Becoming a commissioner for a Fantasy Football League can be a difficult task if all you ever done before was play as an owner.  One of the first things you need to do is find out what type of league you would like to run as well as develop a good set of rules and regulation for you league to follow. After that you need to develop a scoring system that is fair and balanced per position. Some leagues like to give more strength to running backs and some like the scoring system to be as equal as possible. Whichever way you decided to go try to have your scoring system thought out before you enter it into your leagues fantasy site. The scoring system I use tries to level each position as much as possible. One of the ways to do this is reward bonus points for certain statistics by position. This scoring system is used in my Sportsline league, but can be adapted to other formats and leagues as well.

The first step is to determine what type of league to run, how to handle ties and how to score the different positions in your league.

Take note to the tips many of the fantasy sports sites have and use then to develop your scoring system.

Passing (mainly the Quarterback) gives this category the standard points for throwing touchdowns however, take note to how this category can earn more points by either total passing yards or completed passes for over a certain amount. Creating the right scoring system for a points, yardage, or a combination of the two is extremely important.

The rushing category awards points a lot like passing, but in a different ratio. Try and use previous years statistics and NFL records to develop your distribution for awarded points.

The same goes for receiving as it does for passing and rushing. Find a distribution of points that works, you can always adjust later.

Miscellaneous points are points that don’t fall into any of the other categories, however, take note that you may want to consider negative points for bad events in a game like fumbles and interceptions.

Place kicking is an interesting category in which everyone waits to draft them last and often play little importance in a fantasy football game. However, if you give bonus points for kicking a field goal a certain distance all of the sudden picking a good kicker late in the draft may not seem like a good idea.

Defense can also be a game changing category if set up the right way. Not only do you get points for keeping the opponents score low, but you can also score points for keeping the opposing teams yards low. Defense can  score points for interceptions, fumbles, and sacks. However, if a defense has a bad game then negative points are awarded as you can see in this scoring system.

Establishing a well thought out scoring system will help the league you are running to go more smoothly over the season. Take the time to review the history of scoring for each position to find out what will work best for your league.

Do you have any tips or questions concerning fantasy football or any other fantasy sports team? We would like to hear from you, please feel free to submit a post.

Playing Fantasy Football is a lot of fun and can be, in some cases, incredibly addictive. However, I’ve been in some leagues where the rules of play were either so confusing that as an owner you didn’t know how to follow them or the rules were just a lack there of. I currently run/organize a salary capped keepers league and wanted to give those who were interested in starting one a set of guidelines and rules we use in our league. Please use this article to help you create a fun and entertaining league. This league is set-up using Sportsline, however, these rules can be tailored for the many other Fantasy Football sites and Fantasy League formats. Enjoy!

Rules and Regulations 20xx-20xx
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How to Set Up Fantasy Football Line-ups:

Line-ups can be set five minutes before each game. Once a player has played a game, that player cannot be removed from the active line-up until the end of that week’s games.

Each team’s line-up must have eight (8) active (“A”) players (one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end or wide receiver (Flex Position), one kicker, and one defense), and six reserve (“R”) players, and may have two injured reserve (“IR”) players.

The IRs MUST BE INJURED. The Commissioner will check rosters daily to avoid misuse of the IR positions. If a player is not injured, the Commissioner will call or send an e-mail requesting the team owner to take this player out of the IR position. Two scenarios can happen at this time. The first is that the player may very well be injured and it hasn’t been updated by CBS Sportsline or ESPN (which will be the standard for injury reports) and the player will stay in the injured reserve spot. The second scenario is that the player isn’t injured and the team owner will be asked to remove that player from that position. If the player isn’t injured and the team owner doesn’t remove that player within 24 hours, the player will be placed back into free agency.

If there is a problem with setting line-ups, please don’t hesitate to contact the Commissioner; he will correct all fair requests.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football IR: Continued

This is probably the most talked about section for the entire league, hence requiring a continued explanation of how IR works.  The point of the IR is not to have two extra roster slots to keep and harbor extra players. If a player can play then the player needs to be on the active or reserve position. I also understand that sometimes these decisions of whether a player is playable on game day are not made until the last second before game time. Merely having an injured cross next to the player does not make them injured. For example, Tom Brady was listed as injured the whole year yet he played the entire season.

