league info
Advice for Running a League
First Things First
The first thing you want to do when you're going to run a fantasy league is decide how many teams you want. I find that 12 teams in 3 divisions works the best, but 10 teams in 2 divisions works well also. If you compile the stats yourself you might want to do 10 teams to save yourself some work. You also need to decide whether or not you want to charge an entry fee for participants. If you are using an internet host for your site (cbs.sportsline has a good one) it's gonna cost around 100 bucks so you might want to make the entry fee large enough to cover that plus a pot for the winner(s).
Next things Next
After deciding teams and fee's, you need to set up a scoring system. I much prefer a yardage and touchdown system as opposed to touchdown only leagues. Yardage leagues have higher scores making it more interesting plus it forces participants to know more and focus on the overall player rather than just how many touchdowns a player will score. After figuring out league type you must decide whether to do head to head scoring or rotisserie style. I much prefer head to head scoring so you actually have a record and can tell each week whether you won or lost.
Then...
you must decide what each scoring category is worth. If you do a TD league then each score thrown is usually worth 3 points while each score run in or caught is worth 6 points. also 1 point bonuses are often given for each 25 full yards passing, running, or receiving, as well as at each 100 yard interval. On defense any TD is 6 points while an interception, fumble recovery or safety is often worth 2 points. Sacks are worth 1 point. Giving up 6 points or less is often a bonus as well as shutting a team out. YARDAGE LEAGUES: For yardage leagues (which I do) each yard passed, run or received I give 1 point. A bonus 10 points is given if a player passes for over 300 yards or runs/receives for over 100 yards. Each TD passed for gets 6 points while each TD run/received gets 12. TD of any type over 40 yards get a 3 point bonus. For defenses TD's are 12 points while int's or fumble recoveries are 6. Each tackle is worth 1 point, each sack is 2. I use a complex point system for points allowed, explained here. Giving up over 21 points get 0 points. 21-18 gets you 3. 17-14 = 6 points. 13-10 gets 15 points. 9-7 gets 20 points. 6-2 gets you 25 points. a shutout gets your defense 35 points. For kickers I usually give 3 points for each FG under 20 yards. 6 points for 20-30, 10 for 30-40, 12 for 40-50 and 15 for anything over 50. Kickers are mainly used in my league in case there is a close game they will ususally break the tie, as well as make the game more relistic which is what I really try to do.
Lastly...
The last thing to do while setting up your league is to put it in progress. Whether you compile your own stats or use an internet site this is going to take some time, so another good idea is to make the entry fee large enough so that you actually get to keep some of it for the time that you put into your design and setup. Although I do reccomend using an internet host, i set up a program in Microsoft Excel to compile the stats for each team. The negative thing about that was that I had to enter the actual numbers for each player, so it was time consuming.
