First, a little background on this wager: I’m a Clemson alum; the girlfriend – Florida State. We’ve been together for about 2 years now and this was our third Clemson-FSU game. The first two went in my favor, the most recent tilt last week did not. I actually didn’t expect it to. Clemson has been a case study about how to take a talented team and run it into the ground. FSU, though not back to the level of play in their heyday, is an improving team under new coach Jimbo Fisher. Yeah, I know Bobby is still hanging around, but it’s fairly obvious he’s not coaching the team.

So while tailgating (and drinking) prior to the game I still felt the need to talk some smack about Clemson winning 4 of the last 5 against FSU and things of that nature. So the girlfriend decided to make me walk the walk if I was going to talk the talk. She suggested a little wager. She’s always mocked me for writing a fantasy football column (Before you tell me to dump her now, she ran the draft board at our draft this year and watches a lot of NFL games with me. Far more fantasy football participation than any of her predecessors ever had.), and suggested that if FSU were to beat Clemson that I’d have to write some form of tribute to the ‘Noles in my column.

The result FSU 41 – Clemson 27; time for the tribute.

Editor’s Note: What Mark’s girlfriend doesn’t know is that I went to the University of Miami for two and a half years and there is no way I am going to let this tribute fly. Mark’s girlfriend, you sound like a very cool woman and trust me when I tell you the paragraph that was supposed to be here was a very nice suck-up to FSU. But since the best thing that came out of FSU since Charlie Ward and Warrick Dunn is Mark Richt – whose alma mater was Miami and is now the coach of my alma mater and day-time employer – I’m going to have to “handcuff that tribute paragraph and escort it from the stadium” just like they did with Mr. Shutters at Sanford Stadium, about two blocks from where I work.

Truly,

Matt Waldman

PS -Go Canes! Go Dawgs!

So for some of us, the fantasy football season is approaching its end and we’re looking to next season. I’ve received a batch of e-mails from many people who were dissatisfied with some aspects of their leagues, but one e-mail caught my attention. The author asked what to look for in a good fantasy football league. I not only run my league, I play in three others that each have their good and bad points. I play in the FFToday Staff League which was a no-brainer to join (don’t cost nothin’) and a dynasty league for the challenge. I added an auction league to my slate this season because I had never tried an auction draft (my league voted to stay with the serpentine draft last year).

When joining each of these leagues I never really stopped to think – “is this a good league to join?” I just found one with a format and scoring system I liked, sent my money in and got ready to roll. This system has had mixed results. The FFToday Staff League has been a good challenge and was a great way to prepare for the season. It’s rare to get into a league with 12 quality owners and other than one guy complaining about the trade offers he gets and another who brags about how his team is so much better than the rest (lets see if anyone else from FFToday reads this), it’s been a fun league. The dynasty league and the auction league aren’t bad leagues, but both leave a little to be desired in terms of organization.

Both leagues seem to suffer from lack of interest from the commissioner especially in the auction league where his team only has two wins and his oversight and participation have declined with his winning percentage. The experiences have actually been good for me because they give me perspective on how I run my league.

So after ruminating on all my league play experiences I tried to develop a list of characteristics that will help you evaluate potential leagues and select one that will be enjoyable to you.

1) Understand the Format and Setup – This is simple task, but takes time to read through the rules and understand how the league is structured. If you want a keeper league, make sure the league’s keeper policy is to your liking. Examine how waivers and free agency are handled. Is it a bid system, is it based on won-loss record? Look closely at the roster sizes and starters. I had a new owner in my league this year that didn’t know we had to start a tight end. You need to closely examine all these setup nuances and see if any are deal breakers for you. No league will be structured exactly as you want. Even the league I run has some rules I don’t like, but because most of the other owners like them, I’ve implemented them. You just need to identify what rules or formats have priority for your enjoyment and find a league that offers as much of this as possible.

2) Make Sure the League Has Written Rules – By written rules, I don’t mean a scoring system on the league web page. My rules document contains 9 sections and is about 11 pages long. I know it seems like overkill, but believe me it’s saved a lot of heartache by addressing situations that can cause problems throughout the season. I’m not suggesting you judge the rules by page count, but it should certainly be more than just the scoring system. It should address draft rules and format, free agency, rosters & starters, trading policies and playoff criteria. Scoring is just the tip of the iceberg and if a league doesn’t have written rules concerning these other aspects of play you should be very wary of joining.

3) Make Sure the League has a Trade Deadline – I don’t care what type of league it is. I play in a dynasty league and a keeper league with a trade deadline. Teams that are mathematically eliminated do not need to be trading. It can only cause problems for the league. The NFL is technically a dynasty league and their trade deadline is week 6. You are only asking for problems when you have 2-9 teams trading with 9-2 teams in any format.

4) Fees – When you considering fees, you need to ask yourself why you are playing fantasy football. If it’s purely for fun and you don’t care a lot about whether you win or lose, a zero fee or small fee league will be fine. If you’re competitive, and put a lot of effort into the game, you’ll want to play in a heavier fee league. From my experiences, the following statements usually hold true…

- As fees increase, the activity & competency of owners increase.
- As fees increase, the competitiveness of owners increases (sometimes too far)
- As fees increase, expectations of owners increase, that is the more you charge someone to play in a league, the more they expect a fun and rewarding experience.