The rule is if it looks as if your player is truly not going to play in the upcoming game then you can put that player on the IR to make room to add another player through waivers to fill the gap. If that player ends up playing the game then that player needs to be put back into your active/reserve roster for the following week, in which your roster needs to be adjusted accordingly. This move needs to happen during the Wednesday/Thursday waiver process. I understand that this occurrence can happen in consecutive weeks, if it does, then you have to wait until that player doesn’t play a game to put him back on the IR or it is certain that the player is definitely not playing in the game.  I will not manually make this change myself.  The owner needs to use their one waiver pick on Friday.  However, I reserve the right to make changes for special circumstances/services that Sportsline does not provide.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Waivers:

There will be no transaction fees.

You can add and drop up to three players on Thursday through Sportsline. Thursday is the day of execution. This means on Wednesday Sportsline will set the waiver order from weakest team to the strongest team. You can put your request for the players you would like to pick up prior to Wednesday. On Friday, you will be given one last chance to pick up one additional player. Saturday is the day of execution. All players, even the dropped ones, are available for pick-up. If there is a Thursday game, the player you picked up Friday/Saturday will not be able to play that week if on the team that played Thursday. If you have an empty roster spot and everyone has drafted, please contact me or the Co-Comish and we will manually get you the player you need to fill that empty position.  However, every attempt should be made by the owner in-case the Comish /Co-Comish is not available.  In other words, DO NOT RELY ON US!

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Trades:

There can be an unlimited amount of trades until the trade deadline. The trading deadline is 14 November; however, the Commissioner reserves the right to change this date. Team owners will be notified of changes.

Trades can be voided by a vote of league owners. It will take six objections to void a trade. Owners have two days to make their decision if they want to deny or accept the trade; after that it is a legal trade. However, if trade vetos are done out of spite and not out of fair, objective, and logical review, then the Commissioner has the right to overrule trade disputes.

Refer to “Special Rules of the Keeper League” below for additional rules involving trades and drafts.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Playoffs:

The playoffs will start on week 14. It is a three-tier playoff with the winner of each division getting the first round bye. Players 3-6 will play one another based on their power rating. This rating can be found under the “Standings” tab. If there is a tie for the first round bye, the team with the best divisional record will take the bye with the other team taking the next playoff spot. If there is still a tie, the team with the most points scored for the season will take the bye. The same rules will apply for other playoff spots.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Winnings:

Each owner must pay $50 to “buy in” to the league each year. The fee must be paid to the Commissioner on or before draft night. When all entry fees are paid, the total is $500. Fees for running this league through CBS Sportsline is $150, leaving $350 to be distributed amongst the winners. Distribution of winnings are:

First place: $275
Second place: $50
Third place: $25

The top prize may change depending on the cost of awards. The award for the winner will be a plaque that will have the names of all the winners of past years. The year’s Championship winner gets to keep the plaque for the year as long as he remains in the league.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Special Rules of the Keeper League:

Team owners MUST keep either three, four or five players from their previous season’s roster. All other players will be released to the free agency and will be available for draft on draft day. Owners keeping three (3) players will draft beginning in Round 4. Players keeping four (4) players will enter the draft in Round 5. Owners keeping five (5) players will enter the draft in Round 6. There are 14 rounds in the draft, with the first three being the retention of three required players.

Team owners cannot keep any player for more than three consecutive seasons. After maintaining a player for three years, that player MUST be released to the free agency to be eligible to be drafted by another owner. A year, as discussed in previous seasons, is a player who was on a team’s roster for the majority of weeks 1 through 8 of the Fantasy Football (FF) season.  If a player is on your end of year roster that player is listed as playing for your team for that Fantasy Football season.  A team season ends when that team can no longer play any regular or post season games.  The week 8 rule only applies for players that are in their third consecutive year and cannot be traded after week 8.  Those players on the same team in their third year of consecutive play after week eight are not eligible for trade and will be put into the waiver pool for next year.

Team owners may trade players to other owners prior to draft day, but not until the Commissioner opens the season for trades. This date will normally be approximately one week before draft day. The Commissioner will notify all team owners via e-mail. Additionally, team owners may include losing or gaining draft picks as part of the trade when trades occur prior to draft day.

