are several existing websites that offer fair priced logo design for teams and entire leagues. Nonetheless, professional work is hardly necessary. Doing your own logo, even if your drawing skills aren’t up to par, is a lot more personable and a whole lot more affordable.

Below are some grand samples that show that you don’t necessary need to be an artist to have a worthwhile and effective logo.

3. Create a League web page
Having a league website can be extremely useful and entertaining. As great as this concept can be though, it can be very time intensive for just one person to handle. The best way to handle the load is to switch off weekly article writers, and general website duties.
There are plenty of companies that offer free hosting for you to setup your homepage (i.e. FreeServers.com, Tripod.com).

4. Free Agent Auction / Free Agent Draft
Fantasy Leagues looking for a way to get rid of their “first-come/first served” free agent system should consider these suggestions:

Try holding a weekly auction for all free agent players. The auction method gives everyone a fair chance at the same players. The procedure is executed by giving every team an equal amount of fictitious bidding dollars, which can be used during the season to pick up free agents. Hold the bidding time Sunday thru Tuesday, and offer open Free Agency pickup the rest of the week.
Give the teams with the worst record in your league first pick at free agents.
Hold a second draft during the middle of the season where teams can draft the free agents.

5. Keeper League
One of the best ways to enhance the realism of play is to use Keeper players. Keeper Leagues are a fairly common practice, which works by allowing teams to carry over an allotted amount of players to the next season. It usually involves somewhere between 3-5 skill position players, 1 TE, 1 K, and 1 Defense/S.T.

The one negative aspect of keepers is it tends to dilute the next years draft (especially at the skill position areas). A good resolution to this problem is to put a greater emphasis on rookies.

This is where “Groomer Players” come into action…

5a. Groomer Players
Groomer’s are players that are drafted as rookies, and can be designated a keeper player in the “Groom” spot(s). Leagues will usually allow from 1-3 groomers spots. The Groomer idea is a great one because it places a greater importance on rookies, and adds a lot more value to the ones that won’t be immediate NFL starters.
Using a “Groomer” system allows Keeper Leagues to keep less skilled position players, by replacing them with Groomer Spot,. which helps prevent the dilution of future drafts.

6. Hold an early Draft Order
A majority of leagues hold their draft order on the same day as their draft. A great idea is to hold your draft order months in advance of your actual draft. The ideal time is immediately proceeding your fantasy SuperBowl (especially for leagues that use lottery systems based on prior years records), as this time usually falls around the holidays when many people are on break and can get together for the event.
The benefit of an early draft order is that it allows for ample off-season time to trade draft picks, and prepare Mock Drafts.

7. Draft Day: Use a Draft Board
Fantasy Drafts can be greatly enhanced with two things:
1) Actual NFL Players & Cheerleaders in attendance
2) Draft Boards.
Draft Boards, of course, being the more accessible to most leagues.

Draft Boards add an element of realism to your leagues draft, as well as very functional. There are several websites that sell Draft Boards for about $20-30, or with a little time and effort you could even build your own for less.
If realism is what you are hoping for, I should take this time to mention our sponsor FanDraft.com, which offers a digital draft board. The digital draft board is an interphase mirroring the NFL Draft, with logos, tickers, clocks, and several other little perks. The idea is to run the software on a computer and output the display onto a Television screen or through an LCD Projector. Fairly cool.

8. Create a league fund
A league fund consists of requiring all league members to chip in an allotted amount of money into a league pool. The fund idea tends to be a lot stronger in Keeper leagues, as there is more confidence that owners will be in for the long haul. The fund can be used to purchase needs for the leagues, draft day expenses, or large mountains of blow.

9. League Pro-Bowl
Pro-Bowls can be held the same week as your leagues Super Bowl, which adds a little excitement for the chumps who didn’t make it to the “Big Game”. Another benefit of a Pro-Bowl is that it helps create division rivalry, which is always a bonus.

Players should be voted in during the leagues playoff time. Leagues also often vote a divisional “Coach of the Year”, which then wins the award of coaching (designating starters) for the Pro-Bowl team.