Personally, I don’t play free leagues. Typically half the owners have quit by mid-season and playing with people who don’t take it as seriously as I do just isn’t fun. I don’t play so much to win (though that makes it more fun) as much as I play to compete. Beating another owner with half his starters on a bye week isn’t much of a challenge. Big money leagues have their own problems. Owners look for every loophole in the rules to gain an advantage. It takes a strong commissioner to enforce the rules and make judgment calls that benefit the entire league. This boils down to personal preference. Do you want the no-hassle fun league with limited competition or do you want to swim with the sharks where there’s blood in the water. I prefer it somewhere in between.

5) Trading - Trades make leagues fun. Trades also kill leagues. Be sure you understand how your league handles trades. Are they subject to commissioner or league review? How many votes are required to veto a trade? Most owners would put trading as the most fun aspect of fantasy football outside the draft. If you’re a stickler for “fair” trades you probably want to be in a league where you can vote on all perspective trades. If you’re more the type that prefers open trading you’ll want to avoid these leagues. You may even want to look at the transaction log from prior years and see how many and what types of trades are made depending on how much emphasis you place on trading.

6) Relationships – With fantasy football spreading to the web a lot of leagues are simply groups of people with no ties whatsoever. These leagues are okay, but I find league with personal relationships a lot more enjoyable. That being said, there is a drawback to having owners with close relationships, be that a friend, relative or even spouse. It makes it difficult so separate the fantasy football owner-to-owner relationship from the personal relationship. All of the guys in my league know some of the other owners as friends. At times, this prompts concerns regarding trades or lineups but for the most part we all realize how competitive we are and this isn’t a problem. It also makes getting together on Monday night with the league a lot more fun because we have the personal connections. When examining a league, I think you want a group of owners that is close but not too close. I’d have a hard time playing in a league with a commissioner who also had a close relative in the league. Maybe nothing would come of it, but just the appearance of favoritism could tear down that league. I’ve seen it happen several times. For whatever reason, blood relatives and fantasy football seem to be a circumspect mix at best. When considering a league, pay close attention to relationships of the current owners. Talk to as many as you can to get different perspectives on the dynamic of the league. This will give you and idea of what you are getting regarding your co-owners.

7) The Commissioner – With the advent of internet based leagues the role of commissioner has changed somewhat. With scoring and even transactions in some leagues being fully automated some say that the role of the commissioner isn’t much more that paying the fee to the league commissioner service. My contention is that you get what you pay for so-to-speak. I’m not implying you pay the commish, but if you reduce his role to only that of setting up the scoring system on the website, you really don’t have much of a commissioner. As I noted earlier, I play in a dynasty and auction leagues where the commissioner isn’t much more than just another owner and theses have been disappointing leagues for me in a variety of ways. They haven’t been horrible leagues, but I doubt I’ll play in the auction league next year because of the inactivity of the commissioner. I considered quitting the dynasty over a playoff dispute that I felt was not properly handled by the commissioner. However I’ve worked for a couple of years to build that team back and I’m finally seeing results so I’m sticking it out. My point is that I think you are better off with a strong commissioner who makes his presence felt on the league rather than one who doesn’t do much after draft day. Again, this can be carried to far and some commissioners seem to abuse the position. I think there are many commissioners who have set up their league for the sole purpose of winning them. If you have a league history available, check to see the commissioner’s track record. Does he with the league every year? Is he in the playoffs every year? Does he have bad seasons? I’ve run my league for 10 years now. I’ve probably made the playoffs 6 times in those 10 years and I’ve won my league once. As a commissioner, I’d expect league commissioners to be a little better than the average owner because of the additional investment in attention to fantasy football that’s required by the position. However if you are looking at a commissioner that wins the league nearly every year, it’s likely he’s manipulating the league to do so.

I’m sure there are a lot of other things to consider when examining a league but I thought it was worthwhile to give owners a place to start when evaluating a new league. Writing this column has made me realize personally that I didn’t put enough effort into looking for a good league when I was branching out to dynasty and auction formats. I won’t make that mistake again.

Time for a question, this actually came from the message boards, but it’s a situation I could see arising in a lot of leagues, mine included…

Q) Now that the Thursday night games have started, players are locking in their lineup positions at kickoff. Our league has a flex position so we can start 2 running backs and 3 wide receivers or 3 wide receivers and 2 running backs. A player in our league had 2 running backs and 3 wide receivers in his starting lineup as of Thursday. Braylon Edwards was assigned to the “flex” position and is now locked. Now he wants to move Edwards to the wide receiver position so he can start three running backs. Should he be able to do this?

A) On the surface this seems to have a simple answer. The roster spot locks at kickoff and if he’s in the flex at kickoff then he’s locked. However situations like this are where a commissioner’s interpretation of the rules is required. In my mind, if the true intent of the rule is to allow an owner to start either 2RB’s and 3WR’s or vice versa then Edward should be allowed to be moved to a WR slot. I think in this case the rule allowing the variable lineup supersedes the rule locking a player into the “flex” spot when he’s eligible in the WR spot as well.

That’s a wrap for this session. I know the regular season is winding down and this is when I typically explore options for rules changes for next season. If your league has any rules you’d consider unique or unconventional, please send those to me and we’ll look at those next week.