This is a salary-capped league and draft, capped at 110 points/dollars. Owners must field a complete team roster under or equal to that value. It is the owner’s responsibility to ensure players are drafted who meet the team’s needs and salary cap requirements. Player values applying to the salary cap are listed at the end of these rules. Players not listed in the posted list hold a salary value of $1.  Player values are located on the League Home Page/Cover Story/Rankings.  Please refer to this list often because the player values change daily.  As we get closer to the draft date player values will be halted either the day before or the day of the draft.

It is understood that mistakes are sometimes made. If an owner over-drafts too early in the draft, the situation will be rectified by the Commissioner as soon and best as possible. However, most likely, owners will have to drop a player at the end of the draft to make available funds, then acquire appropriate players to complete the above roster and salary cap requirements.

To further help ease the salary cap, owner’s players that become placed on the IR roster will not count toward the salary cap. This rule will go in effect after the draft; owners must draft based on the current player values whether they be injured or healthy. This is a tedious process to maintain, and the Commissioner has enlisted the help of a Co-Commissioner. Therefore, when owners acquire a player off of waivers to replace a VALID injured player, the owner must notify the Commissioner.  In order to satisfy a deficiency with Sportsline’s Fantasy engine, injured player values will follow them to the IR but not go against your Salary Cap.  A max Salary Cap of 210 has been added to cover the IRs salaries.  Each owner still needs to maintain an active/reserve roster of 110, which means you will have to do the math of subtracting the salary of your IR players.  Don’t worry, I’ll be watching as well.  It is the owner’s responsibility to adjust players to satisfy the salary cap requirements and to notify the Commissioner.

Teams cannot score any points for the week if the team is over the salary cap.

Although some of these rules may sound harsh or unfair, this league is a money league in which a cash payout will be received by winning owners. If team owners have an objection, they should e-mail the Commissioner, who will then post it for a league vote (if applicable) or otherwise settle the objection.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football New Owners:

If a new owner is introduced to the league in replacement of one leaving that owner assumes all aspects of that team except for one item.  If the team the new owner takes over has players entering their third year of consecutive play those players will not go to the waiver pool until the following year.

How to Set Up Fantasy Football Revisions:

Unless major revisions are made before the first game of the season, further revisions of importance need to be voted on by the owners before they take effect.

This is just a sample of how the rules for a fantasy football league can be established. When creating a league, you can tailor the rules to fit your needs and desires. Be flexible when establishing the rules, but once established be firm and fair to create a great experience for all involved.

Do you have any tips or questions concerning fantasy football or any other fantasy sports team? We would like to hear from you, please feel free to submit a post.

If you haven’t joined the crazy already it’s never too late to join a fantasy sports league. It’s something I’ve been playing over the past 15 years and I’m still not board of playing. The first fantasy league I joined was fantasy football and when I started it was much simpler than it is today. So, before you get started figure out what type of league you would like to join and then start thinking about rules and regulations, and a scoring system.

Standard or Redraft Leagues

Standard or redraft leagues are the most common out of all fantasy football leagues. The league can have anywhere from 8 to 14 members/owners drafting from all available players in the NFL, both rookie and veterans included. In a standard or redraft league new players are drafted each year by the owners. Players are selected in rounds with each owner selecting one player per round. The format for the following rounds can be structured however the league likes, but usually follows a serpentine style draft. A serpentine style draft is a draft where the last person to pick in the round before picks first in the next round.

In a standard or redraft league, but not limited to, there are two types of league formats. The more popular of the two is a head-to-head and the second is called rotisserie or “Roto” for short. In a head-to-head league each owner has a set of active players that score them points based on a combination of statistics. This combination of statistics which can be points based (a touchdown) and/or yardage based  (receiving yards) equals a point value. The team with the highest total of points wins for the week. The team(s) with the most wins goes to the playoffs or wins the league. In a Roto league if your player has the best statistics, for example, most passing touchdowns, they get a point value based on their ranking. For example in a ten team league if you have the best player per category statistic then you get the rank of 10 and the worst get a 1. Total the points at the end of the season and the one with the highest total points wins for the year.

Keepers League

A keepers league is a lot like a standard or redraft league but owners are permitted to keep players from the year before. There are variations to how many years you are allowed to keep a player and the total of players kept from the year before. My suggestion is to keep a player for no more than three consecutive years and no more than five players a year with restrictions. For example if you keep 3 players then you can start your draft in the first round. However, if you keep 5 then you start your draft in the third round.

Salaried Capped League

A salaried capped league works with most league formats. In a salaried capped league a player is assigned a value. Each owner is given a total amount of points/money to spend on a team of players. The goal here is to keep your team’s salary under the total value given to each owner. Combining a salaried capped league with a keepers league is my favorite format. Mixing in lower value players with your higher value players is challenging. I’ve had to draft lower value players sooner than higher value players to make sure I get the best player for a price at a certain position. Drafting this same type of player at this position in other league formats is unheard of. Using a salary cap in a league helps with player hoarding and team leveling (making the teams more equal).

Dynasty Leagues

A dynasty league is a longer term keepers league. Instead of keeping a group of players for a certain time period players are kept until traded or retired from the game. At a dynasty league draft, owners will draft from the new pool of rookies entering the league. A dynasty league is a greater time commitment and is a lot more fun if you can get the same group of owners to return year after year.

Auction Draft Leagues

An auction draft league is a lot like a salaried capped league the main difference is each owner bids (like an auction) on players from a predetermined pot of money given to each owner. If an owner spends too much money on one player then the owner runs the risk of not having enough money for the remainder of their roster. Also, it is possible to have the same individual player on multiple rosters.

IDP Leagues

An IDP league is another dimension of playability that can be added to any of these leagues mentioned in this article. IDP means instead of using a NFL team’s defense to score points for defensive category statistics and special teams (special teams and defense points can be separated as well) individual defensive players from multiple teams are used instead. When adding this dimension to your league consider the extra time for research and additional roster spots.

Survivor Leagues

I have seen many different ways to run this type of league. Whatever way you choose as the format or score system to run this league the basic principle is to eliminate an owner/team per week or time period. For example, the team with the lowest score for the week is eliminated until one team remains, thus crowned the champion.

I’m sure there are many hybrids that have and will evolve from the leagues within this article. Finding the fantasy league that works for you is the first step to having fun both short and long term. Do you have any tips or questions concerning fantasy football or any other fantasy sports team? We would like to hear from you, please feel free to submit a post.

One statistic that has always confused me in baseball is OPS. OPS is the sum of the on base percentage (OBP) and slugging percentage (SLG) or OBP + SLG. I first started noticing this statistic when I started playing fantasy baseball and the only reason I paid attention to it was for drafting players with a high percentage.  After the draft I really didn’t follow this statistic because I truly didn’t understand it. If I needed to pick up a player I would auto rank players based on other statistics like average (AVG), runs (R), home runs (HR), runs batted in (RBI) and stolen bases (SB). So, outside of fantasy sports it’s a statistic that I really don’t follow as a baseball fan.

How to Calculate On Base Percentage (OBP)

OBS is the sum of hits (H), walks or bases on balls (BB), and the number of hits by a pitch (HBP) divided by the sum of at bats (AB), BB, sacrifice flies (SF), and HBP.

OBP = (H + BB + HBP) / (AB + BB + SF + HBP)

How to Calculate Slugging Percentage (SLG)

SLG is the sum of types of hits or total bases (TB) like singles (1B), doubles (2B)(x2), triples (3B)(x3), and HRs(x4) divided by the total of at bats (AB).

SLG = (1B) + (2B x 2) + (3B x 3) + (HR x 4) / AB or

SLG = TB / AB

How to Calculate OPS

OPS = OBP + SLG or

OPS = (H + BB + HBP) / (AB + BB + SF + HBP) + (1B) + (2B x 2) + (3B x 3) + (HR x 4) / AB

Rewriting the expression for OPS using a common denominator:

OPS = AB(H + BB + HBP) + TB(AB + BB + SF + HBP) / AB(AB + BB + SF + HBP)

I know these formulas may sound confusing, but once you start to break it down into smaller formulas which just happen to be other more common baseball statistic it becomes easier to understand.

If you have anything additional to add or would like to make a comment about baseball please do so. We would like to hear from you.